Extreme Cooking

For me, anyway.

I went from about to 0 to 60 in the cooking department over the past 4 months. Most of you who know me know that I didn't really have cooking (or baking) on my top priority list to master, much less even know HOW to do it.

What was the POINT of cooking? I thought. Who cares? Why do people thrive on creating something that will be gone in a half an hour and leave 20 dishes to clean?

Isaac and I used to eat out a LOT. We had the time and more money to do so before Levi was born.

When I "tried" to cook I made spaghetti or my "specialty" salad (I love salads) or, frankly, popped in a frozen Digiorno. Can we say, not domesticated AT ALL? Yes. We can.

I really wasn't. Every bone in my body screamed Bonefish or Chipotle, or dinner-at-someone-else's-house.

I wanted to like cooking and preparing meals desperately. But I just didn't. And as much as I tried, it wasn't happening.

So, years into our marriage I faced the reality of it - that I just wasn't made to do it. That I didn't have a yearning to do it, and that I wasn't good at it.

When Levi started eating solids, I think a switch went off.

I realized that I have another mouth to feed besides Isaac and my own. Someone else's health and nutritional intake was dependent on me. Bueler?

No more Digiornos here.

When my sister told me about allrecipes.com and how she gets daily emails from them with new recipes, I decided to sign up. Maybe it would help?

It did, and has now opened up a whole new world and respect for cooking for me.

I did not realize how easy planning meals was. How easy cooking itself was. And how simple it was to find new things. That's a lot of what I struggled with!

Getting a new recipe every days shows me tons of new things - and it gives me ample ideas to choose from. I don't have to use them all, and I don't. I pick what I like. And it's actually encouraged me to check out other sites and things people pin on pinterest, too!

Cooking is actually quite easy now. It definitely can be time consuming if you have a challenging recipe, but if you plan, it's so simple. It's cheaper than eating out, and gives you leftovers so you don't have to cook EVERY night.

I love cooking. I never thought I'd say that, but I do. I love being a mom to Levi, being home at night with him and both of us trying my new recipes I've made. It's kind of become our ritual and it's great.

My latest creation...apple crumble muffins. Compliments of Gimme Some Oven. They were pretty good!

Oh and PS - my sister has even taken recipes from ME now. Never EVER thought I'd see the lights of THAT day.