Cooking

Proverbs 31: 15

She also rises while it is yet night,
And provides food for her household,
And a portion for her maidservants.

I’m going to tell on you honey.  So…one time (a few years back) Kyle made the comment that I wasn’t very domestic.  GASP!!  But I’m your wife?  He didn’t mean it in an ugly way at all.  But it hurt…it hurt because it was true! I’m sure if he knew it would have hurt my feelings he wouldn’t have said it. I was good at other things…but cooking and cleaning weren’t really my forte!

Fast forward a few years…I’m very pleased to announce Kyle more recently said I was a good cook! J  Thanks babe! That makes me very happy.

Eating Paleo has forced us to be a little more creative with our cooking.  I LOVE trying new things now.  I’m a little more confident in just going with things and not having to follow a recipe.

The key for me is to keep mixing things up and trying new things to keep it fresh and exciting. Before eating Paleo we were pretty much on a rotation of the same foods each week: Fajitas, Taco Salad, Spaghetti, Grill something, Pick up something at the store on the way home, take out…

Now we have a few staples that we keep on the rotation but we have been trying a lot of new things.  It is hard to plan ahead sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t turn out the best! :)  But it is always fun and a learning experience. It is also rewarding, empowering, AND HEALTHY!! J

Every week I plan out our menu (usually with some help from Kyle) and then go shopping for the week.  Now it is just part of our routine and helps our family function so much more efficiently!

Try it out…even for a week.  Plan a menu and start cooking!

What keeps you from making home cooked meals?

If you want to succeed...

...you've got to be prepared!

I've seen a lot of really cute Menu boards on pinterest lately. In fact, my sister has one that she made. Here is the problem....I'm NOT a crafty person! There is just too much pressure to get it right. And let's be honest...I'm really impatient. I like the idea of being crafty...I'm just not.

I have been wanting to create a menu board. I wanted it to be a really cute, crafty one. But I got impatient and just bought a little magnetic dry erase board from Fred Meyer. We're also trying to be really diligent about saving money and paying off my car. So I went the cheap route. I got the board for like $4. I had a magnetic strip at home that I cut up into smaller pieces. I had a ton of white note cards that I cut up. And I had a really cute recipe box that my crafty cousin-in-law had made me a while back.

So after I cut up the note cards I went through all our recipes and wrote them down on the cards. They are now filed in the recipe box. Each week I can put the previous weeks recipes back in the box and go through and pick which recipes I want to make and pin them to the board. Which brings me to my point.

If you want to be successful in eating Paleo...or any healthy lifestyle...you've go to be prepared. You have got to make sure you have plenty of healthy options on hand and ready to go. Kyle and I make a menu at the beginning of the week...make a grocery list and then go shopping once for the entire week. We were really bad before about figuring out each night what we were going to have for dinner. In the past, by the time we got around to thinking about dinner we were already hungry and wanted something quick. A lot of time that resulted in picking something up. The other problem is we would end up going to the store night after night and getting ingredients that we wouldn't totally use and then they would go to waste. By making the weekly menu we can make sure that produce gets eaten throughout the week. Making the menu helps us to save money each week. :)

So...the menu board...it isn't super cute...but it is functional. Hopefully one day in the future I can take the time to make it cute! :) The next step I want to do is organize all my recipes in a big notebook and number them. Then I can number the back of the "menu item cards" and will be able to find the recipes easily.

I guess I'll just add that to my list of projects! :)

I'm also working on some other things to help keep our home a little more clean and organized as we are both working lots of hours. The cool thing is now I have the energy to do it! :) It seems to be working so far...but it is still pretty early in the process...so we'll save the sharing for a later date.