Cooking

Although I love to eat, I have never been a very good cook.  My husband, however, is a great cook.  Like he could be a chef in a restaurant, he's THAT good.  So for most of our almost 12 year marriage, he has done all of the cooking.  I tell him all the time that he cooks better than most of the restaurants in our town. When we both worked all day, this worked out great.  Cooking relaxed him, we all got to eat tasty dinners, and everyone was happy.

This changed about a year ago when I quit working.  My husband traded his basement home office in Omaha for an agency job in Charlotte.  With his almost one hour commute each way, it made it hard for him to come home and cook dinner.  Since I have nothing but time on my hands now, I have attempted to cook dinner most weeknights.  I have found a couple of things that the family likes, like chicken tacos, that are also Weight Watchers friendly.  Unlike my husband, I need a recipe in order to cook something.  Since I really have never cooked, I have like zero of my own recipes.  I needed help!  So I turned to the internet, and stumbled upon 2 sites that have really helped me.  One is a site called http://www.organizeyourselfskinny.com/  This blogger has inspired me to make ahead healthy breakfasts and lunches with Overnight Oatmeal and Mason Jar Salads.  The other site that I like is called Plan to Eat. Plan to Eat charges $4.95 per month, with the first month free.  What I like is that you can easily import recipes from any web site into a weekly planner that looks like a spreadsheet.  I love spreadsheets.  It will also generate a shopping list for you.  If you forget your list at home, like I did, you can pull up your list on your phone via their website.  How easy is that?

I made these!  Well actually not these exact ones.  Mine weren't this pretty! But they were tasty!

This week I actually planned 5 dinners, put in the recipes, made the shopping list, and bought all of the ingredients.  No wondering what's for dinner, no guessing at how many Weight Watchers points were in my food, no getting pizza or take out.  So far I have made Teriyaki Chicken, Stuffed Chicken Breasts (pictured above; its slimmed down Chicken Cordon Bleu), Slow cooker pork BBQ, and London Broil.  Today for lunch I made myself the most amazing tuna, avocado and Greek yogurt salad.  click here for the recipe.  Everyone gets tired of eating the same old thing week after week.  And when your on the weight loss trail for the long haul like I am, some variety is nice! 

I make lots of cooking mistakes --- did you know you can pound chicken breasts to shreds?  I sure do know that now!  My kids will tell you that Daddy is a much better cook than Mommy, and they are correct.  However they have gobbled up just about everything so far.  Now if I could just stop them from making frownie faces when they ask, "What's for dinner?"