Prior to being married, you would never find me grocery shopping or preparing a meal. I was the queen of sandwiches, ramen noodles, microwavable meals....anything that was convenient and easy. I was just like my mom, with the mindset of "I don't have time to cook and the last thing I want to do when I get home is spend all my time in the kitchen cooking and then cleaning it up." Obviously, I haven't changed that much in the course of a month, but I'm kind of proud of myself for cooking as much as I have. I'm also happy to say that none of them have been failures. Aaron has approved every meal I've cooked so far....and he's not just saying it either. They have all been really easy recipes. It's very easy for me to get confused with difficult recipes so I have to start out with the easy stuff. It drives Aaron crazy that I follow recipes exactly. He expects me to create my own by adding a little bit of this here....and a little bit of that there. I assure him that we would never have a successful meal if I did that. It's funny because Aaron loves to cook so it's really hard for him to sit back and let me do it by myself. I am constantly telling him to go sit down and watch TV, but after a few minutes he will creep in behind me and say, "You're doing that wrong...let me show you how." Don't get me wrong, I love it that he loves to cook and help out, but sometimes I need to prove that I can do it myself.
Here are a few of our favorite recipes we've tried so far:
Crockpot cheesy chicken and rice. Crockpots save my life. They are my go-to meals. I guess you could call that cheating. Recipe here: http://www.southernplate.com/2010/09/slow-cooker-cheesy-chicken-and-rice-the-downside-of-being-a-swan-princess.html
Skinny Baked Burritos. I made this last night and it was super yummy. Recipe here: http://www.skinnymom.com/2012/04/17/skinny-baked-burritos/?_szp=226691
I served it with corn and rice. Note: I am not the healthiest cook. I'm trying to work on that.
This last recipe was given to me at a bridal shower by a fabulous cook. It was delicious and it didn't last long at all.
Spaghetti Pizza:
-4 to 8 oz. cooked spaghetti, drained
-Stir in 2/3 cup milk and 2 beaten eggs. Place in 9x12 baking dish.
-Pour over top 32 oz. spaghetti sauce. Over this pour 1 lb. browned, seasoned, & separated hamburger meat.
-Slice desired amount of pepperoni on top.
-Add 2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese on top.
-Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let set 5 minutes and serve.
I've been pinning recipes on Pinterest like crazy, and I can't wait to try them all out. I'll make sure to share our favorite ones with you as we go.
I've also learned that it's a lot easier to spend time in a kitchen if you have fun gadgets and tools to try out. We got a lot of cute kitchen stuff for our wedding.
This is one of my favorites. I keep it sitting out on the counter at all times.
I also got these fun jars a while back. I don't have anything in them yet because I couldn't decide what to store in them. It was driving me crazy having them out without anything written on them, so I just decided to write something anyway. If you have suggestions on what to put in them, please help me out.
Lastly, Aaron and I have been working on small projects for the house this past week. We are currently repainting some shelves, lamps, a bar cart and we are recovering a headboard and the kitchen table chairs. My goal is to repaint the kitchen table antique white and stain the table top. I'm not sure when we'll get around to that, but we got the chairs covered last night.
They look so much better already. I can't wait to get them all painted.
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