Not another resolution....

Yep my resolutions often end up in the trash, they are great thoughts in my head that never really come to life. Kind of like dreams, the sad part is most are very attainable with just a bit of commitment. So as I was looking back at all the failed attempts at various resolutions I realized that was doing me no good, you can view the mistakes but dwelling on them does not fix them. So this year I did not make any resolutions….well actually I was going to but then Balance Bar invited me to present a fun giveaway and share this awesome page with you. So I took the Balance Bar Pledge because after reading that it kind of set me free to find the best me, she is in there just been tucked away and full of fear and excuses.

I have taken a few baby steps these past two weeks, I went back to following Flylady, love her, we will talk more about her another time, anyway, she sets up a no fail plan if you just take baby steps and because of that I have managed to cook at home every night since January 1st and even answer that dreaded question, “what’s for dinner” yea I hated that question mostly because I knew there should be an answer but my utter disorganization would not allow me to know. =) So now I know because quite simply I make a menu and I mean a no fuss bare bones menu, breakfast and lunch are ideas mostly but dinner is written out and the items to cook with are in my cupboard or refrigerator. I even cleaned out the pantry so I could see what I have in there, found lots by the way, dang I swear I now have 6 boxes of plastic zip-lock bags. Why you ask? Well because the ones I owned had fallen behind other crap in there and so I thought I was out and bought more. I am well stocked and they are in order, yay. I fixed the stupid container store metal drawer thingy too, that was part of the reason I kept losing stuff, the drawers would fall out and I was too lazy to fix it properly. Anyway this time I did it, I glued the sucker too so it will stay. Okay enough about the pantry basically it is in order and now I feel a bit more in order when it comes to cooking.

So what did I cook you ask, well let me tell you I cooked some pretty awesome food, thanks to the internet and one cookbook in particular that I have checked out from the library and renewed like 6 times.

I cooked –

Barbecue Chicken & Pineapple Quesadillas – The Pioneer Woman Cooks – Food from the Frontier
Beef Stew – The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Pork Chops Apples & Grits – yep again The Pioneer Woman cooks and she can, yum
Corn, Potato Soup – The original was from her website back many months ago but I have kind of made this my own by what I add each time and I do change it up and would say this has become a family favorite.
Homemade Pizza- also my own, original dough came from an Emeril recipe I had but I use honey as the sweetener and of course some killer toppings that my family loves.
Chinese Food – yep homemade and my first attempt and I would have to say it was received pretty well considering I have a few who love this stuff when we order but since we are trying to save money and also know what goes in our food, homemade is really best. My daughter had pinned a few good recipes so we chose two of them – Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken, however I changed this up since I don’t make a habit of using Canola oil, I switched that to Olive oil, I used organic sugar and Bragg’s Apple Cider vinegar. Next time I may try honey. We also make Better Than Takeout Orange Chicken here I changed up a tiny bit because I didn’t have rice vinegar so I used the Bragg’s again and instead of cooking in the oil until done I just browned and then finished cooking it in the oven, I have a better chance of coming out with chicken that is not burned as I tend to do this in the oil on the stove top. This recipe won hands down it was a hit and even the connoisseurs of Chinese food in my home gave this a thumbs up.
The list goes on, I also made homemade lasagna shells and all, chili, potato soup and chicken strips and tonight we will be having pizza again, this is a weekly thing and can make life so easy. Here is the post with the recipe for the pizza crust dough – Pizza dough Step by Step.