To me, there is nothing more fulfilling, relaxing and satisfactory than coming home after a 9 hour day at the office and cooking a great meal for my family - one that is served at the table where we can sit down and enjoy it together. This is often the second best part of my day - the first being when my son runs up to me after daycare yelling "Mommy!" and gives me the biggest hug that such little arms could muster.
Anyway, back on the subject of dinner. I love to cook. I grew up with a family that cooked, a tradition that pre-dates my generation my several decades. My grandfather was an amazing cook and could make a feast out of anything. My mother is also a fabulous cook and everything she tosses into a pan comes out delicious. I have learned, however, through my years that this cooking skill comes with time, patience, practice, from courage to try new things, and from a lot of creativity.
I couldn't boil an egg when I was 21 (no really, I couldn't. And stop laughing). But I love to cook so I kept trying. And while my cooking prowess is still in the process of being developed, I have successfully cooked two entire Thanksgiving dinners, prepared several in-demand potluck dishes, and feed my family wonderful meals almost every night. I say almost every night because no mother - working out of the home or not - wants to cook a full meal every night. Sometimes, it's nice to throw together some grilled cheese, stuff a frozen pizza in the oven, or whip up a pan of Hamburger Helper.
Take tonight for example: I made spaghetti with pesto sauce, asparagus spears sauteed in lemon butter and dinner rolls. Sounds fancy, huh? Truth - the spaghetti was from a box (and I overcooked it) as were the dinner rolls (which were supposed to be crescent rolls but became more of just rolls) and the lemon butter was actually a tablespoon or two of butter and some lemon juice. Last night I made a chicken and rice fry with garden vegetable. In reality, it was cubed chicken, instant rice, frozen vegetables and some cheese.
It occurred to me while eating the meal tonight that while it was very easy to pour things from a box into some boiling water and stir, that it would be just as easy to make it myself from scratch. And it would have tasted better. When I was younger, hardly anything came from a box. My grandparents had an enormous garden and the basement shelves were stocked full of canned vegetables. If we didn't have it, the neighbors did. So why have I lowered myself to cooking out of boxes?
And here begins the challenge. I will cook more of my own food. I will buy more fresh vegetables and think of how I can make things from scratch. I will dare to make things that I have never tried before, even if I know my family may not eat it. I will find recipes, plan the meals, purchase the ingredients and creates delicious and healthy masterpieces for my family. I have the resources, I just haven't been using them, which is simply irresponsible on my part. So the next time I want to have spaghetti in pesto sauce, the spaghetti will be whole grain and the pesto sauce will be homemade.
Along my cooking transformation, I've learned to keep a few things on hand at all times. These things are good to have for when my husband likes to play the "what's for dinner game?" and rule out every single option I have, meaning I have to create something new. Here is my list of necessities:
Chicken stock
Cream of Mushroom soup (2 cans)
Cream of Chicken soup
Cream of Celery soup
Spaghetti sauce
A variety of pastas
Instant rice
Bag of potatoes
Instant potatoes (for those nights when the bag of potatoes is just too exhausting)
Barbecue sauce (you'd be surprised how versatile this condiment is)
Vinegar
Several varieties of cheese - sliced and shredded
Fresh vegetables
Tortillas
Butter (real butter. and lots of it.)
Vanilla Yogurt (I use it in place of syrup for breakfast, mix it with fruit, add it to granola for a snack, use as a dip for fresh fruit, need I go on?)
Crackers (not saltines, either. Have you read the labels on those things lately? Yuck.)
Fresh fruit
A wide variety of herbs and spices (I have all dried, but using fresh for a special recipe is always encouraged.)
Flour
White sugar
Brown sugar
Powdered sugar (the best garnish ever for deserts and it makes everything look pretty.)
Yeast (especially if you want to bake. Anything.)
Cornstarch
Vanilla extract
Almond extract
Butter (oops, mentioned it twice. wink wink.)
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Pepper
Poultry seasoning (try it on your steak sometime. I dare ya.)
Honey (it rivals baking soda for it's many uses)
Olive Oil
Canola Oil
Vegetable Oil
Chocolate (if not for baking, then for eating.)
Hamburger
Chicken
Fish (I came from Minnesota. Meaning there is always, always, always, always walleye in my freezer.)
Frozen vegetables (make sure to read the labels, but if they are prepared right, they have the nutritional equivalent to fresh vegetables and can be added to everything your little cooking heart desires. I don't buy canned vegetables anymore because there is so much sodium and yet they still don't have any crunch or flavor.)
Whew. I think that's it. I know - it's a lot. But you can make a lot of creative dishes with these necessities. I've found that when I look through a cookbook to make a grocery list, I often only need to buy one or two items (usually something that needs to be fresh) because I already have everything else.
So if I have the above already stocked in my kitchen, why am I eating pesto spaghetti from a box and making dinner rolls from an exploding can? Hmmm.....
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