I went to Relief Society this evening. It was great because A) it got me out of the house, which meant that I put something other than sweatpants on, and B) it was demonstration of quick and easy meals and dinnertime has been such a rut for me lately that having a whole list of ideas in my hand couldn't be anything but great.
The ideas really were quick and easy. What surprised me was that everyone seemed genuinely excited about them. I kept looking around the room and everyone was nodding their heads and spouting out suggestions and looking really thrilled about each and every recipe.
And I thought to myself, "Self, maybe you can cook."
That's kind of a revelation.
I think of myself as a survival cook, mostly—I eat to live, not the other way around—so my meals are generally quick and easy and perhaps even a little...boring.
But here is this whole room of women getting all excited about recipes that I know I can make. So if they're eating what I'm eating and I think what they're making is good then what I'm making must be good, too, right?
If A=B and B=C then A=C.
That's a thing, right?
For dinner tonight, before Relief Society, I made lasagna soup. It's a pretty easy recipe. Especially if you just ixnay the eatmay like I do. Cooking with meat is not my favourite so mostly I just don't do it.
Most of the recipes we talked about tonight were just as easy and just as quick, which is a good thing if you're like me and never remember to think about dinner until it's time to eat—I realize that problem would be eliminated if I would just make a menu but right now my appetite is so unpredictable that I can't confidentially plan meals farther in the future than the present. Who knows what I'll want to eat tomorrow or if I'll want to cook at all? If I don't want to cook and Andrew's home, he cooks. If I don't want to cook and Andrew's not home then we have frozen burritos or good ol' PB&J or something in that strain. Cooking while pregnant? No thanks.
I kind of want to try the recipe for Shepherd's Pie and Green Bean Casserole because I know that certain people in my family actually like green beans.
Truthfully I didn't like any of the samples tonight...except the grapes. *sigh*
I went to pick my girls up from the nursery when we were finished and said, "Hi, girls! Did you have a good time?"
"Yeah!" Miriam chirped. "And I peed my pants!"
I checked. She had.
"Why didn't you use the potty?" I sighed. "It's right there."
It seriously is right there. In the same room as the nursery. Kid-sized toilet and all.
"She did use the potty," the babysitter said. "I helped her go!"
Well, she obviously went again at some point because there she was, soaked through all her many layers (of pants, skirt with shorts sewn on them, and a dress—at least her t-shirt was dry, right?). I assured the sitter it wasn't her fault and ran off to get the diaper bag so I could change Miriam before going home.
What was funny was how happy Miriam sounded about having wet her pants—like it the mark of a good evening (which I'm sure it was because she usually only wets her pants when she's too busy having fun).
When we got home we got ready for bed...relatively quickly. I wasn't very enthusiastic about helping the girls get ready for bed because I felt that Andrew should be helping (given that he was home) but he didn't—he has some huge project that has to be submitted for review tomorrow and he just found out that it has to be translated into Spanish before it can be reviewed (so, yeah). I didn't know that or I wouldn't have nagged him so much, but he managed to ignore me long enough that the girls were all ready for bed (and then some) by the time we were able to peel him away from his project for family prayer and scriptures.
Rachel was actually excited for bed because Andrew finally made a CD of Harry Potter music for her—she's been begging for ages. He has the MP3s (legally) on iTunes but the girls have a CD player in their room so it's just easier to let them listen that way. Anyway, after I read her a page and a half from Harry Potter (one of her favourite parts, when Hermione makes the feather float using Wingardium Leviosa) and singing one lullaby to each of the girls they settled down without a peep.
It was a good night all around.
The ideas really were quick and easy. What surprised me was that everyone seemed genuinely excited about them. I kept looking around the room and everyone was nodding their heads and spouting out suggestions and looking really thrilled about each and every recipe.
And I thought to myself, "Self, maybe you can cook."
That's kind of a revelation.
I think of myself as a survival cook, mostly—I eat to live, not the other way around—so my meals are generally quick and easy and perhaps even a little...boring.
But here is this whole room of women getting all excited about recipes that I know I can make. So if they're eating what I'm eating and I think what they're making is good then what I'm making must be good, too, right?
If A=B and B=C then A=C.
That's a thing, right?
For dinner tonight, before Relief Society, I made lasagna soup. It's a pretty easy recipe. Especially if you just ixnay the eatmay like I do. Cooking with meat is not my favourite so mostly I just don't do it.
Most of the recipes we talked about tonight were just as easy and just as quick, which is a good thing if you're like me and never remember to think about dinner until it's time to eat—I realize that problem would be eliminated if I would just make a menu but right now my appetite is so unpredictable that I can't confidentially plan meals farther in the future than the present. Who knows what I'll want to eat tomorrow or if I'll want to cook at all? If I don't want to cook and Andrew's home, he cooks. If I don't want to cook and Andrew's not home then we have frozen burritos or good ol' PB&J or something in that strain. Cooking while pregnant? No thanks.
I kind of want to try the recipe for Shepherd's Pie and Green Bean Casserole because I know that certain people in my family actually like green beans.
Truthfully I didn't like any of the samples tonight...except the grapes. *sigh*
I went to pick my girls up from the nursery when we were finished and said, "Hi, girls! Did you have a good time?"
"Yeah!" Miriam chirped. "And I peed my pants!"
I checked. She had.
"Why didn't you use the potty?" I sighed. "It's right there."
It seriously is right there. In the same room as the nursery. Kid-sized toilet and all.
"She did use the potty," the babysitter said. "I helped her go!"
Well, she obviously went again at some point because there she was, soaked through all her many layers (of pants, skirt with shorts sewn on them, and a dress—at least her t-shirt was dry, right?). I assured the sitter it wasn't her fault and ran off to get the diaper bag so I could change Miriam before going home.
What was funny was how happy Miriam sounded about having wet her pants—like it the mark of a good evening (which I'm sure it was because she usually only wets her pants when she's too busy having fun).
When we got home we got ready for bed...relatively quickly. I wasn't very enthusiastic about helping the girls get ready for bed because I felt that Andrew should be helping (given that he was home) but he didn't—he has some huge project that has to be submitted for review tomorrow and he just found out that it has to be translated into Spanish before it can be reviewed (so, yeah). I didn't know that or I wouldn't have nagged him so much, but he managed to ignore me long enough that the girls were all ready for bed (and then some) by the time we were able to peel him away from his project for family prayer and scriptures.
Rachel was actually excited for bed because Andrew finally made a CD of Harry Potter music for her—she's been begging for ages. He has the MP3s (legally) on iTunes but the girls have a CD player in their room so it's just easier to let them listen that way. Anyway, after I read her a page and a half from Harry Potter (one of her favourite parts, when Hermione makes the feather float using Wingardium Leviosa) and singing one lullaby to each of the girls they settled down without a peep.
It was a good night all around.
I'm all about the quick and easy these days as well. I want to have to do basically zero work for dinner. I think primarily because that usually means less clean up as well.
ReplyDeleteThat early stage of pregnancy is no fun if you're having to cook. I think we spent something like $1000 on groceries the month I was feeling sick. I'd planned out a lovely menu for the month, with all sorts of new and interesting meals to try, did the grocery shopping, and then got all sick-feeling. The last thing I wanted to do was cook dinner, much less try a new recipe. So by the time the end of the month came and we'd gone to the store every single day to purchase what I could manage to choke down that night, we'd spent a fortune. I hope you're past that stage soon! Oh, and if quinoa sounds at all good to you right now I've just made a couple of good soups with quinoa in them that took hardly any time at all. Sometimes, if I feel up to it, I also check out the "quick and easy" tab at myrecipes.com. I've found a few good recipes there as well.
If you have a recipe that you find you really like, would you email it to me? I'm in dire need of some new, simple recipes. Dinners usually consist of soup and grilled cheese...
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