Preparation vs. Reality. Cooking edition.

Do you remember about a year ago I started posting the ways I was preparing for our Sri Lanka adventure?  It started here, continued here and here.
In case you don't want to link to those pages, I will tell you I talk about cooking, make-up, Marine Ball dress, driving, and getting my "woman-stache" taken care of.  

Now that we have been here a few months, I thought I would report back and tell you how/if my preparation has paid off.  Shall we start at the beginning?


Cooking.

Yes, friends, I have been cooking.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Almost daily.  I have actually mastered a few recipes, and we have a few family favorites.  I have to find substitutions for some of the ingredients, but for the most part, it has been fun to cook and try new things.

I have even cooked a whole chicken.  I accidentally cooked it upside down, but it turned out fine.

Thanksgiving turkey- here I come.

One thing I have learned is that cooking is A LOT easier when you have the right tools- plenty of measuring cups/spoons, thermometers, and bowls.  It is also a lot easier when you have someone to help do the dishes.  Especially since we don't have a dishwasher.  Well...technically, we have a dishwasher, but it is in another room (not the kitchen), so we don't use it.

Some of my failures:  I made bread, but forgot to add the salt, so it was disgusting.  I also made some pasta carbonara in which I measured the pepper incorrectly (way too much), and it was not so good.  I am sure there have been more, but these were the most recent...like Monday.

Overall, cooking has been great.  It has been a little tough to get used to cooking everything on my own.  The connivence of prepackaged foods is such a huge time saver, however, it is certainly more gratifying when I have made an entire meal from scratch.  I do find, however, when I make a huge meal, the next day my desire to cook is seriously diminished.  In order to overcome this, I just try to make one or two really nice meals a week, and something simple the rest of the week, have leftover night, or have "take-away".

For recipe ideas, I have become really familiar with Pinterest.com, and have actually made a lot of the recipes I have pinned.

In case you are interested, here are our favorites:


Blackened chicken with quinoa and an avocado sauce

Thai food- chicken (this we make at least once a week- usually more.)

Coconut Chicken (we also love this with shrimp)

OH, and for dessert, Pioneer Woman has the most incredible Texas sheet cake recipe (Thanks Anne, for the recommendation) - this recipe is great because it calls for buttermilk, which I have not seen here, but gives instructions on how to make your own.  Super helpful!
 

If you have any favorite recipes, let me know...I would love to try them out.

Preparation. Step One.

My semester is over!  I am looking forward to taking the next few months off.  There are two reasons for the break:
1.  I have to take a placement test for math.  I have to take it at the testing center which is located in Utah, so we will do that on our home leave.
2.  I am starting to prepare for our move to Sri Lanka.

There is a long list of items on my to-do list.  My own "honey-do" list if you will.  The top item on my list:  Cooking.

Yes, cooking.  I like to cook, but it does not come naturally to me.  What comes naturally to me is using pre-made items and calling it my own.  I particularly like Costco and just add water style cooking to help me make dinner every night.  However, when we move to Sri Lanka, the luxury of pre-made dinners will not be there.  I will need to feed my family, so I am currently dusting off the cookbooks, google-ing all sorts of ingredients I have never heard of, and making dinner.

Last week was the first week of my experimenting.  I made dinner EVERY night.  Okay, I make dinner every night anyway, but this week, everything was homemade, or nearly homemade.
Here is what we had last week:  (Each food item is linked to the recipe)

Meatloaf
This was really good meat loaf.  Ben did not like the way it looked, but said it was the best tasting meat loaf I have ever made.  (I don't know if that is really saying much.)

Crockpot Chicken and Biscuits (yes, I made the homemade biscuits)
This is our new favorite.

Crockpot Chicken and Potatoes
I really love this, Ben just likes it.  I love that it is simple, but so flavorful.

Homemade Hot Pockets
These were so amazing!  I loved the flavor and that it was simple to make.  Next time, we will make some sort of sauce to make it more like a pot pie.

Chicken and Quinoa Burritos
These were good, but a little bland.  The next day I used the leftovers for lunch, and it was a perfect meal.

Then we had leftovers one night and we went out to celebrate the end of the semester.
I felt so accomplished.  This week I am trying to come up with some more recipes.  Suggestions?

Chicken and Biscuits

Homemade Hot Pockets.

Next on my list: Finding make-up that doesn't melt in humidity.  Any ideas?

That reminds me, I am turning the comments back on.  It's time.

Enjoying the Spoils of My Ambition.

I am a self-proclaimed non-cook/baker.  I had pretty good skills as a child but around the time I reached adulthood, I lost all ability to cook/bake.  I once made a Chocolate Chip Pie that looked like butter soup, there was the Thanksgiving that ended all attempts at cooking a holiday meal ever again, and recently there was a meatloaf that could have been served in a school cafeteria as mystery meat.  Not good. 

However, today was a small success.  The chocolate chip cookies that Jack and I made tasted really good. 

One point for me. 

Father's Day.

Making breakfast for daddy.

Handsome boys.

What a father's day. I bought Jack a little pinstripe suit to match Ben's, and they looked so cute. Ben is a great dad, and both Jack and I are lucky to have him. It is fun to watch Ben be a dad. He loves his little guy, and his little guy loves him. I have heard the quote somewhere that the greatest gift a father can give his kids is to let them know he loves their mother, and Ben definitely does this. I am truly blessed. This year Ben has earned Father's day. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Happy Father's day to my dad also. He is coming to visit us in a week, and we are so excited. Jack and my dad have had a special bond since Jack was born, and it is so incredible to see my dad become a grandpa. He is an awesome grandpa, and we are grateful for him.

I am very blessed that both my dad and Ben look to our Heavenly Father as an example to parent. Neither of them are perfect, but they find ways to improve, and make sure their kids are taken care of and loved. They are AWESOME MEN!!

Cooking with Jack

Some of my favorite memories are cooking with my mom. She always let us help. I loved that. So, Jack is my little helper. His favorite thing to help me with is cracking eggs. I must say, we have lost several eggs this way, but it is still fun when he gets it perfectly.
This was our latest treat. So YUMMY! I am the only one who likes coconut, so the boys eat the "crust", and I get the middle all to myself!

Fantastic Friday.

Jack and I had so much fun today. I was having a craving for something sweet, so we made a cake. He loved helping out. We turned on some music, danced around, and made the cake. What a great time! The cake was delicious, and it was fun to have Jack help out.

If Grandma Dexter (Jack's great grandma) reads this, we used your chocolate frosting recipe. IT IS THE BEST!

Mom's little helper.

Jack helping stir the frosting.

The final cake, after we each had a piece. It was so good.

This is my preggo belly. This is the stage I like, small enough that it isn't obtrusive, but enough to know I am pregnant.