(I apologize in advance for the super lengthy post, but it turns out I have more to say about cooking than I thought! Guess that's what happens when I write it over a period of two weeks!)
I've discovered something about myself over the past few months...I really enjoy cooking and baking (breads especially).
I don't know if I'd call it a passion, but more of a hobby. Yes. A fun hobby, which happens to be convenient for eating dinner. I didn't cook a ton before marriage and figured, for whatever reason, that I wasn't very good at it. But turns out, I have a decent hand in the kitchen. I wouldn't say I'm a fabulous cook, or that I LOOVVE cooking, but I can follow a recipe like no other. I might venture to use the "L" word if it didn't always result in so many dirty dishes. (Or maybe once we get a dishwasher that doesn't consist of my two hands).
A year ago, exactly, I posted the following: "See, that's when I'll consider myself a master homemaker. When I've perfected grocery shopping enough to "have things on hand".
Well I'm not there yet, but I'm much closer than I used to be, due to a bit of menu planning and a year of good ol fashion practice. The more I cooked, the more familiar I became with "common" ingredients, as well as some of our own favorite and most-often-used ingredients.
I am starting to substitute things here and there (usually because I don't have an ingredient, not because I think something else would taste better). I don't think I'll ever be a scratch recipe creator. I've always been a great mimic-er... not so much an "originator". But that's fine by me, because there are already a million and one amazing recipes out there, perfected and ready to go!
Anyway, that's my longer-than-expected schpill about cooking. Thought I'd share some of the recent stuff popping up in our kitchen. I'll link back to where I found each recipe (and skip any tweaks I may have made). I'm not out to be a food blogger here. I've started taking pictures, though, so we can compile our own "Tried & True" collection of recipes. Gotta keep track of the good stuff! If you're going to try anything, make it the
Spinach & Goat Cheese Pizza, or the
Thai Chicken Pizza! (Recipes below) Those our our current favorites!
Breads:
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| I used 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 all purpose flour. Boiled, then Baked! |
Chocolate Banana Bread. This actually didn't turn out very well. Not sure where I went wrong, but it burnt on top and wasn't quite cooked all the way through. Tasted fine with milk, though!
{Recipe Here}
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| English Muffins {Recipe Here} I felt very accomplished baking these! |
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| Naan Stack! |
Random Breakfasts:
Usually consist of some sort of bread topped with eggs and whatever veggies I have in my freezer.
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| Eggs, tomatoes, olives, and mushrooms on english muffins |
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| Mushrooms and eggs on toast |
(Another thing I've learned about myself. I actually do like mushrooms. I like the white ones better raw, and the brown ones better sauteed, and I like the white raw better than the brown sauteed. Phew. Make sense? Not that you need to know that. But it's the little discoveries, right? I feel like I know myself better. And now, so do you.)
Dinner/Lunch Stuff:
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| Spinach & Goat Cheese Pizza. One of our recent Faves! SOOO good! {Recipe Here} |
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I like to make pizza dough and freeze it, makes pizza nights easy!
This {Pizza Dough Recipe} is the one I've been using lately. I double the recipe, then split it into 3 balls, for 3 pizzas. |
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| Thai Grilled Chicken Pizza (On Naan). Dan's favorite. {Recipe Here} |
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| Potato Soup in the Bread Bowls. Pretty good for an easy crockpot recipe! {Recipe Here} |
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| Grilled Cheese & Creamy Basil Tomato Soup. {Soup Recipe Here} (This isn't like Campbell's tomato!) |
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| An easy favorite: Costco Gnocchi with red sauce, parmesan, and basil. Ready to go in 5 min! |
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| Poached Eggs & Grits {Recipe Here}. I thought I could substitute Malt'O Meal for grits (pic above). Not so much. The left-overs over rice were much better :) |
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| Spinach Salad with Apples, Goat Cheese, and Balsamic Honey dressing |
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| Spinach Salad with Mushrooms, Feta and Balsamic Dressing |
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| Honey Goat Cheese: Buy cheap goat cheese from costco and mix in my own honey! Cheaper than Trader Joes :) |
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| Slow Cooker Red Sauce - Easy, though don't know how cost effective it is. {Recipe Here} |
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| Bought meat cheap at Costco, but it meant buying 6 lbs. So I measured into 1 lb logs on my new birthday kitchen scale! |
*You'll notice most of these recipes come from a blog I found that I LOVE: www.BudgetBytes.blogspot.com. This girl cooks simple, healthy recipes on a budget. And her healthy equals my kind of healthy...moderation. (Not vegan/vegetarian/no-good-stuff healthy). Every recipe is broken down by price per recipe, servings, and ingredient. Love it!
And one last note: This is over a period of, well, a long time. I definitely don't cook everyday. In fact, far from. My "menu planning" consists of 4 or 5 dinners for two to three weeks. And that's just so Dan has left overs for work. He's not home for that many. A good chunk of my meals consist of cereal, pasta, and off brand mac and cheese. But I decided you probably have your own favorite brands, so I didn't bother with pictures ;)
