Chef Crystal

Ok, so those of you who know me at all know that this title is FAR from the truth.  I have never really enjoyed cooking.  I know many people and several of my family members that LOVE cooking and do an awesome job with creativity for every meal.  I, on the other hand, have struggled getting the motivation to get a meal on the table.  I think the main reason for this distaste (no pun intended…….or was it? Ha!) for cooking comes from my absolute hatred of grocery shopping.  Every time I step into a grocery store I feel overwhelmed with all the choices.  I usually go in without a plan and try to think of what foods to get in order to make a meal and end up walking out with a couple frozen pizzas, milk and cereal.  Yes I know, not exactly the healthiest options.   

Before becoming pregnant I was beginning to get in the hang of the cooking business.  The reason for my motivation you ask?  MONEY!  Yep, that simple, I went through Mark and I’s budget over a year ago and was overwhelmed by the cost of lunches and dinners.  I told Mark that we were going to start planning our meals and stop eating out so much.  So I went to town looking up easy to do recipes and planning out a grocery list.   Every week we would take a trip to the grocery store and things were working out pretty good.  So what happened you ask?  Well, my first trimester happened…no energy and no foods that sounded remotely worth eating.  I spent the entire first trimester on the couch after work; sleeping.  So we fell back into our frozen pizzas, milk and cereal routine.  In fact this routine continued for almost the entire 9 months I was pregnant.  We would mix it up every once in awhile but I seriously think Tombstone’s profit went up when I was pregnant. ;-)

Now that Eli is around, my free time has dwindled tremendously.  I was beginning to think that Mark and I would live off frozen pizzas for the rest of our lives!!  But, I am really trying to eat healthier and get back into the shape I was in before getting pregnant.  And since I am breast feeding, I really need to focus on my food intake.  I was spoiled the first several weeks after Eli was born due to all the food my mother-in-law provided and my Aunt Kellee cooked while we were on vacation.  I am now on my own and I need to make a change.  My grandma Taylor subscribed me to Healthy Cooking magazine a couple years ago and I have saved every copy in the cupboard.  I decided I was going to grab one down and pick out a few meals to cook this week.  Since the meals are always planned for about 4 to 6 people, Mark and I always have plenty of leftovers for either lunch or dinner the next day as well.  So I am testing out this method this week to see how it goes.

On Sunday I picked out 3 meals (this should last for 5 meals this week due to the leftovers we will have).  I sat down at my laptop while Eli napped and wrote out a grocery list and put it in order from where I would find it in the grocery store.  Since this trip to the store would be with Eli in tow, I needed to make it as efficient as possible.  Mark and I have been known to make a grocery list without considering this before and have taken over 2 hours just picking everything up!  That obviously was not going to work considering Eli eats every 2 hours.  So after Eli woke up from his nap and nursed we piled in the car and headed to Kroger.  I brought along our front facing baby carrier and strapped Eli onto my chest when we arrived at Kroger.  With list in hand, Mark and I darted around the grocery store and 45 minutes later we were strapping Eli’s happy little self back into his car seat.  It was a very successful grocery run and when I got back I made the enchilada casserole I had picked out.  So I can check that off this list….meal one= successful!  I should have taken a picture, it was a beautifully delicious looking casserole…next time I guess.  Only time will tell whether this meal planning will continue…more on that later. 

On to Eli news….Eli has really started developing his neck muscles and can hold his head up quite well now.  While on our Kroger run we saw they were selling the Bumbo Seat and decided to pick one up and see how well he did.  We plopped it on the kitchen table and sat him in it while we ate dinner.  It worked out perfect…he got to sit with us without fussing which meant that Mark and I got to eat dinner at the same time.  This, although it sounds trivial, was an amazing accomplishment.  He looks like such a big boy sitting up on his own like that.  Here are a couple videos I took.  (Please ignore my annoying voice in the background, try to just focus on the baby..ha!   The second video of Eli in his Bumbo chair was right before Mark came home from the gym.  The picture immediately following is the big smile Eli gave Mark as soon as he walked in!