Catch up

It's easy to get out of the groove of blogging regularly when you miss a week or month because there is then the dreaded task of playing catch up. I still have a lot of things to tell you all, but a summary version will have to do. Here it goes:

The last thing you heard from me really was that I was trying to figure out how to work out dinners at home. I feel like I've really nailed it down...well it's improved at least. I took lots of pictures during the fall. Uploading them and making them look nice on this blog is one of the most frustrating experiences so I'm looking into setting up a photobucket account or something that I can link to this page. You can also see pictures on my facebook.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring semester for me. I'm taking 20 credits, that is assuming that I've been accepted into the music minor program. Joel found a steal of a deal on a bike and so now he has a great bike to ride to and from work. He's excited about it. Joel is also conducting a youth barbershop chorus that he is taking to competition at the end of this month in Las Vegas. Joey is doing great. He's tackling the first grade. He's such a smart kid. We get to see him twice a week usually and wish we could see him more often. We're fixing to move closer to him in the coming months so we can see him more often. There's never enough time to do the things he wants to do with us!

So, 20 credits this semester plus full time work means that I will really struggle keeping our blog updated. I will try to update every other week or so. But please forgive me if I don't!

Love,
Maggie and family

In my kitchen...

Slowly but surely I'm getting this "wife" thing down. The weekends have become my time to cook, clean, homemake, and run errands. I love it so much. The hardest part is not sleeping in too late. For a couple of months now we've had Joey every Friday night, so he wakes us up bright and early on Saturday mornings.

In the last two weeks I've made:

Broccoli Mozzarella Quiche
Creamy Asparagus Soup
Shepherds Pie
Lasagna Roll Ups
Sloppy Joe's
Roast and Potatoes
French Peasant Bread
Coffee Cake
Pot Pie Noodle Casserole - Joey dubbed it's official name to be "Worm Casserole"
Ham Fried Rice
Halloween Sugar Cookies

I've made a few more things than that, but I can't remember what they are. I've been taking pictures of my culinary experiments. I'll try to get better about blogging them. Also - I've committed to switching over to wheat flour for everything. I even made my sugar cookies with wheat flour. They look a little odd, but I think the health benefits will be great...especially since my kids won't know any difference. As I get into a rotating cycle of recipes and make them more and more, I'm going to try and tweak them to be as healthy as possible. I REALLY want to try and make my own fiber bars. They've become a part of my everyday, and if I could figure out how to make them from scratch, it'd probably save us some money.

I really enjoy being in the kitchen and the more I do it, the less I dread the task of thinking up ideas for dinner each night. Also, the more I work with spices and veggies and meats, the more comfortable I feel trying out new recipes or cooking without a recipe. There are definitely some basic things to know when cooking that have really helped me:

-Don't be afraid of garlic or pepper
-Chicken broth/stock makes EVERYTHING better
-Saute veggies in olive oil with any spices you desire before adding to soups (unless you're making soup from leftover roast)
-When in doubt make rice and then figure out what to add from there
-Buy 5 lbs of ground beef at costco - brown beef and freeze in family portions for quick meals like tacos, shepherds pie, sloppy joes

I can't think of anymore tips right now, but I'll post them as I think of them.

Bon Apetite!

Week in Review

So my meal planning didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped due to a combination of laziness, moodiness, and schedule changes. I did however make a delicious meal last night...I honestly can't believe it turned out so good. I'm going to make it again soon and post a picture.

I could actually get into the cooking thing if I can just figure out how to pair the right spices with the right foods...

Another weekend is here with another chance to prepare some of the ingredients ahead of time and look up more savory recipes. I need to be careful not to waste too much time browing the internet for recipes, and spend more of that time experimenting in my kitchen!

Cheers!