The Traditional NYD Eats… Pork, Collards, and Black-Eyed Peas

How was your first day of 2011? 

Today was a great lazy day for us.  I finally changed out of my pajamas around 2:00.  And I’ll be honest—the only reason I changed then was because I had to make a quick run to the grocery store for a couple of items.  Since we’re gonna be eating in all month, we’ve got to be prepared.  If you want more info on Eat In Month, click here to visit The Chic Life and find out about this challenge.  There is going to be one exception for us for Eat In Month, and that is Wednesday nights, because we eat at church every Wednesday.  It’s one of those things that is important to us—to be at church and spend time with our friends and all eat together.  So for US—that will be our exception.

I am always a little ticked off that our YMCA is not open on New Year’s Day.  I mean, seriously?  Seems like New Year’s Day would be a GREAT day to sign new members, particularly on a SATURDAY!  And it rained today, too.  So I didn’t really work out today. 

We did go through the not-so-fun task of putting away all the Christmas decorations.  At first it’s always a little sad to see it all gone.  But then it’s almost nice to have the space back!

Anyway, on to the eating!

I’ve been on a fried egg kick lately.  Today I had turkey bacon, an egg, and a sliced apple. 

I had leftover bacon, so I used that to make a big crunchy salad.  I also used some leftover Perlini Mozzarella.  This salad was so crunchy and delicious!

And dinner… the best for last.  I decided to go traditional this year.  I slow-cooked a port sirloin roast with garlic and herbs and wow, was it delicious!  It literally just fell apart, it was so tender.  I also cooked black-eyed peas.  All I did was soak them overnight, and then cook them with a little Better than Bullion and chopped onion.  The star of this meal, though, was the collards. 

 

Normally, I don’t even really like collards all that much.  I mean, I don’t hate em, don’t love em.  But I thought, let’s just try them a new way and see what happens.  I found this recipe on www.allrecipes.com and thought it looked promising.  The only substitution I made was to use low-fat turkey bacon.  Wow.  These collards were just… AMAZING.  I am telling you, they had so much flavor!  If you’ve been afraid to try collards or feel sort of so-so about them, they you MUST try this recipe!  They were the best thing on the plate, which is saying a lot because this whole plate was just so tasty.

If you needed proof, here’s my plate AFTER the meal.

And here’s Ryan’s.  You know if Ryan ate 2 helpings of collards then they must have been awesome.

So if you are wondering why these foods are traditional NYD eats, here’s a little guide that will tell you what these foods symbolize

• Collards=money (Really, it can be anything green.  A lot of people eat cabbage.)  We ate a lot of collards tonight.  We could use the money.
• Black-eyed peas=luck
• Pork=Progress/Moving Forward

So there you have it! 

What are YOUR New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day traditions?