Anyone else get tired of cooking the same stuff week after week? I feel like I go to the grocery store, grab the same items to make the same meals that I've been cooking for the last year or so. And, it has been getting so old and boring to say the least. So, my new resolution has been to try one new recipe a week to spice up life a bit and get excited about cooking again. Overall its been going pretty well, but we have hit a couple of crossroads along the way. Crossroads mainly being that my kids look at their plate like I am feeding them worms or snails or something absurd. We also had a bit of an issue with the homemade refried beans (yes, I boiled up the beans, mashed them, added a few recommended ingredients, etc...), but they seemed to cause a bit of an unappealing stench around here. My most successful items have been a homemade lasagna (soooooo much better than the frozen ones!!!), and today's Pasta Primavera. There are a few changes that will be made to the pasta next time, but overall it was a pretty good success.
I got some help from this beauty
End result. I know I should have put it in a pretty bowl or something for this shot. My secret is out...I don't put things in pretty bowls because they = more dishes!
Also today, Kirk and I got started on our food storage. I've been inspired lately by a couple of wonderful friends of mine who have their food storage all together. So, Kirk and I went and canned and canned for 2 hours. I am proud to say that we are on our way to being prepared, and it feels so good! Now we need to find a good place to store this stuff (its still in the back of the van). I'm thinking under beds and in our deep closet under the stairs are good places to start. When those places fill up we will have to become more creative.
Doesn't he look so cute in his get up? The funniest part of today is when Kirk was cleaning up the table and sucked up a permanent marker into the vacuum. I was cracking up because one of the ladies was kind of grumpy, so he was nervous about telling her. He ended up telling a worker guy at the end, and they retrieved the marker. The man informed us that they have found some crazy stuff inside those vacuums, so Kirk wasn't the first. If you haven't been to the cannery, try it!!! It was actually kind of fun working on it with my hubby- creative and useful date day.
6 comments:
I have been using a menu for my dinner prep and grocery shopping for about 5 years now. I compiled all the recipes our family likes and I wrote out a menu for the whole month. I have enough meals that I don't have to duplicate for four weeks. At the end of the four weeks I just start back at the beginning and repeat the menu. This way most months we only eat each meal once. I also like to try some new meals, so when something starts feeling "old" I try a new recipe and subsitute it in. At the end of each month, I do the next month's menu and from that, the grocery list. I do one big shopping trip a month and then only have to go to the store for milk, bread and fruit/veggies. It is so nice to 1. already know what I am going to make each night and 2. know that I already have all the ingredients on hand. Another perk that I have found is that it helps build up the food storage. Any given month things come up and there will be meals that I don't make. I save all of the non-perishable items for "food storage" and will buy the full amount of food for the next month's meals. This helped us build up our food storage when we were just starting out. There have also been months that I couldn't buy as many groceries and it was nice to be able to "shop" from the canned foods I had accumulated. This has totally simplified the grocery shopping a dinner prep. Now that I have my menu together, I only spend about 20 minutes at the end of each month writing out a new "menu calendar" and shopping list. Okay, I wrote alot...sorry about that.
P.S. I love the cannery and don't know what I would do without it. Ours is 20 minutes from our house and has dry and wet pack. It is so great!
Hey Joanna. That's awesome you guys got started on food storage. It's a good feeling huh! I can't find a rhythm with cooking and I get in a funk too. That's why we have taco bell. :) It all works out. Your fam gets fed and that's what matters. We have cereal at least once a week for dinner, or pancakes or whatev!
I feel the some way some times. I agree with you if I try to be creative my kids don't appreciate the change of menu. The other day we barbecued some chicken and decided to cook some corn on the cob on the barbecue. Kelly and I thought it was the most delicious corn on the cob ever. David and Benjamin not so much. They actually told us that they don't like burnt corn. By the way it was not burnt. Your pasta primavera looks delicious. You are a great cook. I still remember the yummy tortilla soup you brought us.
I can't wait to get our food storage. We have a pretty small, sad excuse for food storage but at least we have something. One day I invision a very nicely labeled, silver canned shelf in my garage of food storage! Ahhh...one day ha ha
Good for you guys for going!
I hope I'm not invading on your space. I like to peruse through other blogs through other peoples blogs. lol.. i think we all do. But I have a super easy and tasty recipe for refried beans that are sort of homemade and tast way better than the canned ones. And as far as I know, I made it up so I'm taking full credit for it. :)
What you'll need:
2 cans pinto beans (undrained)
1/2 cup minced up onion (more or less...up to you)
cheddar cheese (optional)
Put a little oil in a frying pan and saute the onion until they're soft. Don't use dehydrated onions, it's so not the same outcome in flavor. At this point I also like to add a few dashes of garlic powder, but it doesn't need it.
Then add the pinto beans. If you want thicker refried beans, drain some of the water. And if you drain too much, you can always add a little water back in to thin it out. Let them boil for maybe 5 minutes and then mash them up and continue to let it cook for another 5 minutes or so and remove from heat. Add cheese if you want. As it cools it will thicken a bit, but these will be runnier than the refried beans at the store since there's no lard in them.
These are sooo tasty and smell good too while you cook them.
That's cool! I think it's funny that Bro. Salmon sucked up the marker!
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