Cooking My Ass Off

That’s fun — two posts now with the word “ass” in the title. I like where things are headed. It’s kind of like going to see a movie and realizing at the last moment that it is Rated R — all of a sudden the movie is looking even better.

It’s been so long since I posted — since November! I had grand plans for December and then Christmas sucked all my time up so I just plain took that month off and didn’t do anything. Blah.

THIS MONTH THOUGH. This month is big. HUGE. I am doing the vision board with Mariah…more on that later. But I am also doing a cooking challenge. Since my baby was born, about 17 months ago, I more or less stopped cooking. I didn’t intend to, it just happened. It was for a variety of reasons – one being the Thai place reopened and I must eat that for dinner at least once a week – I have no choice. The bigger reason though is that it just seems like a lot of work. Our weekday nights are short and busy enough – get off work , go pick up Harper, (sometime gym or run), bath, unpack diaper bag, repack diaper bag for the next day, wash bottles or other lunch paraphernalia, feed Harper, play with/quality time with Harper, attend to Bella’s needs (our dog), PJs, baby bedtime and then hopefully a bit of time for just Adam and I. Whew. I’m tired reading that list and I didn’t even mention dinner for the grownups. I don’t know how people with more than one kid manage. The mind boggles.

So those are my reasons. One more reason is that, until recently, Harper wasn’t ready to eat the things we were eating. So the family meal motivation wasn’t there yet.

I’m sure I can keep coming up with reasons/excuses if I try hard enough.

It’s not the cooking part that deters me, I like to cook, it’s the cleaning. I do not like to clean up after dinner and even more I do not like a messy kitchen. So that means I/we have no choice. I say we because my husband does help me. Although he does not have the adversity to a messy kitchen that I do. He is a more accepting person.

So, back to the challenge. I decided that I was going to cook twice a week for the month of January. Good challenge, right? Then I cooked something January 1st & 2nd and got a little cocky. I thought twice a week? Easy. How about 4 times a week? No, that is too limiting and near impossible during a busy week. So, I settled on 16 times a month. I am in over my head. It is January 21 and I have cooked 7 times. Yes, just 7 — 9 more to go. Yikes! I have  made two mistakes. The first is that I give in to my damn Thai cravings too easily. (Obviously I am obsessed). The second reason is that I make too much food for these meals which means we have leftovers that we need to eat up.

I’m heading into this weekend with four meals planned. We are having homemade pizza for lunch, tacos for dinner, breakfast burritos tomorrow morning and I think I am going to try something different for dinner tomorrow night. Krista was telling me about some a Chicken Enchilada Soup from her Pinterest board at work on Friday — I think I might try that one!

I will let you know how the weekend goes and will leave you with one of our go-to recipes. I love crock pot meals — especially in the winter and this is a good one. I buy the canned items in bulk so I always have them in our pantry and the fresh onion and carrots are staples in our house.

Chicken Taco Soup**
1 onion, diced
diced carrots
2 cans black beans
1 15 oz can whole kernel corn
2 10 oz cans petite diced tomatoes (or 2-3 fresh tomatoes, diced)
1 small can green chilies
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
12 oz chicken broth
1 pckg taco seasoning
3 whole, skinless, boneless chicken breasts*
Optional: shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream (for topping – we don’t use), tortilla chips (a must, in my opinion – I recommend Hint of Lime)

1. Place all ingredients, besides chicken, in cooker and stir to blend. Lay chicken on top of mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered. Cook on low for 5 hours.
2. Remove chicken from soup and shred. Stir shredded chicken back into soup and continue cooking for 2 hours. Serve with Hint of Lime chips and/or cheese/sour cream topping.

* This recipe is very forgiving. Sometimes I forget to thaw the chicken breasts and have to use frozen. Just cook on high for 5 hours instead of low. Also, if I start it before work it has cooked on low for 9 hours and been just fine.

** Recipe adapted from All Recipes and can be found here.

I need to blog more — I think one of these months will be a challenge to post every other day.

How about you? Do you cook often? Do you have kids? Do you find it hard to find the time?