So much has happened in the last week. Its hard to keep track of everything that has happened. After my melt down the last few weeks, I finally started feeling better. To make me feel even better, my girl Drea decided to come down from Richmond for the night. I got to spend Valentine's Day with her shopping and hanging out. It felt awesome to just hang out with her. I miss her being around all the time. She's such a wonderful person.
I've also been proud of myself because I'm getting back into my couponing. I started this awhile ago, but started to slack a little bit. I've gotten myself back on track and I've even started teaching my sis-in-law. I reorganized my kitchen to work best for me. When you are dizzy and everything already doesn't make sense, it feels good to go into at least one room that is exactly how you want it. Everything has its own place. I make sure that every night after dinner I load the dishwasher and start it at least by the next morning. When I get tired or dizzy from standing, I sit down in a chair or on a stool.
I've posted before about my items that I use for cutting safely. You can read it here: Kitchen Tools
During my emotional two weeks, I wasn't able to do much around my house. I felt miserable, so I took action. I started researching. I was online (when I could be), and started looking at different cookbooks. Reading is still a little difficult for me. It all depends on the print and style of type, but I'm getting better at it. Cookbooks are easy to read because they are short excerpts.
I started collecting recipes that sounded easy and fast to do. For the last week I had a new recipe that my family tried each day. I only had one night that was a recipe that I've done before. but its been a long time since I've made it. I also wanted to start trying new things for my kids. My 7 year old son has decided that if its not Mac & Cheese, chicken nuggets, or something along those lines, he doesn't like it. Its been very frustrating. With the whole family trying new things, he sees that mom & dad are trying new stuff too. We sit down together, eat and then vote if the recipe is a repeat. My husband has liked every meal I've found, there was only one that I didn't like. My daughter loved most of the meals, and my son of course hated most of the week.
So, here's how I did it:
I went through and found 12 meals. (We have a huge family dinner with my mom & siblings on Sundays and we all chip in for those meals).
I made a list Monday-Saturday and listed each meal for a day, making sure that none of my meals repeated in the week (i.e. having pasta two nights in a row, or pork two nights in a row) I tried to find recipes that I already had some of the ingredients on hand. I then set up my grocery list and went out with my mom-in-law on Friday. ( I still can't drive so I have to ask for help with that). The key is staying very organized. I know this sounds like a concept so foreign to us MdDSers, but its paramount. You don't want to forget any ingredients and you don't want to have to go back out again.
Each night starting about 4:30 (unless its crock pot night, then I start at bout 9:30) I would start the process of cutting, knowing I would need to take breaks to complete it all. I do all my cutting and chopping at the same times since this takes me the longest. Like I said though, most of the recipes I found had very few ingredients and were so good!
Pinterest.com also has a lot of great recipes that are crock pot freezer meals, now I have not tried this yet, but I plan to. My idea is to get up with my mom, sister, husband, and kids and have everyone chip in and help cut up, measure and sort everything. We will then split up the meals with each other. I'm hoping to be able to do this with them in the next few weeks. Cooki9ng is my favorite activity to do. I love being in the kitchen and creating meals that are good for my family. It brings down my anxiety and calms me when I'm frustrated. Its my healing room.
All-in-all, I'm feeling better. I still have my horrible cold, but its not as bad as it once was. I'm still under a lot of stress, but in all of that, I feel like I'm aaccomplishing something, even if it is something small. At least I'm getting it done.
If you go to Pinterest.com and search for me, you can add me to your follow list. I have two boards, one is "Food" and the second is "Recipes We Love" I'm making sure to keep the ones we like and delete the ones we didn't like. I'm also going to start a board for MdDS tips that I find, but I haven't started that yet, that will be my goal by the end of the week.
I hope you enjoy!
Until next time!
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