Wednesday, May 07, 2008

This Just In: It Is Possible to Cook Actual Food At Home!



After many years of take-out, delivery, and the always convenient burrito, I decided a couple of weeks ago to start cooking my own dinners. I don't have an aversion to cooking, and I'm actually pretty good at it, but too often I'd be faced with a grocery store full of food and have absolutely no idea what to cook for dinner, and I'd inevitably leave with a frozen pizza or some Lean Cuisines. It finally came to me that I shouldn't be walking into that store with no ideas, and instead enter the store knowing full well what I want to make.

But where to get those ideas? Well, when Martha Stewart Kids magazine went out of business they replaced my subscription to that with a subscription to Everyday Food, and those issues have been piling up for two years. I decided to just go through them, and whenever I found something I'd like to make, I flagged it. I then had a stack of magazines flagged, and all I had to do was pick a week's meals. Then I made a shopping list specific to those recipes, and voila! One trip to the store and I had a refrigerator full of food ready to be cooked each night. Also, cooking dinner is a lot easier when you have a recipe to follow. Who knew?

Here's what I've made this week:

Monday - Pork loin over sauteed spinach with an orange honey mustard vinaigrette.
Tuesday - Penne with shrimp, asparagus, feta, olive oil, and lemon juice.
Wednesday - Salmon with zucchini and shallots en papillote. (Yes, I actually made something en papillote. And it was really easy!)

Tomorrow I'm having a chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto with roasted green beans, and then Friday the rest of the prosciutto will go into a pasta with peas and leeks.

Also, currently chilling in the fridge are some low-fat semi-sweet chocolate panna cottas.

Cooking. How novel!

2 comments:

Becky G. said...

As someone who does have an aversion to cooking (and is not so good at it), this is inspiring. Still, I'd rather just pass this impressive menu along to someone else to make for me. Sigh.

Rain said...

Practice--and the resulting food poisoning--makes perfect, my friend!