Back in the Kitchen Again

With all my new found time being a stay at home mom, I have found myself in kitchen a lot more. I have never loved cooking or eating exquisite food, but I do enjoy it most of the time as long as it doesn't involve a lot of work. I have also felt like an outsider in my family of culinary masters with my lack of enthusiasm for the kitchen, but maybe I'm finally catching up.

When I was working, my lack of time and enjoyment of cooking made for quick and easy meals. We had our usual meals - tacos, pasta, sloppy joes, take and bake pizza, hamburgers, and pancakes or eggs, with an occasional frozen casserole thrown in there. We ate pretty healthy with vegetables and fruit sides, but our meals were nothing to get too excited about. It has always been important to us to sit down as a family to eat, so we did, just with as little planning and preparation work as possible in order for me to keep my sanity.

Now that I am home during the day, I can start thinking about supper long before 5pm. I also have more time to grocery shop and therefore make better lists thinking about meals we would like to eat and trying new recipes.

The beginnings of apple butter.

A few culinary success I have had in the last few weeks have been a batch of apple butter, sweet potato chip, garlic honey pork chops, homemade pizza, and a few different bread recipes.

Fried sweet potato chips with a touch of salt - Rebecca's favorite!

Pork chops with a garlic honey glaze.

Apple butter almost ready to go in jars.

 I'm so happy that I am enjoying working in the kitchen more now that I have more time. I recently read an article online about whether or not family dinners were an unrealistic expectation for moms. I didn't agree with much in the article, but for me the take home message was that we/families are just much too busy in general. Did I resent having to make a decent meal for my family after working all day at my job, coming home exhausted, and just wanting to put my feet up? Most nights, yes. 

Staying at home with the kids is anything but glamorous, but for the health of our family life, I am so glad I am able to do it right now. And my families' stomachs are liking it too! 

He's just eating ice cream, but who could deny that smile any good food?!