We're Halfway Through! Mid-Month Progress Report

It's hard to believe, but it's January 17th, which means we're more than halfway through Restaurant Free Month. Jim and I took stock over the weekend of how the month is going so far, and I thought I'd share our thoughts:

1. Unlike the other times we've gone restaurant-free, we haven't missed eating out at all. We suspect that when the month is over we'll probably continue to cut back on eating out.

2. We're feeling really good. I'm not trying to lose weight, but I stepped on the bathroom scale this afternoon (after eating a big bowl of leftover pasta) and noticed that I've dropped a few pounds. We attribute this to using fresh, non-processed foods. You have probably figured out that we do not shy away from meats, butter or bacon (ahhhh, bacon!), but we still use a lot less oil and fat than we might find in a restaurant or if we were eating a bunch of processed foods.

3. We've been doing a good job of re-purposing ingredients. We mentioned in our first post that we often find ourselves tossing food out each week. This month we've paid closer attention to what's in our pantry and our refrigerator drawers, and we've been able to put those herbs and veggies to good use. A great example of this is Jim's fried rice; our Enchiladas Verdes also combined chicken stock and leftover roast chicken, with fantastic results.

4. Most importantly, we've eaten some unbelievably good meals. So far, we haven't had any duplicate meals, besides a recurring side dish of chickpea salad, and for the most part we've been cooking new meals or things we haven't had in the past year. We were trying to decide what our favorite has been, which is a real challenge. (We both fell in love with Day 16's Enchiladas Verdes, so that may be the winner. But then there were those lentils with chicken sausage. And the chicken in riesling. And that pork belly. Who could forget the pork belly?)

There are 15 more days to try new recipes and discover new favorites. Bring it on!