Food

Did I ever tell you I love to cook? I haven't always. I even remember being afraid to pull something out of the oven because I was REALLY afraid of burning myself. For the first couple of years of married life, we ate a lot of Hamburger Helper. Now, I love to cook from scratch. When I start making something from scratch, we don't want to go back to store bought!


I've come to this from need, then desire, then need and desire again. Being poor college students and well poor when you are young in general sent me to the kitchen with basic ingredients. Now that we can afford to go out a little more, I hate to spend money on something we can make as well or better for A LOT cheaper! Then, I learned that cooking for yourself can make you healthier as well as get exactly what you want, the way you want. I love the option of being able to play around with the spices, vegetables, meats and anything else I want to. It's a creative outlet for me.


My husband is allergic to corn. Just look at the ingredient list of oh, anything, and you'll probably find some form of corn. It is a good thickener, a cheap sweetener and it is also hidden in things like baking powder, powdered sugar and iodized salt! Because of this, going out to eat or 'cooking' premade dishes is mostly out.

Now, add in the internet and the plethora of free recipes and I'm one happy girl! I have my fair share of cookbooks, but I love the option to just print off a tried and true recipe for free!


Here are some of my favorite cooking websites/blogs:

Mel's Kitchen Cafe --I haven't tried a recipe of hers that I don't love!

Food.com

The Sisters Cafe

The Crepes of Wrath --You've got to love this one just for the name, but they have some great looking recipes, too!

Our Best Bites

Kalyn's Kitchen

Joy in my Kitchen --I actually just found this one, today, but it looks great!

Super Cook --This is a site where you can input what you have and it will tell you what you can make!



Now, I'm getting hungry!

My take on menu planning

I like to be able to choose what I want to eat based on how I'm feeling that day. I don't do your "regular" menu planning. Here's what I do: I have a list of meals that we'll eat for that month (I have finally built up to 6 month's worth & we cycle through them) and I buy the groceries for the month. Of course I have to go back to the store for forgotten and used up things, but I try to do one BIG trip and save money by not going all the time. Then, I have a list of the meals for the month on the refrigerator and we can choose each day what we're in the mood for or have the energy/time for. I actually only plan for about 21 days and the rest either end up as eating out, leftovers, or we have to shop for a few things to make up the rest.

I have a lot of our favorites repeated several times in the cycle with lots of variety so we don't get bored eating the same thing.

My next step (that I just saw on another blog, today) is to create shopping lists for each month so that I don't have to do it over and over again. I can cross off ingredients that I still have enough of and add to the list as needed, but the basic list will be there to use the next time. I was just thinking that I had to sit down and do all of this at once, but I don't. I can do them each at the beginning of the month and save them for the next time. The only trouble is that I use an app on my iPod to shop with...I'll have to think about that some more.

What tips do you find helpful in creating menus for your family?

Lookin' Yummy!

I love it when food looks pretty! This recipe has just the right color combination to make me happy! This isn't the original recipe, but it is really close! I use picante sauce and puree it in the blender. I also top it with more sauce and green onions along with the cheese!

It is so yummy! We just had it and I want it again!

Ambrosia

A neighbor offered us peaches if we'd come to pick them. I jumped on the chance! I love peaches! It was a lot of fun, especially for Princess. She loves helping and this was a new experience for her.

I have been eating tons of peaches, since she and I are the only ones who will eat them in our house. I just

I even made freezer jam for the first time! It was so much easier than I thought it would be.

It is the most amazing tasting jam I have ever had. I most just eat it with a spoon. It isn't going to last very long...hate the super fuzz that is on non-store bought peaches.



I learned that the "fuzzy mouth" way!

Quiet Breakfast

I better write this fast or the title will be a lie!

The kids are still sleeping. For after seven, that is amazing. I am sitting here enjoying an omelet and the quiet. So many times, I have to feel bad telling them that, "No, I can't listen to that right now, I'm reading something." I usually only read and write blog posts in the morning, so I don't feel neglectful or anything, I just like the few minutes of peace.

Back to breakfast. Does anyone else get caught in the "Waffles or pancakes?" rut that is breakfast? Breakfast gets so boring around here. I have several great recipes, but they usually take a lot of time or have ingredients I don't keep on hand. (So if you've got any great, filling, relatively healthy recipes for breakfast, send them my way! I beg you!!)

But, today, I am eating a yummy omelet. Egg, turkey sausage, cheese and a little milk. MMMMmmmmmm!!!!! I'm loving it!

It's also nice that my kids aren't saying how gross it looks and can they have something different!

Cooking Experiment

Trusting in my cooking skills, I thought I could make my own crab rangoon. I didn't really go from a recipe. I should have. I put the crab (imitation, because I've seen what they do to poor little crabs) in the blender with cream cheese. It was too thick, so it was REALLY hard to get all the same, smooth consistency. I finally got that under control and then I really needed more cream cheese to balance out the amount of crab that I bought.


From there I had to figure out the best way to wrap them. I tried the "flower" shape. They looked really good, but they were hard to keep the filling in.


I changed to an envelope/tortellini shape.



That worked a lot better. Overall, I enjoyed making them and eating them. I still have filling and wrappers left. I think I might make more for my breakfast.

Christmas break

We have had a great Christmas break. We still have a three-day weekend left! We have gotten a lot of things cleaned and/or organized!! THANKS Aaron! He is awesome! The house is in better order than it has been in a long time. We have been able to spend a lot of time relaxing as well.

The Wii is a ton of fun! Luke and Aaron have really enjoyed the new Zelda game and we have all liked the sports game that came with it.

I have also gotten to crochet quite a bit, which makes me happy. This double-sided blanket I am doing for my niece is going to take a while. I don't think it'll be done for the shower...it is only a few weeks away. But, I do have about 2 months before she is born. That is a more attainable goal. It is turning out really cool, though.

We made cream horns last night. We have never worked with phyllo before, and so it was a really interesting experience. By the last few, Aaron had figured out how to actually do it and it was pretty easy. We'll actually be able to duplicate it. Oh, they were SO yummy!

Yum!

I tried to cook my cook book, today. I should have known that the back burner of my stove was NOT a safe place to rest it. Of course, since the book was in the way of the dial, I turned on the back burner, rather than the front one. Amazingly, the cook book is only minorly damaged (browned bottoms of pages and a slightly melted cover) and the taco soup turned out well. I promise I really am a good cook. I love to cook, I just make silly mistakes sometimes. Maybe this is another reason to edit and print my recipes again.