Cooking Is NOT My Favorite

I’m going to guess that if you didn’t like to cook 👩‍🍳 at home before, not a whole has changed

I realize I’m in the smaller category of people who like to cook. I really do enjoy being in my kitchen and figuring out how different flavors will come together, I enjoy learning how o cook new things. But I know not everyone is that way, nor does everyone enjoy meal prepping.

But I’m also guessing that as a result, you’re on the constant journey of finding healthy things to feed your family so you feel like you’re giving them your best in keeping them healthy. 

I also know you don’t need that extra stress in figuring out what to feed your family when shit just got exponentially more stressful.

Here’s my newest creation for all the adults who hate to cook but are currently forced into it. Grab it and take the thinking out of what you’re going to make for dinner.

Slow Cooker Recipes for the Mama Who Hates to Cook

$2.99

The Snack that Keeps the Hangries Away

By Wednesday, I’m so exhausted and overwhelmed, that buying snack in the Starbucks drive through line seems way easier on my brain than actually making stuff.

When did life get so chaotic? I feel like every day is so jam packed with activists, that it’s super easy to forget about things like making sure you have healthy snack options. Well not forget per se, but definitely neglect prepping things for yourself. 

Don’t even get me started on how irritated it makes me when we’re out, we have nothing with us and we’re starving and then I’m spending a shit load of money on super inflated snack prices when I could’ve just grabbed things from home HAD I been prepared. 

But I know that I can have the tendency to let this part of meal prepping go, so I know I need to have healthy options ready to go.

This recipe came from me wanting something that was everything I would need for a well rounded snack in a single Tupperware container. 

It also came from me learning about how awesome Chia seeds are and wanting to figure out a way to incorporate them into my diet more. 

Chia seeds are an awesome source of Omega-3 fatty acids (amongst other things) which means they help improve sleep! I’m always down for a good night’s sleep after all!

They also help improve the amount of healthy cholesterol your body has, which I know might not be a primary concern but it’s definitely a longevity concern.  

The other thing I dig about this recipe is the versatility of it. Because I can mix in PB, flax seed, different flavors of yogurt or even top it with fresh fruit and it’s always delicious. 

Fair warning though, the chia seeds expand in liquid and over time so those little tough seeds are going to get a little plump as the week goes on!

My Heart Pitter Pattered

Literally my heart pitter pattered when I saw this amazing Autumn Harvest sauce was back at Trader Joe’s. I found this one last year on the recommendation of my best friend and ended up buying that shit in bulk because it was so damn delicious and I knew as a seasonal item, it would be gone SO fast.

Obviously I’m buying in up in bulk again not only so I can make the recipe I’ve linked into this blog but also because I would be an idiot to just leave it on the store shelf. 

While I stock my cart, I have to tell you how I knew this recipe would be delicious before I even ate it.

San Diego gets Indian summers. Pretty much the summer is actually fairly mild and our hot weather doesn’t set in until everyone is knee deep in fall with leaves changes. We’ve had Thanksgivings of over 100 degrees. I don’t understand it, but it’s been that way since I’ve lived here.

Hot weather = nature coming into my backyard. Apparently. And I’m not here for it. But I know this time of year means scorpions (yes I did say that), spiders, mice, snakes, and all the things I would rather NOT see. I love nature. From behind a glass window where it can’t get to me (I blame too much time “camping” in the Army for that one).

I come home one day and notice a weird looking stick in my backyard and think hey that’s weird, wtf is that? Of course I go check it out thankfully without the puppies running after me, and discover it’s NOT a stick but a baby rattlesnake. Sunning itself. In my fucking yard. 

Yes I screamed. I own it. I totally screamed.

Then I called every single professional entity I could think of, went to every single neighbor and called my mom (because duh that’s who I always call in a crisis) before I resigned myself to knowing I was going to have to call the fire department for snake removal. Because there was NO way I was going after that thing myself.

Why my hesitation in calling the fire department? When you have a sibling who works as a first responder, you know that you don’t ever want to be that person who calls 9-1-1 for something that you could’ve handled yourself. It’s embarrassing. AF. Kinda like the time I got stuck in an elevator in between floors and had to call the fire department to get me out but that’s a story for another blog.

Side note: I’m walking distance from the fire station. I don’t know how that’s relevant but it seems relevant.

Cut back to me lamenting about calling the fire department and then waiting for them to show up and successfully remove said snake. They did what they needed to do, crisis averted. They even showed Grace the snake (no thanks from me), let her climb around in the truck and gave her all kinds of swag (shout out to Station 57 who always hooks it up and is awesome with the kids).

On the way out, every single one of them commented on how whatever I was cooking sounded amazing and they wanted to know what it was and if it was going to be done soon so they could give it a try. If you don’t know, firefighters are fantastic cooks so I knew this one would be a total keeper.

Check it out for yourself though and let me know.

My Top 5 Dinner Recipes for the Days When I Feel Overwhelmed and Unfocused

I remember before I had Grace, other moms telling me that it had been DAYS since they washed their hair. DAYS. Not because they didn’t want to, but because they truly didn’t have the time. That laundry wasn’t even getting folded, it was going onto a chair, just to get worn and then go immediately back into the hamper.

In all transparency, my gut reaction thought to that was oh fuck this is going to suck and suck hard. And it did. No one can ever fully comprehend the sheer exhaustion a new parent goes through unless they’ve been in that position before. I think that reason is one of the many reasons is why there’s the “Parent Club”. There’s just no words to accurately convey to another being the level of tired you feel and how you feel like that it will never go away.

I remember sitting in an exhausted haze, looking into my kitchen, knowing I needed to get up and cook dinner but wishing that it would just magically appear without me having to get up or lift a finger.

Alas, Elon Musk has yet to invent that technology SO in the interim we’re forced to have a fall back. My fall back are the recipes that I know from heart, that take little to no effort and that are tried, tested and true in my household. Because there’s nothing worse that having that level of exhaustion, power through cooking dinner, only to have someone complain about what they’re eating.

I’m going to go a step further, because I know how overwhelmed you are, and I’m going to do the work for you and give you the recipes I still use when the thought of recruiting more brainpower for cooking is totally outside of the realm of possibility.