Monday, March 30, 2009

Cooking, or Lack Thereof

I has recently come to my attention that I can not cook.

At least not well.

I am a picky eater. I am not one to be satisfied with dining on tuna fish sandwiches or grilled cheese. I want a meal. And to me a good one includes a lot of ingredients.

So I watch a lot of Food TV. And I scour the internet for recipes. I buy the cookbooks that friends recommend. And I write a grocery list for umpteen items to make these ridiculous recipes that frankly I, as the mother of three, don't have the time to prepare. Let alone clean up after. I do have the best of intentions, but lately I'm lucky to make one meal out of the five that I bring home the grocery items for. And when I do manage to complete one of these ambitious meals, it tastes terrible and the kitchen looks like a hurricane hit it. Therefore, I recently declared that I can not cook, and I will not cook. Rey says I totally can cook, but not to make this crazy concoctions like the Shrimp Orzo something or other I made the other night. But he's perfectly happy eating a piece of chicken that's been grilled to within an inch of its life (hockey pucks I call them). I want more for myself--I'm worth it!

So more nights that not, we eat out. Or rather we eat in with takeout that Rey brings home. (We do not take three kids out to a restaurant every night--I am not certifiable. Not yet at least.) Dining out is the American way, right?

Well, recently it came to my attention the type of damage this is doing. The other day, in between the ungodly time period nap time and dinner time, when you can almost hear the seconds ticking because time is passing so slowly, Mason says to me, "Mommy, what's Daddy bringing home for dinner?"

It was like a knife to my heart. This boy thinks food comes from the front door, not the kitchen door.

In my defense, I wasn't always like this. I used to cook nearly every night. But after we moved back from Key West and Rey was still there, it made no sense to cook without him here, especially since the boys don't really eat what we eat so I was basically cooking for myself. (They are picky people, something we try to work on from time to time, but can't manage to work out.) When he moved back, not cooking became the status quo.

And so here we are.

I need a takeout intervention.

5 comments:

Lucinda said...

You need a cooking buddy! My friend will come over and we'll have a cooking marathon and knock out like 3 meals in one day! If you lived closer you could totally join in!

Ashley said...

That is a very good idea. I bought that "Eat Clean Diet" cookbook. I had to make three trips to Whole Foods just to get the stuff I needed for two meals! LOL Why can't someone write a "Meals That Magically Prepare Themselves" cookbook?

Lucinda said...

Actually, you don't need to live closer to join us, you can cook with us anytime!
Shrimp Orzo sounds like something from the Clean eating cookbook! I'll have to admit, not everyting in there tastes so great. But then again, how often does "good for you food" actually tastes "good"?

Ashley said...

Yes, the Shrimp Orzo was from the Eat Clean cookbook. It called for that "yogurt cheese" and I didn't have a cheesecloth nor the 24 hours required to make it, so I threw some mozzerella on top and called it good. So I suppose I made it dirty. LOL It wasn't that bad, it definitely needed more flavor. But it was dumb because the dang meal cost $20 or so, and we could have had Calistoga for less than that! : ) See how I get into trouble?

Lucinda said...

Here's the recipes I've tried and liked:
Wild Rice and Tofu Soup (I used Chicken) P.41
Miso Chicken and green onion soup (tastes like the soup you get at Japanese Steakhouses) p.60
Country Style Beef Soup P.66
Maui Black Bean soup p.71
Slow-cooker chicken cassoulet p.158
Chinese Chicken and rice (the picture doesn't do it justice) p.162
Eat Clean chicken and rice (that's another one the pic does it no justice) p.165
Turkey Waldorf Salad p.189 (I don't do yogurt cheese..I'll deal with the extra calories from just plain yogurt)
Chicken strips and tofu Szechuanese (Sub chicken for tofu) p.198...My family loves this one
Chicken Rotini P.258

My personal Favorite is the Clean Eat Pizza...Don't have the recipe off the top of my head, but basically you add all the stuff you like "good" stuff of course

Whole grain Pizza dough(the boboli ones or similar)
little bit of pesto sauce
little bit of pizza sauce
red onion
black olives
green/red peppers
turkey sausage
turkey pepperoni
mushrooms
whatever veggies you prefer...
Low fat Mozz cheese. Bake. Good stuff!