I love food. Always have. But as an adult, I really learned how to mix flavors and play with recipes to get what I want out of them. I love that. Sometimes, though, even when we’re comfortable with preparing food and managing our kitchens, we need help. Or inspiration. Have you ever gotten stuck in a rut? I have. It’s so easy to do. And last week I got a kick in the pants — something I desperately needed.

It’s easy to be lazy. Rely on processed, packaged foods. Buy what’s cheap. Convenient. After a long day of work & kid wrangling, I don’t feel like cooking. And don’t forget the cleanup afterwards. Ugh. I don’t have the energy. And that’s part of the problem. What I’ve been eating makes things worse. Low energy, lethargy. Weight gain. Oh, and don’t forget increased risk of diabetes! FUN! (Yeah, not really.)

What’s a girl to do? Lots of things, according to Chef Julie Frans of Dining Details here in San Diego. The biggest thing, which we all know we should do, but don’t, is watch what we eat. Use fresh ingredients. Avoid processed foods. Cut back on your sugar and caffeine (and stay away from those sugar substitutes). Use organic food when you can, especially when it’s food that is easily contaminated (“dirty dozen“).*

Julie cooked several dishes for us, including quinoa, millet, and lentils. As she cooked, she explained the ingredients and how they are good for us. Not only that, but watching the food you eat can naturally balance your body’s pH. And that can help you maintain better health, proper wait, and help strengthen your immune system. Did you know that? I did not. See why I said I liked what I learned?

It was just the kick in the pants I needed. No, really. Later, on Twitter, she asked if any of us drink Coffeemate. Oh, so guilty over here. I buy the 1/2 gallon at Costco. Hanging my head in shame. BUT, Julie gave an alternative. Try half & half, organic brown sugar, and a dash of real vanilla extract. So tonight I bought some half & half, mixed it with some brown sugar and vanilla in a jar. That will sit in my fridge and go in my coffee in the morning. You know what? I tried a little bit of it and it tasted just like vanilla ice cream (well, okay, melted ice cream. but still…). And I can’t wait to try it in my coffee in the morning. Not only that, I know it’s much healthier for me. Yes, even with the real fat and sugar. I may need to adjust the proportions (I did more than just a dash of vanilla), but that’s easily done.

See? Already trying to make healthier choices! I have a lot more to tell you, like a little more detail about the dishes she fixed, the awesome vinaigrette she made, and what else Dining Details does, like healthy, quality school meals for kids through their other company, Chickpeas. And personal chef services. Catering. Iron Chef-like competitions — how cool is that? Much more to come, but it’s getting late and I don’t want to make this too long. Stay tuned for more info!

*Julie includes meat & poultry, soy products, peanuts, eggs, dairy, and corn in her list, as they can contain hormones or be genetically modified (especially corn).

Disclosure: The cooking demo was provided at no cost to the attendees (that I am aware of). And while Julie asked us to kindly post about our experiences, she in no way indicated that the reviews need to be positive. I am not compensated for any posts about this event.

But it turned out okay. Everything was hot except the carrots, which were a little cooler than I would like. But everything else was good.

The turkey was awesome. The breast was incredibly moist and tender. In exchange, though, the dark meat was a little pinker than I would like. We didn’t cut any of it off of the bone anyway (for the main meal), so I’ll heat it really well before serving it in another dish.

The family loved the food, so I consider that a success. It can only go down from here, right?

I ran to the grocery store today to get some last minute things. Milk, marshmallows, whole cranberries, stuff for green bean casserole (I wouldn’t care if NO ONE ELSE in the house liked it – I would still make it), whipped cream for the pie, and some more rolls. Here’s the crazy thing, in the grocery store I normally hate. No, really, I can’t stand it. But today they had a great big Thanksgiving display right at the front of the store. Most of the stuff I needed was right there. Right there! I almost fainted! Within a minute of walking into the store I had over half my shopping list crossed off.

I practically did a happy dance right there in the aisle. It’s the little things, y’all.

The house is clean. We have a few more dishes to wash in the morning. The turkey doesn’t need to hit the oven until about 9, but does need to come out of the fridge much earlier. So we’ll still be getting up early. But here’s what’s great about all we have to do. Much of it can be done at a leisurely pace. A little chopping here, a little sautéing there. I will not put pressure on myself, no matter how long our menu is.

And I actually made up a menu to help me remember what we need to do. Otherwise, I’ll forget the carrots or corn or something. Our menu:

• Turkey (duh)
• Dressing (duh) (cooking this in the crock pot)
• Gravy (DUH)
• Garlic & basil mashed potatoes
• Glazed sweet potatoes (recipe from my beloved Better Homes & Gardens cookbook)
• Green bean casserole (cooking this in the other crock pot & finishing off in the oven)
• White corn
• Brown sugar-glazed carrots (another recipe from Better Homes & Gardens)
• Rolls (simple brown-n-serve – doing the other rolls at Christmas)
• Pumpkin pie

I think that’s everything off of the top of my head – because I’m too lazy to walk into the kitchen and double-check (hey, it’s chilly in here & I’m snuggled under a cover on the couch).

I am cheating and using boxed stuffing because I still need to have my mom teach me how to make hers. But I’ll also be sautéing onions and celery to add to it. And lots of sage (I absolutely cannot have turkey and gravy without sage dressing). It really tastes pretty good that way.

Are you feeling ready for tomorrow?

I needed to get some laundry done today, which I did. Yay! Last night I made stock, and this morning I finished it off (boiled it down a bit) and put it in the fridge. So that’s done. It’ll be used for gravy and dressing (oh yeah, I already mentioned that).

I still have a lot of cleaning to do. We need chairs for everyone. And to put the big table together. The menu is not finalized. I’m not even sure what time I should start cooking on Thursday!

The good news is, I got most of tomorrow’s work done today. And that means I have time to work on the house. Clear out some of the clutter. Make some progress.

I really need to feel like I’ve made some progress. *sigh* Tomorrow I think I’ll look for some carrot recipes. And sweet potatoes, too.

Since meeting my husband, I think my cooking has vastly improved. I’ve learned a lot more about improvising, making a recipe my own, and how flavors go together. I’m a much more adventurous eater and cook since I’ve known him. I am a much better cook due to him.

Along those lines, I made soup tonight. I took the broth left over from the pork roast I made Sunday, and also tossed in all of the leftover veggies and some of the shredded pork. Then I sautéed some veggies, starting with a mirepoix, then adding cubed potatoes and Cremini mushrooms. After the veggies softened up, I added them back into the broth. Then it was a matter of tossing in some more spices and about a cup of already cooked brown rice.

I love building upon flavors. Starting with a broth from a previous dish, adding more ingredients and increasing the depth of flavor. It’s different every time. I don’t always write down my recipes and it can be hard to recreate a dish. But that’s okay because it’s always an experiment with us.

This time, I added a little bit of oregano, some basil, garlic, sweet paprika, pepper, and cayenne. Of course, there was salt & pepper in the fresh veggies, too. Next time I might toss in a pinch of ginger. Or cumin. It depends on my mood. Or what sounds good that night. But I’m really happy when something turns out well, and the soup definitely turned out well. Making soup has become one of my favorite ways to experiment in the kitchen.

Maybe I should ask for a French cookbook for Christmas? Branch out a little more? What are you learning in the kitchen? Anything?

So each time I mentioned menu planning, my husband resisted. Why would I want to do that? To save money on our grocery bill. To have ingredients on hand to make healthy meals. And to give us more reason to stay home and eat.

But he didn’t want to be tied down to eating “this” on Monday and “that” on Tuesday. What if “that” just didn’t sound appetizing on Tuesday?

We’re trying something a little different. We’ll make a list of meals that we think will work in the next week. Just keep it flexible, but try some meals that play off of each other. Meals that include the same main ingredient so we can buy the correct quantity – but not so much that we’re having chicken five nights a week.

It’s going to be a work in progress. But we know we need to stop running to the store every 3 or 4 days unless it’s well-planned and within our grocery budget.

Did you start saving more money when you plan your menus? Or have you been thinking about it but don’t know where to begin?

image: morgueFile

Last year, I discovered a no-knead roll recipe at The Pioneer Woman. It sounded pretty simple so I thought I’d give it a try. It’s an easy recipe and you don’t need to do a lot of kneading. When you form the rolls you’re basically kneading the dough and that’s all they require.

You can make the dough a day or two before Thanksgiving and store it in the fridge. Take the dough out of the fridge about 3 hours before you’ll want to bake, so the dough has time to come back to temp. I usually wait about a half hour to hour after it’s out of the fridge before forming my rolls. Then they sit a couple of hours to rise before baking.

And they are fabulous. Light, airy, and full of tasty yeasty goodness.

I made these at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Big hit. And they keep well, too. I had mine in a basket, wrapped in a kitchen towel. They were good the next day. So you can make a huge batch all at once — if you have enough muffin tins — or just make enough for that day and toss the rest of the dough in the fridge. That’s what I did, and when we ran out, I just formed some more rolls, let them rise, and baked them.

Super simple. Your family will thank you for it, and then beat each other down trying to get to the last roll. Now that’s a perfect Thanksgiving.

Remember the roast prep I did yesterday? This morning I put all of the veggies, the roast (which I had seasoned and put back in the fridge last night), and a bit of stock from the last roast, in the crock pot. I put it on high for a couple of hours and then turned it down before we left the house.

And when we got back, it was divine walking back into the house. I wish more weekends were like that.

It was a really relaxing weekend. I didn’t make my stock, but the carcasses are in the fridge for later. Probably tomorrow. I really love having a fridge full of yummy food just waiting for us to nosh on during the week.

How was your weekend? Did you make any progress toward some household goals? What were they?

That doesn’t always work when you have a toddler running around. Or deadlines.

But fortunately, today wasn’t one of those deadline days. So I took it easy in the morning and tackled some chores this afternoon. Once again, I roasted two chickens so we’ll have meat for the week. Only this time I went a lot heavier on the spices — and you can tell. The meat was a lot more flavorful this time.

While the chicken was cooking, I chopped veggies for tomorrow’s roast. I’ll pop it in the crock pot tomorrow morning and by the time we get in that afternoon from our errands, dinner will be ready. And I’ll also start stock from the chicken bones tomorrow, too.

Here’s what works the best for my stock:

Roasted chicken carcass, after taking off the meat.
Giblets.
Skin & pan juices from the roasting.
One onion, cut in half or quarters.
A couple of celery stalks.
One carrot, or a bunch of baby carrots.
Several garlic cloves.

The cooking time varies depending on how much time I have, but I at least cook it two hours. Preferably four or more.

The chicken was done just in time for supper, so we had some of that with some brown rice and sweet white corn (cooked from frozen in a bit of chicken stock from the last time).

I also did a bunch of dishes while waiting for the oven to heat up. And before I chopped veggies. Go me!

If I could only feel this productive every day, I might have a clean house. Let’s not get carried away now. A girl can only handle so much work in one day.

What makes you feel like you accomplished a ton that day?

When I left the house tonight – he offered to let me get out and get some writing done – he was prepping the kitchen. Even just one sinkful of dishes, or enough to fill the drying rack helps. We’ve been fighting a huge dirty dish battle recently and we haven’t yet caught up.

Did I just admit that?

It’s tough when you have a tiny kitchen, no dishwasher, and limited counter space. If we kept up on our dishes, we’d actually have more space. But after working and kid-wrangling, sometimes I’m just too tired after dinner to immediately do dishes. Sometimes? Make that much of the time.

I’m working on that, trying to do better.

Helpful hands go a long way towards hitting that goal. And I am grateful.