How many evening meals have I’ve prepared over the course of my sixty years? Enough to make me weary of the daily dance of preparing a meal at a time of day when I’d like to be doing nothing.
It starts in the morning when I decide what I’ll make, check ingredients on hand, and maybe soak beans. (Having the Instant Pot eliminates the need for an all-day soak, but I still need to allow time to cook the beans. Also, I’m not making the best use of the Instant Pot because I’ve had little motivation to play with it. See above for the reason why.)
One of the best things about being in Mexico that there was no need to either think about, or prepare, food. Since we got home, I’ve struggled to find inspiration and motivation to get back in the routine of it.
I cook from scratch, and prefer to make big meals so there’s enough for a couple of nights and, perhaps, a serving or two to tuck away in the freezer for the increasingly frequent nights when I don’t want to cook. I’ve appreciated my freezer stash lately, and it’s in need of restocking.
We went out for lunch yesterday day and, using the excuse of having had a large midday meal, I felt little guilt at pulling homemade waffles out of the freezer for the evening meal. (Surely there must be a place for Canadian maple syrup on the new Canada Food Guide.)
This morning the dance begins anew.
Help a girl out. Do you prepare an evening meal every day? How do you deal with the daily dance? What quick go-tos are in your arsenal of ideas?
In this season in my life my husband prepares almost all the meals. He is retired and at home while I still work outside the house. There are certain meals that are “mine”, Birthday pasta and proscuetto wrapped chicken with pesto sauce are two examples. We go through spurts where we get tired of the same things and we go searching. I need to remember to go back into the old school cookbooks for recipes I have forgotten!
What a blessing your husband is, Tammy! It can be refreshing to pull old recipes out of “retirement” and give them another run for sure. An interesting thing here, is that last summer I decided to try some childhood favourite foods and found I didn’t enjoy them anywhere near as much as I once did. Tastes change, I suppose!
I prepare one meal a day, usually for lunch because I often make an entree salad for supper. My food scavenging usually starts by looking in the freezer. Unfortunately I don’t have home canned goods on the shelf like you.
I’m tired of cooking too after all these years. Though sometimes it’s a welcome change from the computer screen, I wouldn’t mind having a chef. That won’t happen on our budget, but hubby often makes at least one meal a week. Great topic, Linda!
Something quick and easy: Tomato basil soup with toasted cheese sandwiches 🙂