Monday, July 5, 2010

Somebody's Got to Feed These People!


So, have you ever had one of those phases where you don't feel like making dinner?

The very idea of even planning it, much less shopping for groceries, or preparing the meal is just the last thing you want to be doing.

Yeah, well, I'm there.

Maybe it's that summer's here and it is about a billion degrees outside, so food that is not fruit just doesn't sound very appetizing to me.

Or maybe it's that the kids are out of school and I rather just hang out with them, or the fact that they're out of school has thrown my meal planning, grocery shopping, meal prep. routine completely out the window.

Or maybe it's because I have a new love for sewing and would rather be creating adorable things for my daughter to wear like this precious skirt than cooking.

Probably all of the above.

But still, I look at the other 4 members of my family and think, "Man, it's time to feed you people again!"

And I still have the goal of eating out a maximum of once a week (which includes take-out and lunch counts). We eat healthier when we eat at home and we waste less money.

So what to do when you just don't feel like cooking? Here's what I've come up with:

* Find some new recipes


Fixing something new just might get you excited about the process again. I love allrecipes.com as a recipe source. All the recipes are rated, so you know if something has been rated highly by 300 people, it's got to be good! There are also tons of blogs with great recipes.


*Tap into your freezer meals


I do a lot of "cooking once eating twice", meaning I double recipes so I have a meal my family can eat right away and one to freeze for another day when I'm too busy or too lazy to cook! Also, I buy chicken breasts in bulk at Sam's but before I freeze them I put some marinade in the freezer bag with them, then I can just pop them right into the crock pot set on low in the morning and dinner's magically ready by evening!


* Don't cook dinner


Mix things up by serving breakfast for dinner. Eggs, whole-wheat pancakes, bacon and fruit can count as a pretty healthy meal even if served as dinner. My kids love this concept, so I do it often!


* Make it a family activity

Bring the kids into the kitchen to help! My 7 and 4 year olds are great at snapping beans and measuring ingredients and my 3 year old? Well, he's good at tasting things and spilling half a bottle of vanilla ensuring a good smelling kitchen for days!



* New perspective

A friend of mine got a terrible stomach virus and was in bed for over a week, she couldn't cook or do any chores around her house and she said when she was finally able to get out of bed she was so glad to be able to cook and clean again, even though before the sickness they were things she dreaded! So, I'm not wishing a confined-to-bed-sickness on anyone, but maybe we could borrow the perspective of being thankful for the ability to cook for our families without suffering the illness?

What about you? Ever get in a cooking slump? How do you handle it?

This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge.

14 comments:

  1. Cooking slumps happen here all the time. New recipes will help, but that doesn't get my grocery shopping done!

    Thanks for the link to the tutorial. I added it to my favorites.

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  2. You wrote that in 30 minutes! Wow,thanks. I have a week's worth of new ideas. I would add, "stage of cooking strike" and send Dad into the kitchen for a week, taking over some of his tasks. Breathing new life into old routines is a lifesaver.
    notsospanish.wordpress.com

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  3. We just got back from out of town, and I am in a huge cooking slump right now. It was really nice having someone else cook breakfast and dinner for me every night! I love allrecipes.com too...and I get a lot of my experiemental recipes from there. I think breakfast is a great idea to change it up though:) Good luck getting out of your rut!

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  4. I have been dragging too for many of the reasons you mentioned. This week I am playing a game called "Use up whats in the freezer"...should be fun and make cooking more like an adventure.

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  5. LOL Too funny! Looks like you have some adorable helpers to help out! :) Cute picture and some great ideas!

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  6. Cooking slump? Story of my adult life! I just wrote about this at my blog too!

    So glad to have found you through Steady Mom's 30 Minute Challenge! :)

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  7. it seems like i'm always in a cooking slump. new recipes and meal planning help me.

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  8. Plenty of cooking slumps around here. I have no tips. Well, gratitude. When I remember to be grateful that I have a family to cook for and all the food we need or want it helps!

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  9. yeah. buy a huge container of washed greens (or wash your own as soon as you get back from the grocer) and just throw a protein on it and i'm set. my son - mac n cheese, cereal, little plastic containers of fruit, stir fry for veggies (break it up for a few days so you get a veggie with whatever) when grilling (which I don't do often as I only have a briquet grill) make several days worth, freeze what is extra and/or use it for the above mentioned salads. I cut the meat while its still hot/warm as I find it much harder and grosser to cut when its cold. throw potatoes on a cooling grill and you have baked potatoes and didn't use heat inside - just reheat in the microwave. soup with bread and butter for dipping in the soup (my son LOVES this). antipasta (cheese and meats) cut up with olives, pickles.

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  10. I too don't feel like cooking (mostly in the summer time as well).
    Thanks for sharing your tips!

    I love for you to stop by and link up to Socialize with me Monday til Sunday. Going on now! :)

    http://simpsonizedcraftsandthensome.blogspot.com/2010/07/socialize-with-me-monday-til-sunday.html

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  11. My antidote to my cooking slump was to re-organize my cooking and baking notebooks. I re-discovered tons of recipes that I'm working on trying.

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  12. My best trick is to stock up on a versatile ingredient that's going to go bad if we don't use it! In summer, this usually is some sort of fresh produce. In winter, a #10 can of kidney beans will do.

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  13. Yep, I'm with you, I can really relate to being in a slump! I just get to the point where I feel like I'm always fixing the same things, and it just gets boring. So I've been trying to find some new recipes, and I think getting my recipes better organized would help, too.

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  14. Thank you so much for the recipes web site! I needed a web site just like that one! You rock!!!

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I'd love to hear what you think!