Cooking

I have been cooking a lot lately. I took a cooking class last month about how to cook chinese food and learn to make sweet and sour chicken and beef broccoli... both were quick and easy! I couldn't believe it. That kind of spurred me to look into cooking more things from scratch and I have been loving it. I have enjoyed cooking for a while, but I get stuck in ruts and tend to cook the same few meals. I am taking another cooking class tomorrow about casseroles, and I can't wait to see what I learn. I am really interested in meals that I can make in large portions and freeze part of them for later. That way, on nights that I have to teach, I can still "cook" and have dinner with Weston and Sawyer, without the stress of actually having to cook and eat and get things together. (While I do enjoy cooking, sometimes cooking with a toddler in the kitchen is a bit stressful. He has realized it is fun to hang on and almost open the stove and open even the high drawers in the kitchen now, so he is dangerous!)

A few websites I really enjoy for recipes and such are allrecipes.com and foodgawker.com.

For Sawyer's birthday, I made quite a few things from scratch.  I made marinara sauce for the dog bone breadsticks, onion dip, taco dip, and cookies. (I linked to the recipes I got online, the others were my own) All were a hit, and were gobbled up. In total, I spent probably 2 hours cooking, and most of that time was on the cookies! The dips and sauces took probably 30 mins total. Delicious, quick, and easy. My favorite things with cooking!

Another favorite meal recently is spinach lasagna roll-ups. These are a favorite of everyone in the house, especially Sawyer.  I never have frozen spinach (it never really occurred to me that they made frozen spinach until I started reading more recipes....) so I just cook down a bunch in the skillet before I start. It might not be the "right" amount, but it works! I love spinach... I can get it at Costco (and it is organic), it is inexpensive, and very good for you. Again, three things I love when cooking!

I will try to blog about more things that I make as it happens.... I love hearing what others are having for dinner!