Kiss the Cook!

The age-old question of "What's for Dinner?" 
I've been feeling kindof guilty lately because I haven't cooked anything huge for dinner while Adam was home for a couple weeks, but all those freakin dishes and pans....exhausting... It's like it takes me half a day to clean up the kitchen, and by that time someone wants lunch, gotta plan for dinner, it's a vicious cycle that never ends :p Plus, I haven't had much of an appetite at all for about 8 months now, so not eating food does not make you want to cook it!
I usually keep it pretty simple when it's just me and the kids. They have a bunch of regular favorites: spanish hamburger, ranch chicken strips, spaghetti, mostaccoli w/Italian sausage, ham and cheese crescent rolls, etc. We always keep a big rectangle tupperware with cut veggies and dip in the fridge, and I can pull that out, make some chicken rice, and we're good to go.
We really don't go out to eat much unless dad is home or we're on the run, I hate considering McDonalds "dinner", but they like Fazoli's for the kids night once in awhile, and Chinese is a big favorite.
 I am a big fan of new recipes but I don't like anything with ingredients that are too wierd. (Rachel Ray's recipes are waaaaayyyy to wierd for me!) And I don't like making anything that comes out of a frozen bag or box, like if we are going to have lasagna or stir fry, well I'd rather just make it from scratch. In the summer we make our own pickles (SO easy!), and last year was my first attempt at making jam. It turned out awesome, will have to make more this year because we ran out.
Adam is realllly picky, the list now is "nothing in the slow cooker, nothing with cinnamon (OMG I put cinnamon in the chili for a recipe ONE TIME and I thought he was gonna kill me), he's sick of "italian", and sick of things made with boneless chicken. Omg, nothing in the slow cooker!? I have a love affair with my slow cooker. Last week when I knew he was coming home crabby I put chicken in there just because I knew it would piss him off hahaha!  "What the hell is for dinner?" "Chicken in the slow cooker"....(acutually I was just cooking it in there to use for a recipe the next day lol)  Oh yeah, and he refuses to eat leftovers! I am really running out of dinner ideas. He always wants something that "used to think", but if you ask him he doesn't exactly know what. I'm pretty sure he is the only reason the Escanaba Taco Bell is still in business.
Last week we had in our house what shall forever be known as The Great Meatloaf Incident. In 10 years the guy has NEVER asked for meatloaf, and all of a suddenly he wants a Piggly Wiggly meatloaf for dinner. Well the kids acted like the world was ending because I was going to make them eat this giant hunk of hamburger. Holly whined a little, ended up eating it and went on her merry way. Jake sat at the table at for 20 minutes til I "pretend" cried, and then he ate most of it so I let him go. Eric sat at the table for an HOUR AND A HALF before he ate one bite. And after the first 45 min, you know, I wasn't going to give in because what does that teach him? That he can have a hotdog every time he doesn't like what I am cooking?  (EW, thanks to a lovely discussion with a friend who used to work in a meat packaging plant and some research about nitrates, we no longer buy those "quick supper" 99cent hotdogs...) We went through this a few other times before with him, the most notorious being the "chocolate pudding taco" incident when Eric was about 5. Something like "stop playing with your food, if you smear chocolate pudding on that taco, I WILL make you eat it.". Long night..... Well needless to say, we won't be having meatloaf for dinner in for awhile. Some battles are only worth it once! I don't expect them always to clean their plates. The rule is if you are really full, that's fine, but the kitchen is closed for the rest of the night. If you finish your supper, you might have room for a snack later. I don't always expect them to like everything either (hell, I STILL hate baked beans!) but I do expect them to try stuff. I really don't want them to end up being picky eaters.
        tonight we ended up having tacos with the leftover chicken from last night, it's a big shopping wkend this weekend, so I am trying to clean out the cupboards. Haven't been to the grocery store in a few weeks except for the basics, just because there wasn't anything on sale last week, so then I just don't go and we use what we have. (really, why spend more money when you know it's going to go on sale if you wait 3 days?)  I get really obsessive about going over the ads on sunday afternoon, planning exactly what I'm getting from each store, with what coupons, and if there's super good coupons, I call one of the grandparents to get doubles of them haha! Also, there is this big red coupon machine at Piggly Wiggly that spits out manufacturer coupons that you can use at other stores too. Festival Foods has great produce and meat, but the reg, grocery section is way overpriced, so I just go there for what is on sale.  Pick n Save of course is double coupon day on sat and wed. Target is great because you can print coupons off their website AND use manufacturer coupons, so 2 for each item. I LOVE Walgreens, because they have register rewards, so we usually end up getting all our toothpaste, toothbrushes, body wash, etc, for free or close to it.  It probably sounds kind of obsessive and time-consuming, but I save a LOT of money,  and most of those stores are places I drive by at least once a week anyway. Maybe it won't be so easy when I am dragging Mabel around with me in a few months, but I have shopped that way since the other kids were little.
 There was this woman in front of me at Festival Foods awhile ago ran out of money at 190.00 worth of groceries. I wanted to drag her back into the aisles and teach her how to shop..... favorite website, hands down. http://www.myfrugaladventures.com/. this lady is awesome! she tells you the who what, when where of all the best deals, and how to get tons of free samples.
Regarding my "sloppy kids" blog. Tonight I asked the kids to tidy up their rooms a little, as I am trying to drill into their heads that if you put your stuff away every night, you don't end up with a huge mess.
Jake asked me what "tidy" meant LOL. My point exactly...




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