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.

Hoo boy, it’s going to be a crazy week. Our place is tiny, as I’ve mentioned numerous times. So we have to clear out the dining room and see if we can bring up the bigger dining table from downstairs. And I just realized that I don’t even have a tablecloth to cover the old, scratched surface of the table (it was my parents’ table when they got married, and it has two leaves to expand the table quite nicely).

And I need to clean. And vacuum. And make up a menu. And cook. And hubby may have to work Wednesday and even Thursday. We’re not sure yet.

I’m going to work ahead as much as I can. I’ll cook the sweet potatoes a day ahead and just reheat them. I could probably do the same with the mashed potatoes (but I love them fresh). I’ll be heating the dressing in the crock pot, so that’s not a huge deal. Tonight I have a chicken carcass in the crock pot to make broth, which I’ll use in the dressing and gravy.

Rather than make rolls, we’re just going to get some heat and serve. I need to do that tomorrow. And figure out where we’ll get enough chairs. And get some more milk. We have plenty of butter.

Whew. This is why I’ve never had Thanksgiving meal at my place. Did I mention I need to clean? Looks like the next several nights will be filled with rearranging, deep cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, and trying to see if any of our friends have some chairs we can borrow.

It’s going to be a long, crazy week. But it will be so nice to have the family together. We haven’t done that in a while.

I’ll try not to stress too much. No one expects it to be perfect. They’ve all been over so they know our house is crazy. And crowded. But I think we can do it. Hubby helps, so at least it doesn’t all fall on my head. He’ll be right in there with me.

How’s your week shaping up?

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

I know that my mom always did this. She kept a shopping list in a drawer in the kitchen. Every time we used the last of an item (preferably next-to-last), or opened the last box of something, it went on the list. There was rarely a time where she made her shopping list right before we headed to town (we lived out in the country). It was already made for her over the course of the week.

So I’m not sure if other families do this or not (I’m sure plenty do), but it really has worked for us. And recently, instead of just jotting down an item, I tend to put it under the store where I can find it. So bulk items go under Costco or Smart & Final, while diapers and other things under Target, and smaller grocery items under Vons/ Henry’s, or wherever else we’ll go that week.

By dividing my list up this way, I can concentrate on finding the items I need at that store, instead of searching all over the list and maybe forgetting something at one of the stores. The categories really help me.

Now if only I could list my items by aisle at the grocery store, I’d really be ready to shop. But the store most convenient to us is also the most disorganized (you can read about my utter dislike of that store here) and there’s no way I’m going to try and categorize that store by aisle. I’d rather eat dirt. Or black licorice.

I miss the days when stores would publish a blank shopping list by aisle so you could just check things off that you needed. But that’s a post for another day. Right now I’m just working on getting my grocery shopping as organized as possible. And keeping a running list of what we need goes a long way towards getting me there. What about you? What helps you organize your grocery shopping?

image: sxc.hu

It’s too easy to grab an impulse purchase or two. Or ten. Unless you have a list that you stick to. And we’re trying to start doing that. Because if we don’t, we’ll wind up doing what we did just last week: go to the store, get a few items we needed, a few we didn’t, and forget some things we actually needed because we didn’t consult the list.

And since we forgot some things, we’ll have to make another trip at some point. Wasted gas, wasted time, wasted money. We’re trying to be more frugal now that I’m working from home. We experienced a major drop in income when I left my previous job, so times are tight. Like everyone else, we need to save money.

Impulse buys do not help. So I’m working on making lists each time I remember something we’ll need, or we get close to running out of something. I keep that list in my purse so if I have time to swing by the store, I at least know what we need to get.

Let’s face it – we moms have to remember so many things. I still have that fog of new motherhood hanging over my brain. (Does that ever go away, or does it just get worse the more kids you have?) I can’t rely on my memory alone to make sure we get all that we need at the store.

I’m working on cutting out those impulse purchases by getting organized and using a list. What are you doing to cut out unnecessary expenses?

[image: stock.xchng]

And really, I should keep an eye out for gifts whenever there’s a sale and put it away for special occasions. It’s a little harder when you have extremely limited space, but I think I can make it work.

My son is so young that I honestly don’t think it matters whether we get him anything. Maybe we’ll just wrap some boxes for him to open. He likes to play with boxes more than the items inside anyway.

We don’t really buy a lot of gifts for other family members. It’s mostly for the kids. So we’ll buy a few small items for the son, the daughter, and the nieces. But that’s about it. We don’t see the need to go overboard with tons of gifts. It’s more important for us to spend time with family and friends.

So our shopping won’t be huge, and maybe we’ll even get it done early. And on a budget if we can. One step at a time. What about you? Are you going big? Cutting back this year? Planning on getting it done early?

So instead of a strict list where we eat this on Monday and that on Tuesday, we make a list of dishes that we’d like to eat during the week. I make my grocery list from that. And then we have everything on hand that we need to fix meals, which saves last minute — and expensive — trips to the grocery store.

If we’re sick of chicken, we can switch to beef or fish that night. If we’ve already had roast beef two nights in a row, we can pull out something else. I’m already finding that just having a general list of meals in mind for the week helps a LOT. I’m less likely to cast around for a meal and settle on something unhealthy (like ice cream and candy bars for dinner. Ahem.).

I’ve also found that having meals (somewhat) planned out is actually easier on me. If I know in advance what we’re going to eat, I can plan ahead. Have things out of the freezer and thawed. That has been my downfall so many times. I fail to plan and then we have nothing thawed. So we eat out, order in, or do something else that’s detrimental to our budget and health.

I really don’t want to set my son up with bad eating habits.

So this week, I’m cooking a roast. It’s already in the crockpot with some onions and beef broth. Later on I’ll add some more liquid with some potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms. We can use the leftovers in soups, sandwiches, and pasta. And later on today I’m going to roast a couple of chickens in the oven, then take all of the meat off the bones to use in a variety of dishes this week. Shredded chicken is pretty versatile and SO easy to throw in a dish when it’s already cooked.

Also, I’ll take the chicken bones and make stock to use for soups later in the week, too. Since I bought some celery and carrots yesterday, I’ll throw some of them, some garlic, and half an onion in with the bones when I make the stock. Homemade stock is much tastier and better for you anyway — you know EXACTLY what goes into it.

So reading Steph’s book has been a huge help. I can follow her recipes exactly or use them as a stepping off point. Having a basic recipe, though, really helps me. I don’t have to come up with something off the top of my head, yet I’m free to tweak it to suit our family. And I love that.

When I was younger, I stuck to recipes exactly, not understanding how to tweak them. But over the years, with lots of practice and experimentation (my hubby has been a huge help in that area – without him I’m not sure I’d know how to improvise as well) I have found that I know what will work and what won’t. What I can substitute or add. And I love it. It makes me feel good when I experiment and it works. It’s so much fun!

But I still hate the dishes that result. Oh well, you can’t win them all, right? And maybe I won’t hate dishes so much once we get our own place with a dishwasher. Maybe.

Photo credit: grafixar from morguefile.com

Disclosure: I requested a review copy of the book because Steph is my friend and I wanted to take a look at the recipes and post about it. I receive no compensation for doing so. A more thorough review of the book is coming later, after I have a chance to cook a few more recipes. But so far, so good.