Starting Fresh with my Kitchen

This week my 31 Days to Clean challenges all have to do with my kitchen.  What a perfect place, since that's my favorite room.  And I love to cook and bake.  Well, I used to love to cook, until I got in my rut.  Other than my sudden desire to make things with fresh flour, I slap stuff together each night around 5pm and call it dinner.  I used to meal plan.  I used to try new recipes every week.  I used to practice new techniques and try new things.  Instead, I have become lazy and depressed that my house is a mess and I can't find time to hunt for new recipes or be bothered to plan what we'll eat.  


This is where the next part of the giveaway I won came into play.  I received a year long subscription to PlanToEat.  This site inspired me last week to whip out my new cookbook - 1000 Vegetarian Recipes from around the world.  Jim discovered this book at a used bookstore where I have hundreds of dollars worth of credits to use up while we were in Arizona this spring.

I tried Boston Beans, Macaroni Bake, Tomato and Pasta Bake, and Potato and Split Pea Soup.  I also whipped out one of my favorite Pampered Chef cookbooks 29 Minutes to Dinner volume 2 and made Potato-Crusted Tilapia (except I used cod, cuz that was already in the freezer) and tonight's dinner is Beef Satay Fried Rice (which I've made before and is quite tasty).  I befriended a couple people on Plan To Eat and also get to snag their recipes, so I'm going to try Southwestern Chicken with Spinach  and Pasta with Smashed Peas next week, along with a few other new 1000 Vegetarian Recipes.  If you use this service, friend me - lisastone and we can share recipes. I'm excited to be cooking again.  My family is excited to have real food again.  My kitchen is clean again, so I have time and a place to cook again!