I'm not much of a homemaker, I'll be the first to admit it. There's a lot of stuff I should do more regularly and just don't. One of the things I don't do much is cook meals. There's a lot of work involved! Deciding the menus, buying the ingredients, actually putting it all together instead of forgetting about that pound of meat in the freezer for several months and having to toss it out. Work, work, work.
However, the last few days I've spent some time in the kitchen actually preparing meals that took more work than popping in the microwave for 5 to 7 minutes on high.
Christmas Eve I did a lovely beef stew in the slow cooker - I chopped veggies and added spices and everything. Christmas day I baked a ham. These meals were served with side dishes as well. (hey, it's an achievement, don't smirk)
Today I was a bit lazy and tossed a Banquet Crock Pot Classics bag of Chicken and Dumplings (although how they can claim those noodles are dumplings is beyond me) in the crock pot - it wasn't bad tasting and saved me having to cut up chicken breasts and veggies. A small step above nuking a frozen dinner at least.
Not sure what tomorrow will bring but I'm thinking I want to do something with the wok. There's a great oriental market down the street...maybe I'll do a nice stir fry. I'm betting the SO is wondering what's gotten into me. The kids are gone and I finally get domestic?
Well, I should have been better with that when they were around. It's one of the (many) things I regret about how I raised the kids. We ate too many microwaved, frozen, delivered or drive through meals. I won't go into any rationalizations, it was just weak, lazy and bad of me. The upside might be that my grandchildren will be better fed as my kids decide that their kids won't eat like they did. I can only hope.
Then granny will come visit and subject them to the evil that is Taco Bell and McDonalds. What are grandparents for, anyway?
Dawno, crock pot
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
9 comments:
If you add in all the time spent cooking and planning and buying groceries, it's often cheaper just to go out...as long as it's cheap food.
I really miss getting to cook involved meals (something I inherited from my italian side...)
I wonder how people did it? I just don't have time...I usually bring work home with me (grading) and offer some free time to the state, although they wouldn't do the same for me.
It's so much easier to pop something in the microwave or oven. Over the summer I get to cook more, but then I don't have work. :) That's the bright side of a job in education.
Although, the disrespectful kids are not...
Hey, there's always Rachel Ray and 30 min meals. (I went to culinary school-I like to cook :p )
Lest I leave you with the wrong impression I do enjoy cooking. Before the kids were born I did a lot of complicated recipes and hosted dinners for friends and family. We had an open floor plan which meant that being in the kitchen didn't exclude you from the party, either.
You go, Dawno. I lust after the images from my Cooking Light. I'd make "more home cooking" a resolution, but I'm so sure I'll never get there.
Over the summer, we did some great low calorie recipes that taste as good, or better than, the original. We picked up a cookbook at my wife's store.
It's all about what you can skip, omit, not do, and still live with yourself. Other people have clean bathrooms, clothes that aren't wrinkled and dingey, floors that have a discernible color...I don't but I do cook a lot. I also generally have dishes ALL OVER THE PLACE. I used to feel terrible about it. I mean terrible. And it's true, it would be nice if my kids didn't grow up in a cleaning-challenged home (my husband's no better). But this is what they get. A messy kitchen with lotsa fairly good food coming out of it. Interesting footnote: they won't eat any of it.
Point being, no point feeling guilty about not cooking. If you cooked, you'd have to feel guilty about not vacuuming, or something. There's no escaping the guilt. You already know that. Just thought I'd get all explicit about it.
I'm another fan of home cooking. Most of the things I cook don't really take more than half an hour to prepare - often as much time as it would take for a decent restaurant. Except for things like beans that I just set to boil and walk away for an hour or so.
Things that you can set to boil and forget are great, too. There have been many times I just tossed a few things in my Crock-Pot in the morning and had dinner ready when I got home.
I'm gonna have to write more about cooking! This really brought out the comments. :-) Thanks everyone for visiting.
Post a Comment