Well, I'm not actually in the rain, but as I type it's raining outside.
It's fantastic.
This week is going so slow. Does anyone else feel that way?
Maybe it's because I haven't seen much of The Mister this week. I am missing him.
Maybe it's because sleep hasn't come so easily in the last couple of weeks, which makes the days feel longer.
Who knows, but whatever it is, I cannot believe it's only Wednesday!
I've been in a bloggers slump recently. Not sure why.
I hope it doesn't last as long as my cooking slump.
Have a mentioned I have been in a cooking slump? It's not a rut. Well, on second thought, it might be that too. I've been in this slump/rut for a long time now. Maybe even as long as a year.
Anyway, I used to be super organized about meal planning, and shopping, and yadda, yadda, yadda, and somehow, it just stopped.
Now I just buy a big bag of Costco frozen chicken and use the same four recipes over and over in a mix and match type style with carbs and veggies, and the same old salad. It's boring, but it's what's for dinner.
My kids have been complaining about this rut for a very long time now.
The Mister never complains about what I cook for the family. Even when it's not my best, he eats it happily.
That is a quality I love so much about him.
I could feed him saltines with peanut butter for the next twenty years and he'd be fine. He has many talents and abilities, but he can't cook, so he's grateful to eat what I fix.
When I was talking to him about my cooking rut he offered to get me a subscription to Cooking Light for some inspiration. He knows I love that magazine.
Have a mentioned lately how cute The Mister is?
Back to the rut. What do you do in a cooking rut? Do you ride it out and hope for better days? How do you find motivation to get back in the kitchen groove?
OK, that's enough thinking in the rain...
12 comments:
Good morning. I was in a cooking rut too, at the beginning of the summer. We went on vacation for 2 1/2 weeks and by the end, I was ready to come home to MY kitchen and cook! It lasted about a week. I do read lots of recipe books and magazines to try and get inspired. I love Cooking Light too.
Hope your slump ends soon...althought saltines and PB would be a BIG hit at my house.
Oh, yes! I get in cooking ruts all the time. I feel like I make the same things over and over and, I get so sick of them. But, I eventually stumble across a new recipe or two and that sort of jolts me of it.
Don't know if your family likes Mexican, but this recipe for Mexican Lasagna is "madeover" to be healthy and it's delicious. The best part is that it lasts a few days, so you could probably get two dinners out of it. Here's the link if you're interested: http://lifewiththree.blogspot.com/2008/04/whats-for-dinner-this-week_21.html
When this happens to me it's almost always a sign that something I was doing wasn't working - maybe I was taking things to seriously and stressing myself out with the menu or perhaps I was planning to make to many high-maintenance meals or perhaps I haven't been taking the time to plan. Either way, it almost always means that I need to re-think what I've been doing.
One of the things that helps me is just to ask the kids to list two things that they would like to eat in the next month (I plan my menu by the month.), and I don't take pizza or nuggets as an answer. They almost always surprise me with their requests!
The other thing I do is to promise myself that I will try one new recipe a week. It's a do-able goal for me.
OH WOW--cooking slump??? At my house it's more like a cooking NOTHING! I left slump a long time ago--first of all, in our tiny little Love Nest it gets RIDICULOUSLY hot just to cook a frozen pizza for 15 minutes!! Secondly, after cooking same old same old for a while, AT the request of my family I try new things and they don't like them...we have eaten sandwiches, cereal, sloppy joes, ANYTHING to not have to turn on the oven but I just can't stomach ANOTHER night of chicken and rice casserole or spaghetti (unless my aunt makes it)...The girls at church and I were just talking about doing a recipe swap...maybe we could figure out how to do a bloggy one??? Get some fresh ideas but simple enough for everyone to cook...I sure know I could use something to get things "cooking" again ;) Oh, one of my family faves, is breakfast for dinner...(not just cereal, either) biscuits, gravy, eggs, etc...
Going on vacation and eating out for a week does it for me every time. I bet that come September, after you've been without a kitchen of your own for a bit during your travels, you'll be READY to whip something up in your own kitchen!
Boy, do I know that feeling. In the past, I've made lists of all the meals I regularly make and it always turns out to be more than I thought. Then I always have a list to pick from. I like the Taste of Home magazines. They seem to have a lot of 'do-able, real-life, easy, unpretentious' recipes.
Hi Kellie-
First of all, I'm so jealous that you're thinking in the rain, I'm thinking in the heat (the thermostat's at 80 and I can barely stand it!). I understand the cooking slump! I'm still doing the Body for Life thing which has its own cookbook so I've pretty much just been making one thing after another from that (seems like we've been eating a lot of ground turkey lately) but outside of BFL I love allrecipes.com Lots of great recipes that other people have rated and it even creates your shopping list for you!
Also, I just wanted to say how much I love it when you talk about your husband-- you guys must be so cute together!
I was in a huge cooking rut since we moved to the house we live in now (almost 2 years ago). My kitchen is much smaller and when everyone crowds in there I feel like I am losing my mind - so I just got sick and tired of cooking. However, just this past month I did something my friend has been telling me about for months called once-a-month cooking. I googled recipes (which forced me to try new ones), took all day one day to go to the grocery store, and then the next day spent ALL DAY cooking and put everything in my freezer. It really kicked me hard and I was exhausted by the day's end, wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into. However, I LOVE it!!! It is wonderful pulling out a frozen meal, sticking it in the oven and then having dinner ready. It has also helped us cut back on our eating out. Maybe this would help you get out of the cooking rut!
You can do it! You can get out of these slumps. You have a great blog that I keep coming back to read more! Hope your today is better than yesterday.
I have been in a rut all summer. It gets too hot here in CA to make alot of our favorite dishes and we've been living mostly on different types of sandwiches and wraps. Mexican food is a favorite and we find different ways to make that too, taquitos, burritos, quesadillas, etc...
Hoping to get back into some real cooking after summer.
Oh, and btw...my hubby is exactly like yours. He'll eat anything I make... what a saint!
I go through phases in the kitchen. Sometimes I am into new recipes and lavish meals, but then I tire of spending so much time in the kitchen and avoid it as much as possible. We just spent 10 days on vacation, including 5 days at Disney World. By our last night in the park, when my husband bought popcorn and cotton candy and said, "Alright, kids, this is supper," I was ready to be home cooking vegetables! I'm feeling more inspired now, but we'll see how long this lasts!
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