A Healthy First Week of 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I cannot believe that it's already been one week into the new year. I'm excited for what this new year will bring! New Year's Eve was pretty quiet and relaxing. It's not a favorite holiday for my husband and I so we usually just stay at home. We experienced one crazy NYE in Milan, Italy and that probably gave us our fill for awhile. I made a lot of fun appetizers and champagne cupcakes (recipe on it's way!). My mom & dad came over and we ate, played games, drank some Manhattans, toasted with Prosecco and were in bed by 1am! I'm not really one to make New Year's Resolutions.....I more just make lists of things I want to do. So here is my list for 2012:

• Practice more yoga
• Take a 200-hour yoga certification 
• Eat more Kale
• Take two hours every Saturday to clean my house
• See Wicked the musical with my husband
• Learn more about Essential Oils ( I got a starter kit for Christmas)
• Train to run the Disneyland Half Marathon
• Spend less time online and more time reading
• Start a gratitude journal
• Write down my recipes when I create them on actual notepads, instead of scratch pieces of paper that I then lose and have to try to remember how I made the recipe!
• Less waste, especially in my kitchen: Eating up more leftovers, and making more pantry meals before buying more things. 
• Taking trips to Alaska (where I grew up), California (to visit my Grandma), Boston, New York, and IRELAND!!!     

Well that's a good start I think! Since one of my goals is to eat more kale, (simply because it's good for you & I actually really like the taste) here is a recipe to start off the New Year. It's a pasta recipe and one that includes pesto. Can't get much better than that! 

Kale-Walnut Pesto Pasta

• 1/2 bunch kale, stems discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
• 1 pound gemelli pasta
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for sprinkling
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 
  
• Directions:
• 1. In a large pot of salted water, cook the kale until  tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the kale to a colander and rinse with cold water. Add the pasta to the pot and cook until al dente. Drain, reserving 1/3 cup of the pasta cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot.
• 2. Meanwhile, squeeze the kale to remove the excess water. In a food processor, combine the kale, walnuts, garlic and Parmesan until almost smooth; season with salt and pepper. With the machine running, add the olive oil.
• 3. Add the pesto to the pasta, along with enough pasta cooking water to loosen the pesto as necessary. Serve sprinkled with more Parmesan.
• 
  
• (From Every Day with Rachel Ray Magazine)

• 
• 
  
  In other exciting blog news for 2012, two of my posts on Pumpkin recipes were shared as Top 9 posts on the website DailyBuzz Healthy Living! This is a new website that you should all go check out! It's really easy to navigate and you can find some great advice/recipes/exercises from other bloggers. 
  
  

  You also may have recognized a new badge on my page! I also am now a member of the Clever Girls Collective. This collective is one of the largest blog networks and is powered by the Clever Girls social media agency! I'm excited to be a part of this as well! 

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Lots of good things in 2012 so far! I wish you all good health & happiness for the New Year. I want to share with you one last image for the beginning of the New Year..... (It's something I want to work on for 2012)

  
  

  

  Source: via Pure2raw on Pinterest