Food Rut

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I am in a horrible dinner rut. When I plan our weekly dinners on Sundays, all my creativity seems to leave my body.  It doesn't matter that I have a shelf full of cookbooks, that I am addicted to Pinterest, or that I watch several different Food Network shows.  All I can think of are turkey burgers, spaghetti, tacos, stir fry, pancakes.  Almost every single week.   Even Peyton is eating more interestingly than the rest of us are with her crazy combinations of zucchini and bananas!  I think it's to the point where my family might mutiny.

So I'm issuing myself a challenge: for the next month, no staples.  No spaghetti with marinara.  No burgers.  No pizza with chicken sausage, bell peppers, and onions.  I love to cook, but I'm bored with my cooking.  Here's how it will work:  each Sunday I will pull 6 recipes out of my recipe box, which is full of recipes I've clipped from places like Everyday Food, Penzey's Spices, and my mom's own recipes.  My one off day is Sundays, because our meals are often rushed after church (having a toddler means it's more important to just get something on the table rather than a full Sunday supper) and our evenings are as well with Awana programs.  I will have one veto each week that I can exchange once for another recipe box card, and a "too-difficult-to-make-gluten-free" exchange as well.

So far so good.  It's Wednesday and we've had chicken satay and penne with mozarella and two tomatoes.  It's been 3 years since I've made that pasta dish.  And they've both been delicious and fun to make.  On deck for the rest of the week are Pan-Roasted Chicken with Spinach and Potatoes and Grilled Pizza with Cheesy Core, Fresh Tomatoes, and Basil.  There may definitely be some doosies in this experiment (I could pull a recipe from my "We should eat more tofu" phase), but maybe bad is better than boring.  At least I'll get to weed down my recipe box.

Comments

  1. CarolSeptember 25, 2013 at 8:24 PM

    Go for it, sweetie :) Think my rut started back in 1989 with 3 little ones and has worked it's way up to dad now cooking, a la microwave frozen goodies. Although he did grill hamburgers last week and baked sweet potato fries! Can I come to your house? I love you! Mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. CarolSeptember 25, 2013 at 8:33 PM

    I love your writing :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 26, 2013 at 5:28 AM

    I SOOOOO understand the sentiment. I love to cook, but I am so bored with my cooking and have been trying new recipes. Maybe we should exchange some of our staples... they would be new recipes to the other family.

    ReplyDelete

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