Up until our son was born I wasn't much of a cook. (I may have mentioned this in "Chicken Pot Pie For the Soul" blog)... Open a box of mac n' cheese, a can of peaches, and voila meal served! Thinking back I used to put together some really horrible combinations, man my husband must really love me! Now wonder we used to eat out several times a week!
This past year I have made a pact with myself to try at least one new recipe a week. Simple right? (My poor family, the guinea pigs.) Now I know that sounds mighty adventurous of me...but I have been trying to break out of my comfort zone AND keep the family happy. This year has been a personal growth year for me anyway, you're never too old you know! Including my cooking habits, my exercising, eating healthier, spending more time with my friends, and starting B's Crown Jewels.
Funny, I mentioned this new mission of the new recipes to the dental assistant when I went into the dentist for my cleaning. Of all things, their office had the Food Network on while I was in the dental chair. This makes you really hungry by the way! This got us talking about food and recipes. The next time I went into the dental office with our children, the assistant remembered our conversation and we talked about recipes we had tried. Believe me, I can talk about food any day. Probably a connection to why I need to use My Fitness Pal or Weight Watchers. Both of which I have also tried this year. But that's on another blog.
So anyway, I believe that family mealtime can really tie you together as a family. Family mealtimes are so much more rewarding to me if I have made something new and it's a hit. If you have a nice meal to put on the table, I find we are much more likely to sit around and discuss our day while we nosh on the goodies! (Truth be told, my husband can be brutally honest, so if the meal is horrible, he will tell me when I ask...Better that, than try making it a second time and have too many leftovers right?)
This week, I sat down and decided to plan out my week of meals. Before you start wondering what kind of person makes time to do this, please realize this is probably only the second time in my ENTIRE life that I have done this! For months, I have been "pinning" recipes on Pinterest that look tasty and delicious, but it's a rare day that I have tried making or baking any of them. So Monday came along, and I pulled up the Internet to see what kind of meals I could whip up this week. I started planning a grocery list based on the recipes.
On a side note: Our neighbors have a beautiful vegetable garden, and they shared several huge zucchinis with us so that was first on the agenda. Finding a recipe using zucchini's. I also put a note to my friends on Facebook looking for suggestions as I started my search on Pinterest. All in all, I made three new recipes this week. All tested and approved by my family. I think this is a first. All new recipes turned out delish.
So in no particular order, these were on the list:
1.) BBQ Spareribs in the crock pot. (Sorry no picture for this one)
2.) Zucchini, black bean skillet meal (I skipped the beans and added corn)
3.) Creamy chicken taco cups. (I even finely diced up some more zuchinni and put it in)
4.) Cinnamon sugar flour chips (I used the left over tortillas from the taco cups to make these) Oh my gosh, these would have been so delicious crumbled over vanilla ice cream! Next time for sure!
There is one more recipe I really wanted to make this week, but after our oven caught on fire and I decided to run the "self clean" mode the other day I lost my steam to bake the cake. I think when your oven catches on fire inside, it's an indication that I hadn't cleaned it recently enough. My bad.
If any of the recipes appeal to you, let me know and I will share them. Or if you take on your own personal challenge of any sort I'd love to hear about it...Have a great weekend!
Embrace Your Sparkle,
B
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