My Food Challenge

Humans need food to live. It's a simple known truth. So in our house it's not unusual that we eat six meals a day: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner and sometimes dessert. It feels like we are always eating. Which means that someone around here is always cooking. Yep, you guessed it. It's me.

Now in order to get all this eating accomplished I have to do some grocery shopping. I buy the everyday items like cereal, milk, juice, fruit, salad, and soda. When it comes to dinner I sorta buy the same thing every time and hope for the best. Maybe the food will magically turn itself into something great. I don't know about you but I tend to make the same dishes...tacos, spaghetti, lasagna, enchiladas, soup, chili, pasta, grilled chicken, etc. I never really think ahead of time unless I'm trying a new recipe. Have you ever noticed how that almost always requires an extra trip to the store. Last night it was your basic can of diced tomatoes. How could I be out of those?!?

As a side dish we always have a finely chopped green salad with candied pecans, dried cranberries, and Girard's light champagne dressing or steamed veggies. Occasionally I try to make steamed rice but it never turns out well. No matter what I do the rice is either soggy or totally burnt. I mean even with a rice cooker somehow I manage to fail. All of our other food is cooked on the stove or in the oven. We used to have a barbecue but we got rid of it when we moved. I really miss its convenience so hopefully we will get a new one soon. Plus, it's the only way to get Dan to cook!

When Thomas was born my wonderful friends provided us with several weeks of meal delivery. Every night around 5pm a delicious warm meal was brought to our door already cooked and ready to eat. This was a truly a blessing and helped ease the transition from three to four. It also opened up a world of new meal ideas. I realized how "boring" my cooking was getting. I realized that I need to step it up a notch.

You see I really do enjoy cooking. I even have a kitchen full of fancy gadgets from The Pampered Chef. I have perfectly good intentions. I want to try new recipes. I swear. I just don't have the time and energy. New recipes are SO hard. So time consuming. You have to read the directions, pay extra attention to the timing, read the directions again, and carefully follow step-by-step to avoid disaster. It's also almost impossible when there's a toddler clinging to your knees, a hungry baby crying in the other room, and a husband getting home late from work.

So how do I shake this boring food feeling? I'm not quite 100% sure, but for now I've made a promise to my family to try at least one new recipe a week. Since I like to have dinner ready and on the table when Dan gets home (we sit down to eat as a family every night), I decided that I have to experiment on his day off. I'm hoping that in a month I will have four new meals to turn to. I'm hoping that I can break the cycle of same-old, same-old. So watch out cookbooks because MommyPaine is on the loose and ready for the challenge!