#3 Cook 2 meals a week every week for 8 weeks.

I am not "a cook". Yes, I cook. And sometimes I cook well, but overall I would not consider myself "a cook" as some would. I don't have a natural-knack for it--which I think I am learning isn't so natural at all. I think a lot of it has to do with the way one is raised. Growing up, we ate at home a lot, but I didn't spend much time in the kitchen. Furthermore, what I did observe [that I recall] my parents cooking in the kitchen wasn't too much homemade-from-scratch kind of cooking. It seems as if Chris had more of this growing up, which is why I think he's more "natural" at cooking.

So with that lil' background, the reason for goal #3 to cook 2 meals a week every week for 8 weeks came from a desire to be a better cook and not rely on Chris to be the creative one--or simply the one in general--in the kitchen.


Week 1:
Ricardo Meet Luigi: We have a decent amount of free/dirt cheap boxed pasta in the pantry thanks to couponing and I like Mexican “stuff”, so in trying to come up with something to make I combined these two things. As a result we get Mexican Meet Italian or as I liked to label it, Ricardo Meet Luigi. [Chris has a habit of making up names for created foods, so I wanted to be a part of this as well. This habit is something he picked up in the Massie kitchen growing up as well!]
This "sauce" consisted of browned hamburger, a jar of salsa, and some whole kernel corn and then it topped a bed of spaghetti noodles. I also heated up some refried beans [I really like these, more than is healthy for our marriage ;)] and topped that with cheese. It was a little different, but good!

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Ricardo Meet Luigi with Refried Beans
It kind of looks like a pile of poorly digested vomit,
but I promise it didn't taste as such!!

 Beef & Vegetable Kabobs: For my second meal of the week, I made kabobs. I haphazardly marinated some beef chunks and then combined them with bell peppers, grape tomatoes, and potatoes before putting them on the grill. Something I learned this time around with kabobs, if you boil the potatoes a bit before grilling, they are much better [I like them softer rather than "crunchier".]


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I made enough to feed a small country in Africa...
Sadly we finished them off between the two three of us! :)

Week 2:
Taco Tostadas: Using the leftover meat from Ricardo Meet Luigi and adding a bit more meat to it, I generously spread refried beans and the meat concoction on tortilla shells, then after baking them for a bit in the oven, we topped them with our favorite taco toppings. My choice: lettuce, cheese, salsa, and of course sour cream! Although this was pretty much the only thing I ate that day, excluding popsicles, one was enough to fill up my belly. I thought for sure Chris would want two, but he actually only had one too. I always forget how easily one can load up homemade Mexican fixins', my burritos/tacos never close and I always have to end up eating them with a fork!

Chicken Roll-ups: Really this was something that I made as a part of my ten freezer meals prior to baby's arrival, but nevertheless, they were delish and I will be making them again. These were a shredded chicken, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese mixture with some salt, pepper, and other spices rolled up inside of crescent rolls.  Simple and yummy!


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Chicken Roll-ups, pre-baked.

Week 3:
Chicken Alfredo over Mini-Penne
Luckily for me, I didn't say that I had to made two meals from scratch per week for this goal. This meal was definitely not from scratch! As my dad would rebuttal, "but I scratched while I made it! Doesn't that count for something?!" :) Anyways, after softball this week, we had some Alfredo from a jar that we added some sliced chicken breast to. We also had some mix veggies and garlic toast. Pretty tasty. Pretty simple.

Chicken Salad on Hawaiian Rolls
I got this recipe from a friend after a baby shower because it was so tasty! It didn't turn out as well as at the shower, but it was quite good. We ate it with some fresh fruit so it made quite the refreshing summer lunch!

Week 4:
Pizza Pudgy Pies On our camping trip for Chris' belated birthday surprise, I made our supper of pizza pudgy pies. As previously mentioned on that post, all carbon aside, they were pretty tasty!

Green Beans & Fried Zucchini Also for the first time this week our garden is producing edible vegetation! Chris has been watching it like a hawk and happily reported that it was time to enjoy the fruits vegetables of his labor! For supper one night we had both green beans as well as zucchini. At Chris' house, the common way to cook up fresh green beans in the summer is to fry up some bacon, add the green beans and a can of mushrooms. The first time I heard this, I thought it sounded gross, but it was quite enjoyable! We didn't have any bacon and I'm not good at frying it anyways--I always burn it!--so we made due with other foods we already had. For this meal, I put a little EVOO in the pan with chopped up garlic and onion. Then I added a ton of green beans and some diced red peppers. It was quite good, and less artery clogging than the bacon... although I look forward to that meal as well this summer!

The fried zucchini was just how momma makes it, largely in part because that's the only way I know how to cook fresh zucchini! Sliced up, dipped in egg and battered with a simply flour/seasoned salt combination. Yum, yum! All in all this was delicious summer time veggie plate!



Week 5: Grilling out Not having cooked beef in awhile, we picked some up at the store tonight and decided to grill out for supper! The beef wasn't the highest quality and so it was a bit chewy--blech! The good part of the meal was some grilled veggies--sliced potatoes, mushrooms, minced garlic, a little onion, and some mesquite seasoning. Whenever making veggies, it looks like I make way too many, but we never fail to eat tem all. :)


Pita Pizzas Grilling again, because that means less dishes, we layered some veggies--onions, red peppers, and mushrooms on pizza sauce-covered pita bread. Topped with plenty of cheese and popped on the grill. Yum! Yum! 


Week 6: Sloppy Freds Everyone knows what Sloppy Joes are, but Chris' family eats what are called Sloppy Freds. [His family creatively makes up names for the foods they make.] Sloppy Freds are pretty much sloppy joes but without the red sauce-guck. In my family we'd call this "Maid-Rite meat", to each his own. Anyways for lunch I browned up a bit of burger, added some diced onions and peppers, stuffed it in a pita bread and topped with cheese. Chris liked it, success.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches & Cucumber Sandwiches Thursday of this week, I hosted a Lia Sophia party [which I really enjoyed and if anyone is interested in having one, let me know and I'll hook you up with a great consultant!], so I had to make some goodies. In addition to making someone ice cream sandwiches, we also chowed on Chicken Salad sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches. I don't like cucumber so I didn't try any of those, but mom said they were good. A couple asked for the Chicken Salad recipe, so it was well enjoyed as well.

Week 7: Ziti and Green Beans With spending time with our niece and nephew, of course we had to feed the kids! So as Chris chased them around the house, I prepared supper. We had mini-ziti [Sondra wasn't about to try the colorful vegetable enriched spaghetti I had originally planned on making!] with sauce doctored up with tomatoes from our garden. I also cooked the last batch of green beans from the garden for our veggie for the night. It was a little difficult explaining why the green beans looked "funny" to Sondra, but she eventually trusted us that they were edible!

Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs, and Sausages The next morning I actually made food again. We don't usually cook breakfast on a Friday morn, but I knew the kids would want to eat and so I used it as an excuse to have something more than just cereal or oatmeal. I was planning on making pancakes and sausages because I knew Sondra liked both and Stu, well he'd eat whatever! As I was cooking though, Sondra said, "Uh, can you make eggs for me?!" Of course! That's what I was planning on making all along. :S Really though it was no big deal and so I scrambled up some eggs for her. The four of us enjoyed breakfast--after more explanation as to why my scrambled eggs had brown stuff on them--before Chris had to head out to work.


Week 8: Spaghetti, Grilled Veggies & Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread I wasn't sure if I was going to count this meal since Chris technically made the spaghetti and the homemade white sauce to go with it, but I figured since I made half the meal [grilled veggies--zucchini and tomatoes from the garden and sliced potatoes] and dessert, it counts! It was a pretty simple meal and quite delicious. The chocolate chocolate chip zucchini bread was also my final recipe for another goal. So dessert was definitely a win-win.

Sweet Corn & Fried Zucchini The final meal for this goal was sweet corn and fried zucchini with sweet tea. Talk about a perfect summer meal! I cooked up 6 ears of corn and was planning on frying the rest of the zucchini from last night's grilling and bread. Little did I realize, Mister packed the zucchini for his lunch today--seriously who eats that raw?! :)--so there wasn't much left to cook tonight. That ended up being okay though since Chris only ate one ear of corn! I didn't even know that was possible! So I just had to be a piggy take one for the team and eat the remaining five ears. Only downfall: only having enough sour cream for the first and the last ear!

There you have it! I was intentionally in the kitchen at least two times a week making a meal for us! Goal accomplished!


Now I'm off to the doctor for some hopefully good news/progress! :)