Sunday, May 6, 2018

Crafty - type accomplishments

So.  Remember those 2017 goals?  Yeah, me neither.  One of them was related to making blankets though.  I found that sitting down with some crocheting is very relaxing.  I'm trying my best to figure out how to get better sleep.  Stress is an issue for me. I'm actually reading a book about sleep, and right now I'm in the chapter where he talks about how bad sleeping pills are.  Um...I think I'm in trouble.

Here's a little string of pictures of things that I've made in the last year or two.














Wednesday, May 2, 2018

I'm BORED!! HELP!

So, I have this new position (started in December) at work.  It means that several times a week (2-5), I end up working late with late night meetings/ phone calls.  This leaves spouse to pick up the kids and make dinner.

So...since I do the shopping, and his method of cooking is different, I've adjusted by... cooking up 2 big meals on the weekend.

Saturday's dinner feeds us Sat, Mon, Wed
Sunday's dinner feeds us Sun, Tue, Thu
Friday is frozen pizza night, and I just make grilled cheese on gluten free bread

I eat salad for lunch every day.
Hubs eats sandwiches or homemade burritos every day.

If we run out earlier, we have other emergency type foods - quesadillas, veggie burgers, curried lentils, grilled salmon, etc.

Our produce box runs out on Weds, so the rest of the week we eat frozen stir fry veg, and I go to Sprouts on Weds or Thurs and buy broccoli, cucumbers, and brussels sprouts.  Every. Single. Week.  I wander through all the produce and just stare...because it's my lunch break and I'm tired.

The kids are tired of eating the same two things every week.
I don't mind it so much.

But I'm running out of ideas of things to cook that will last a long time (aka, three full meals).

Here's what I've been making:
Vegetarian/ vegan:
- Lentil soup
- Mac and cheese
- Fried rice
- Curried lentils
- Beans and rice

With meat
- spaghetti and meatballs
- chicken soup
- chicken enchiladas
- chili

Each weekend I make one veg meal and one meat meal.

Umm...you'll see that the list has 9 meals.  And every month I need at least 8 of them.  I'm kind of stumped.  I really should go back into this blog's 10 year history and come up with "other things" to make.  I kind of miss being able to make something for one or two nights only ... but I never know when there's going to be TIME mid-week!  Things like Thai curry, roasted curry cauliflower and potatoes...??  For sure, the gluten free thing has thrown a wrench into things.  And the not buying much  meat is another issue.

Plus, ya know, I'm tired!  It's hard to come up with things to make.  When I sit and relax and look at cookbooks, it's not during meal planning.  When I grocery shop, I haven't meal planned yet.  I might find something that looks good but I'm missing an ingredient or it's not on sale.  I hate defrosting meat so I'd rather not bother with that.  I have this awesome Instant Pot that I use for great vegan meals but I haven't figured out any meat meals.

UGGGGHHH