What I Learned

on my Spring, Summer, and Fall vacations. And why I had such a fabulous day today using the new tricks I learned!

For the past few years I had lost interest in cooking, something I used to enjoy and did daily for many years. We had become used to grabbing fast food or picking up stuff for one meal at a time at the grocery depending on what "sounded good" at the time. Immediate gratification was the name of the game. Developing a menu and the grocery list to prepare it was just another distasteful chore. Additionally, when I cook, I cook in quantity and since we both like my cooking we would eat much more than if we ate out with its built in portion control.

To prepare for our RV vacations this year, I would cook my large quantity recipes of favorite dishes but package it into several small containers which were then frozen. This gave us a variety of quick meals and no leftovers...hmmm

Yesterday we bought groceries to make six meals and today I have cooked nearly all day. I made...

Spaghetti Sauce - I put this on first so that all the spices could simmer for a good long while.

Next, I browned ground beef and seasoned it for tacos.

Peachy Pork Picante is a favorite recipe from my BFF next door. After cutting two pork tenderloins into bite-size pieces it goes together in a snap and is so yummy served over rice.

And one new recipe...Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Rice. I had to make adjustments on the fly because the recipe didn't include enough liquid to cook the amount of rice and we like more cheese than was listed in the recipe.

And then we went out for dinner...just kidding!

We had the new Cheesy Chicken and really liked it so we'll be making that one again sometime. Each dish I prepared today made enough to freeze in three containers for three or more meals by only adding pasta, rice, side dishes, etc.

I enjoyed shopping yesterday because that was all we had to do; I enjoyed cooking all day today because the ingredients were all here; I enjoyed getting to make some of our favorites in the large quantities I prefer; and I'll enjoy having a variety of meals in limited portions in the freezer so that we can have homemade meals more often.

Lovin' Life ~~ And Learning New Tricks

  Bev