Don’t know about you, but around the third week of January our New Year’s resolutions tend to bend — okay, break — a bit more often. Note to self for 2011: A “salad” without plenty of dressing and cheese, nuts or bacon is merely lettuce. So we’ve re-focused on a few more reasonable goals that involve good food and wine, with a little more time helping others.

Shop at the farmers’ market at least once a week.

With more than 180 farmers’ markets in the Los Angeles area, there’s really no good excuse for missing out on all the fresh, tasty and affordable produce right in front of us. Cooking up a platter of the broccoli, kale and kohlrabi in peak season right now takes about as long as heating up a frozen pizza. We don’t have to tell you which one is better for you, and tastes great, too.

Get your hands dirty by volunteering at community garden (added bonus: exercise).

Sharing your passion for fresh produce is easy in this city, which has plenty of cooking and gardening volunteer opportunities.  Bring a shovel and sunscreen to help out at one of the regular Saturday school garden cleanups with the Garden School Foundation, or check out the Slow Food in Schools cooking classes, after-school farmers’ markets and gardening courses. In Carmelitos, the Growing Experience works with local teenagers to operate a seven-acre urban produce farm for low-income families and senior citizens (surplus produce and eggs are sold at low-income farmers’ markets), and RootDown L.A. offers after-school cooking classes, healthy eating educational programs and farm visits for South L.A. youth, to instill a passion for healthy eating.

Swap some (we didn’t say all) meat for artisan cheeses.

A slice of gorgonzola or a shower of ricotta salata (Sicilian sheep’s milk cheese) sure makes getting through that first month of eat-more-veggies a lot easier. Check out the offerings at your local farmers’ market or local shops, such as Andrew’s Cheese Shop in Santa Monica, Cheese Store of Silverlake and Nicole’s Gourmet Foods in South Pasadena.

Drink more wine.

Twist our arm — fine, we’ll have another glass of wine! (The number of antioxidants in the room was our excuse to go to Pinot Days over the weekend.) Around town, Off the Vine in San Pedro has some great monthly specials for less than $13; The Wine Country in Signal Hill is the place to find food-friendly whites, including German, Austrian and Alsatian wines; and Red Carpet in Glendale always has a great selection of California wines. The tasting bar boasts a brand-new enomatic wine storage system, so there is even more to taste on tap before you buy a bottle. Or sign up for the K&L Wine Merchants e-newsletter.  Be advised, if you want something from the newsletter, call immediately to save a few bottles. The best deals, such as a 2006 Napa merlot from the recently closed Havens Winery ($20, going for $7), are often snapped up quickly, as we found out when we arrived within an hour of last week’s blast (we’re not usually that crazed about wine, but we happened to be in the neighborhood. Honest).