Tuesday, April 2, 2013

I'm not a complete domestic failure!

I've been contemplating new names for this blog and one theme that kept popping up in my head revolved around not being domestic.  I've never (well until very recently) aspired to be domestic and household things including cooking really stress me out.  I'd love to be naturally neat and tidy and good in the kitchen, but I'm not.  Although I'm much better than I used to be.

Right around the time I started this blog, I also created a blog titled "Sarah Tries to Cook."  I kept it secret (i.e. not public) and posted a total of 4 times before quitting.  But I REALLY DO want to be able to cook for Dylan (and hubs) so I'm trying.

This is one thing that has been wonderful about maternity leave.  Even though it took me over a month of having Dylan home to attempt my first meal, it's so much easier to get things done around the house when you are home all the time!

Anyway.  It's Tuesday evening and so far this week I have done two loads of laundry and have cooked two excellent meals!

One reader asked what I made, so I thought I'd do an actual cooking post!

Both of these recipes are from Pinterest.

Monday Night: Asian Noodle Salad from The Pioneer Woman

This is actually the third time I've made this dish.  Hubs loves it!  It's a little expensive and a little time intensive the way I've done it, but you could make it with leftover produce and use a food processor to make it much easier.

I left D with hubs and went to Whole Foods and got:
local cabbage (not sure what type, but it was green), purple cabbage, bean sprouts, red, yellow and orange peppers, baby spinach, cilantro, scallions, ginger, garlic, lime, and whole wheat linguine.  I already had olive oil, sesame oil, brown sugar, and soy sauce.  I also had hubs pick up a rotisserie chicken.  I add chicken so that he will eat it.  If it had no meat, he wouldn't even try it.  I've cooked the chicken myself in the past, but adding shredded rotisserie was so much easier!

By the way, does your Whole Foods have a bar?  Mine apparently does now.  That place blows my mind.

It takes awhile to chop everything, but the end result is healthy deliciousness!  The most annoying part is that the recipe calls for half a head of the cabbages.  I just make the whole thing because I know they would be wasted otherwise, but it makes a HUGE salad.  I have to give it away to friends to hope to eat it all.

I didn't take a picture of this one, but here is the original.























This is my first meal from The Pioneer Woman, but I love her step by step pictures and how she even explains how to chop the produce.  Making this salad has seriously improved my knife skills.

Tuesday Night: Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas from Stacey Makes Cents

I saved half of my peppers and made my first Crockpot meal ever.  I am a convert!  Dinner was basically done at 10:30 am.

I sent hubs the this text:


He was as shocked as I was : ).

I can't believe that you literally just put the chicken in the pot!  I suck at cooking chicken.  This is the best chicken I have ever made and I barely did a thing.

She mentions in the recipe that it doesn't look great right at the end (it's the spices cooked on the top), but just like she said, it was perfectly cooked and delicious!  

Before:


After: (halfway shredded)


Even though I have explained how rare this is for me, I almost feel like a poser posting pictures of me cooking!  People might think I provide regular meals for my husband.  He actually cooks more than I do.

But this week was a start.  Maybe I'm growing a little bit domestically. (And I'm really proud of myself!)


2 comments:

  1. Your meals look great. I LOVE cooking and have enjoyed being at home to cook for my husband. Only problem is he doesn't eat carbohydrates during the week. =(

    You should find a good Taco Soup recipe. They have slow cooker recipes and the leftovers are always amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those meals look delicious! I have cooked dinner 2 out of the 3 nights this week. That's the most I've done in oh...months. I'm sure our regular take out place thinks we've gone on vacation or something! People always give me the excuse that it's cause I have twins. To be honest though, I think I cooked even less before the babies--now I feel all this pressure to get my rear in gear so years from now, they're not the kids going to school with leftover Chinese takeout for lunch! I think I might need to invest in a crock pot...

    ReplyDelete