This is what I vow...

I've been reading alot already this new year.
Now, this is no surprise, I read everyday...I can't get enough reading, but I've been reading some, I guess you'd say, interesting subjects lately.
I already told you that I read this over Christmas because my sister got it for me.

It was great, it was awesome, it was radical.
Then, while I was at the library the next week, I got this book.  Just by accident, just because the subject sounded interesting.

It was even more radical.  The story was all about a couple who reside in British Columbia and who decided to start at 100-mile diet.  They ate no food out of season, or what they couldn't get from 100 miles away.  They ate, and this is totally my opinion, some very disgusting things.  They lost alot of weight, and craved food like mad, and hardly every shopped in a grocery store, and paid extravagant amounts of money for things they had to travel 100 miles to get, but it was a good book.  I took away SOME things from it.

Then, every spring, and it's about that time for me...I read this book, which I own.  A friend recommended it to me a couple years ago, and I read it, and loved it from the first moment.

It too, is about a family who decided to eat just what was in season, for one year.  They also ate at restaurants that supported local farmers by preparing food in season, and grown locally.  It's a good read, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this sort of thing.

You're wondering where I'm going with all this right?

Since I loved a part of each book, and each book talked about how important it was for us to eat things grown in season...I decided I wanted to do something for my family in 2012.
I decided I wanted to be more conscious of what we eat.  We need to eat healthier.  I want  need to lose weight, and I want the food we're eating to not cost us a fortune every time I get it from the grocery store.

This means, I will grow more in my garden this year even though that means more work, more weeding, and more planning in the beginning stages.
I will also do more canning.  (I can't believe I just said that.  I do alot as it is...) But I want to be able to know the ingredients in MY canned products are real things, and not some fake fillers.

I will buy products from the new local bulk store in town because I know they buy from a man locally who grows lettuce and other vegetables in a greenhouse over the winter.
I want to be more conscientious about this.

Now, I'm not gonna get as radical as the people in all the books I read.  I'm not gonna suggest to Brent that we buy a cow and milk it ourselves, and make our own butter and cheese (although that sounds pretty cool, just alot of work!)  I want to start slowly, and work myself up to maybe some things more out of my comfort zone.

So, today, I started small.  It was our last day home for Christmas Break, and I told the kids I would make them bacon cheeseburger pizza.  In the past, we've just bought frozen versions of this.

I got out the Boboli whole wheat crust that I bought at Meijer.  (Yes, I should've made my own, but I am terrified of yeast.  We don't have a good relationship, and I can never get it to work.)

On the crust, I put some of my Pizza Hut copycat pizza sauce that I canned this fall.  (By the way...it is GOOD!)

Then I browned 2 lbs of hamburger that came from one of my uncle's cows.  My grandparents traded it for 2 dozen eggs last week.  (A great deal in my opinion.  Can't get more local than that considering I can see the cows from my backyard.)

To the hamburger in the skillet, I added a little garlic and some Italian pizza seasoning.
I used Cheese from the store, and bacon too since we are already out of the bacon from the pig we butchered this fall.

Into the oven at 450 for 10 minutes.

It was pretty good.  I'm making it again on Friday when Brent is gone.  The kids must've thought it was good too, cause it was mostly gone by the end of lunch.

So, hold me accountable if you must.  I will try to do the same for myself.  I want this experiment to work.  I want to stay in my grocery budget, however, so I will not pay exorbitant amounts for my food.  I will use what is currently in my freezer that I spent all of last summer and early fall putting away.  I will used my canned grape juice and pizza sauce, jelly, and tomatoes, and I will plan to can some other things as well this summer.

Hopefully soon, I will be healthier.  I will be more in shape, and I will be happier about what I'm filling my family's bodies with.

So, welcome 2012!  Here we go!