Travis knows this, so whenever we met with a real estate agent to look at a house and I told them one of the things I look at most is the kitchen, he was confused. He doesn't understand why I want a nice kitchen since I hate cooking and to be honest, I don't really know why either. I just like pretty kitchens.
When we looked at the Palermo, I fell in love with the kitchen immediately! I even told Travis that it made me want to cook (which is probably why he decided we should get this house!). Every time I see a picture of it I can't help but say how much I love it! I mean look at it! Isn't is beautiful? (picture taken from model home. Our cabinets are darker.)
Ever since I made that silly statement, Travis has decided that I need to start practicing now. I think he even pulled my dad in on his ploy because he got me a kitchen aid stand mixer for Christmas. So, this past week I have made dinner EVERY night. Not like frozen pizza or pasta kind of dinner, but a full out meal. We have had Cajun chicken pasta, Cafe Rio pork salad knock off, honey chicken, corn chowder, hamburgers and stromboli is on the menu for tomorrow. Travis has loved it, but I feel like all I do is cook, eat, clean up and start all over again.
Travis said it is normal to eat a full meal every night, but I don't feel like it is. Yes, I think eating every night is good but I don't feel like it has to be a huge meal. I would be ok with a salad for dinner, but that is just a side dish for Travis. What do you cook for your family each night? I need yummy, quick meal ideas.
3 comments:
You should check out Mel's Kitchen Cafe. She has a lot of great recipes in that category. Also, things that may be good for you are crock pot cooking (you just let it do all the work for you!), making huge batches and saving/freezing the leftovers (that way you just work once, but then you have some leftovers in the fridge for the next day and meals in the freezer for days you don't want to cook). I think it's good to have a little schedule of sorts, too. Something like this:
Sunday: crockpot + rice cooker (= easy Chinese/Thai/Hawaiian food)
Monday: leftovers from Sunday
Tuesday: more leftovers, something made previously from the freezer, or a simple meal (salad or cereal)
Wednesday: cook something
Thursday: leftovers from Wednesday
Friday: leftovers, or a simple meal again
Saturday: go out for a cheap date night meal!
Sorry, this is getting long. I just used to hae the same question as you, and I've read a lot of meal planning blogs and cooking blogs. Also, this helps me a lot, I always have shredded chicken in the freezer. I just cook it all in the crock pot when I buy it, shred it (in a kitchen aid mixer! See Pinterest for a how-to), and freeze it in little ziplocks. It makes it so easy to do a more filling salad, soup, or Mexican food. I used to get overwhelmed cooking everything from scratch, and kimball had to tell me that it was okay to buy pre-made food, or at least parts of pre-made meals. So sometimes I buy pizza dough, cooked meat, or pre-chopped veggies, or even just a frozen lasagna or orange chicken every now and then.
Well, I wrote a novel. I love cooking, and I hope you can find a way to do it that helps you to love it. It can be so relaxing and satisfying, I promise!
Beautiful kitchen by the way! I can't believe you'll have that giant house all to yourselves!! I'm so happy for you guys.
Now that I am a SAHM I cook a full meal most nights - probably 5 nights a week, sometimes 6, and then we eat out at least once. Joey doesn't like to do leftovers for dinner, so we tend to eat leftovers for lunch. When I was working full time I probably cooked a full meal 3-4 nights a week and did sandwiches or ate out other nights.
I get recipes from blogs that my friends write -
http://twopeasandapot.blogspot.com/
http://www.everyday-reading.com/
http://breakfast-lunch-and-dinner.blogspot.com/
If I have an idea of what I want to make I google the recipe and read 3-4 recipes for the same thing and then use the combination of ingredients/directions that sounds best to me.
I generally try to do one new dinner per week, one especially easy meal, and then a few staples that I rotate. On a Word document I keep a list of dinners that I know how to make (most of them without the recipe by now) to help me with meal planning.
Cameron agrees with Travis. It drives me crazy because I am happy with just a salad or soup too. Now with Owen, I feel like I make 2 dinners (or partial dinners) most nights. Not really any ideas for eating, but Cameron has to clean up dinner if he wants me to cook a "real" meal every night, so that would help with the always in the kitchen feeling. Also, I find it easier to have a theme for each night: Monday is Mexican/Tex-Mex, Friday is pizza, etc.
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