Committing to Cook at Home & Beat the Urge to Order Take Out!

Blog Purpose: To cook at home every night and fight the urge to grab take out! I love to cook, but sometimes the convenience of grabbing fast food wins. I've decided to challenge myself to cook at home as much as possible and to share my journey with others! Hopefully other people can grab some great meals ideas from me!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thanksgiving Treats!

I thought I'd include a post of what I'm contributing to my family's Thanksgiving feast this year.  My mom usually takes care of the main meal, while the rest of us fix the desserts.  However, this year I have volunteered to do the mashed potatoes as well as various yummy desserts!

So, it's the day before Thanksgiving & I'm adding to my list of recipes!

I will be making this as a side dish:

Broccoli Salad


For the mashed potatoes I will be making this recipe:

Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes


I will also be making (or have already made) these following desserts:

Pumpkin Roll



Pumpkin Gingerbread


Vanilla Pumpkin Pie



Pumpkin Pie


Pecan Pie Bars



Apple Cranberry Tart



Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

I am no longer making the Pumpkin Cheesecake bars, but I will leave the link & picture up because these absolutely rock!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

2 Weeks of Ideas!

I might be a little over ambitious by doing this 2 weeks at a time, but I just kept coming up with ideas that sounded good.  I don't usually make the same meal twice, or at least use the same recipe twice, unless it's something outstanding.  With so many recipes out there waiting to be tried, who wants to get stuck in a rut!  These will be in no particular order and just click on the food and it'll take you to the recipe!

Homemade Spaghetti
Cheesy Garlic Bread



Pork & Green Chile Casserole


Mexican Cornbread


Baked Chicken Nuggets
Honey Mustard Sauce
Spicy Chili Fries
Spicy Fry Sauce

Tilapia Parmesan
Parmesan Basil Orzo
Garlic Butter Green Beans


Hearty Hamburger Soup
 Parmesan Walnut Bread


Roast
Creamy Smashed Potatoes
Carrots w/ Dill Butter

Turkey Noodle Soup

Pork Tenderloin w/ Roasted Potatoes
Will also be throwing some baby carrots in with this recipe!

Teriyaki Tenderloin
Broccoli & Rice Stirfry



Garlic Chicken
Ginger Veggie Stirfry



Cheeseburger Meatloaf
Creamy Smashed Potatoes
Dill Corn



BBQ Turkey Sandwiches

Creamy Spiced Coleslaw



BBQ Chili Pasta


Stuffed Pepper Soup

Starting Yum!

So, just to start off, the purpose of this blog is to help myself keep a weekly meal menu going!  I figured by posting it online, it'll help to hold myself accountable and actually cook at home and not go out every night.  I love to cook!  Plain as that!  I also love to take pictures of everything that I cook!  If this blog helps just one person come up with some new meal ideas...that would be awesome! 

Just to start off on how this will work.   Every week or two, depending on how many ideas I come up with, I will post my menu ideas.  You should be able to click on the name of the food and it'll take you to the recipe I'm using.  If there's no link, it'll probably be a personal recipe, which I don't mind sharing...just ask!  As I cook nightly, I'll add the pictures of each recipe.  I love to see what a recipe looks like.  I am not a professional photographer and probably won't have anything looking real fancy.  I like to see what food looks like how a normal everyday person would cook it!

I won't be doing a Monday is this, Tuesday is this...type of menu.  I find that I have a hard time sticking to it that way.  Because as most of us know, our cravings change from one day to the next.

Hopefully this gives everyone a great idea on how this will work!  Any questions, feel free to ask!  And, I hope to have the first menu up shortly!