Things have been quiet around here again, but don’t worry (you can pretend you were worrying about me) I am OK and a lot of things have been cooking up in the What’s Cooking kitchen. I have several new recipes that I’ve been testing and lining up for the upcoming months and some other surprises. For now I just want to share with you a couple of things I’ve been up to this first month of the new year.

First, I joined the 10 in Ten: Ten Weeks to Healthy in 2010 event that you have probably heard of by now. What is this about? According to Lori, the creator of the event, “it’s about wanting to feel healthy. Everyone has a different vision of what being healthy means.  Some want to lose weight, some feel that they’re already at a comfortable weight but they would like to make a commitment to exercise, some would like to eat healthier, etc.  Everyone will have their own individual goals for this healthy challenge.”

I gained a couple of pounds after the holiday season and I’d love to lose them. Other than that, I think I have been doing well in my health habits, but there’s always room for improvement. Here are my goals from the past three weeks and what I’ve been doing to accomplish them:

1. Work out six times a week. I’ve been working out regularly for the past year, but I need to incorporate more cardio to my routine. My goal is to do at least 30 minutes a day six times a week, anything from running, swimming, spinning, biking, dancing or just jumping the rope. So far I’ve been doing great on this goal.
2. Bake most of my bread at home. We all know that store-bought bread contains a lot of ingredients that are not good for you and if you go for the healthier versions your pocket resents it immediately. I want to bake all the bread we consume at home. This is going to take some work and education but I know I can do it. So far I haven’t bought a single loaf from the store and I’ve had some great whole-wheat and regular bread.
3. Reduce my sugar intake. I love sugar and this past holiday season I went crazy baking cookies and eating cake, cheesecake, eggnog and every sweet that was put in front of me. It’s been hard but I am happy to inform I am doing very well, I only had a very small piece of cheesecake last week and to sweeten my coffee in the mornings and teas I’ve been using a natural sweetener.

Those were my goals for the past three weeks and for this week my goal is to eat less and more often. I don’t usually eat bad food (fast and junk food) and most of the food I eat is cooked right at home, but I eat A LOT, always have. Starting this week I am going to start eating smaller meals and have at least 4 a day:

• First thing in the morning: breakfast, the most important meal of the day, containing grains (bread, cereal), fruit and protein (eggs, milk, cheese).
• Around mid-morning: a snack, maybe a salad, fruit juice or a granola bar.
• Early in the afternoon: lunch, whole-wheat sandwiches or quesadillas, soup, a bowl of brown rice or a big fish or chicken salad.
• Early in the evening, no later than 6 pm: a small dinner, half of what I usually eat for dinner.
• Before bed, if hungry: a bowl of sugar-free cereal, an apple or any other kind of fruit or anything high on fiber.

Next week I’ll let you know how I did and my next goal.

Another very exciting announcement is the launch of Club Comida. For several months Jenn, Roberto and I have been working on this exciting project. This new community focuses on Spanish food bloggers, but I will share with you the press realease and if you speak Spanish or know anybody who does, you can invite them to join. It’ll be a lot of fun!

We are very pleased to announce the launch of ClubComida, a Spanish language food blogger community and network brought to you by The Foodie Blogroll, the largest food blogger network on the Internet.

This site grew out of the demands of the food blogging community to have a Spanish language website for food bloggers to come together and get help and support from each other.

ClubComida is an interactive community with motivational tools, ways to connect with other bloggers and keep doing what we all love best – cooking, baking, food styling, food photography, food pairing, etc, and blogging about it!

Here are some of the top ClubComida features:

• Weekly and Monthly Contests and Giveaways: These are giveaways of foods, cookbooks, and other food related products for members only!
• Browse Blogs : by Country, Tags, Language, By Date and Alphabetically
• Browse Members : by Country, Language, By Date and Alphabetically
• Make Friends : Network with other bloggers
• Favorites : Save your favorite blogs
• Rank Blog : Vote for your favorite blogs
• Search: Easliy find other spanish food bloggers

The intention of Club Comida is to help keep food bloggers motivated and inspired to keep blogging. We believe that food and people that blog about food are keys to cultural consciousness and human understanding. Food has a power – the power to unite people. Everybody eats. So we feel that the more people who share their food and cultures of food with each other, the more we can, in our small way, help bridge cultural gaps and spread awareness. The foodie community online spans the globe many times over and we have all seen a big sense of belonging and sharing through blogging about food.

To submit your blog and become a part of Club Comida please visit the Add Your Blog page.

We look forward to having you as part of our growing community – please pass on the word to your readers and other Spanish language blogs that you know of. The more members we have, the more benefits and networking opportunities we will have to share with you!

Club Comida
¡Buen Provecho!