Danica, the Chef

One of my new year's resolutions this year was to cook more. I haven't cooked much since we moved here over a year ago. Our kitchen is so small that I hate to even go in it. It's so small that you can't even open the fridge all the way - one drawer is completely unusable. There is about two feet of counter space and only one person can fit in at a time. Anyway, the point is, cooking is difficult.

But, in an effort to be a better wife and mother, I decided that I need to cook more anyway. So, I've been trying out a bunch of new recipes. A lot of them are very simple, but if it requires me to be in the kitchen at all, I say it counts. I recently found these at the grocery store:

Maybe everyone alreay knows about them, but they're new to me. They're on the same isle as the hamburger helper, or canned soup. There are other brands (Banquet Homestyle Bakes) and flavors, too. It comes with everything you need and you just add the meat. It's SO easy, you literally dump it all in a pan and put it in the oven. They come out looking like homemade and they taste delicious!

I've also recently found the joys of using a crock pot (thanks to my mother in law giving me one). I've made beef stew, bbq pork, fajitas, and roast beef. Again, you just drop everything in and turn it on.

You can tell that I like things that are easy. But I figure as long as I add a side dish and a drink and I set the table then it can be considered a home cooked meal. If any of you have more easy delicious meals please tell me because I'm going to need a lot more recipes if I'm going to keep this resolution!

Comments

Brenda said…
Brooke swears by those "Bakes" too. I will try to email you some easy recipes. Keep it up, practice makes perfect - or at least edible!
Hunter Family said…
The Homestyle bakes are my favorite... well I don't always eat them, but Ben does. I get the ones that you just add water. but that's more for the extremely lazy. You could also try BBQ Cups. Your Mom gave me that recipe, it's like a once a monther at our house.
Karissa Kay said…
I'm going to have to try those! They look good! You should visit kraftfoods.com for some easy recipes. Also, if you sign up on their website, they'll send you a magazine once every couple of months with lots of easy recipes. And i know how you feel about a small kitchen. Our old apartment had the tiniest kitchen ever! I don't even know if it would have counted as a kitchen!
Sarah said…
I know what you mean by the kitchen having too little space to make you want to be in there. I've been pretty lucky so far that even my little kitchens had some redeeming effects - like a huge pass-thru window that helped me feel like i was with the family & not feel isolated in my little cave, ha.

Funny - as you posted this, my sister and I were going thru easy recipies online with eachother! i gotta say though, our style is more the "make a big big batch and freeze some for later" kind of easy, rather than one-time easy. We love re-heats and leftovers :) email me if you're interested in those and i'll try not to overwhelm you.

Meanwhile - goooooo Danica!
Dirk and Trish said…
We do a simple stir fry a lot. Cook some chicken in a pan, I usually cut up a couple boneless, skinless chicken breasts, until it's done. Then add a bag of frozen stir fry mix veggies. I usually also add extra frozen broccoli and some canned pineapple and canned water chestnuts, but before I just did the 1 bag mix. Cook that until the veggies are done. Fix some rice-I just microwave minute rice. I also do a "homemade" sweet and sour sauce-just ketchup, white sugar, and a little pineapple juice. It's the one meal I can make in half an hour or less, plus it's pretty healthy.

Popular posts from this blog

Aloha!

So Sleepy . . .