What's Cookin'?

I love when my house smells like food.

I really love it when Matt walks in and the first thing he says is, "What smells good?"

When Holynd was little and Sloane was a baby, I only cooked 2 or 3 times a week. Matt worked late and it seemed wasteful to cook for just Holynd and I. Those were the days when the grocery bill was small. If Holynd and I wanted to get take-out, it didn't really cost much either.

Boy how things have changed!

I now have three very hungry kids. The grocery bill is enormous and getting take-out seems even more expensive.

I used to hate cooking because Holynd never ate what I made. She was the pickiest eater! Sloane and Maddox don't really have that problem. They get that from their dad. Matt would eat a shoe if I seasoned it enough.

I'm starting to realize that Holynd's pickiness was probably mostly my fault. While there are still things she just won't eat (everybody has preferences, right?!), she was probably just used to having me cook things she always liked. If I cooked something that I knew she wouldn't really LOVE immediately, I made her something different.

When Sloane started eating with us at dinner, I realized that it was just getting too hard to make everyone a separate meal. Holynd and Sloane didn't always agree on what they wanted to eat, and Matt and I didn't want to eat what they were eating.

I just basically decided that the kid who didn't eat, went hungry (GASP!). There were too many mouths to feed. I was NOT going to be a short-order cook.

Nowadays, I cook everyday. I do a menu every Thursday and every Friday is Grocery Day. Yes, I take the kids with me. (Except for in the summer, when Twitch is back in town. We love our Nanny!). I plan meals for every night. Sometimes it goes really well, sometimes it doesn't.

Sometimes we do splurge and get take-out, but I really try not to. It's easier when the weather is colder and it's dark by 6pm. We seem to eat out more when we're out enjoying the warm weather. I try to keep my menu somewhat simple, especially on the nights when I know Matt will be late.

People always love to ask questions about how things work in this house, with the kids being so little. My favorite questions are about food and mealtime. I don't claim to know everything. I definitely don't claim to be an outstanding cook. (I'm not!) I've made some REALLY AWFUL meals in the past.

My most favorite question of all is: "What do you feed your kids?"

Well, food! (Duh!) My kids start getting regular food as soon as I can get them to try it. I absolutely HATE baby food. I was able to tolerate it when I discovered, Ella's Kitchen and Plum brand baby foods, but I still started feeding Maddox homemade options when he was really little. I still remember the first thing he tried, Chicken and Dumplings. His face lit up like a kid on Christmas. He's been in love with a home cooked meal ever since.

"How do you get the motivation to cook EVERY night?"

I'm a waste-not want-not type person. Especially when it comes to the food we buy. I can't believe how much it costs to feed these kids and so letting things go bad just because I don't "feel like cooking" just isn't an option.

"How often to you grocery shop?"

Grocery shopping happens once-a-week, usually on Fridays. You can ask my mom, I'm a die-hard schedule person. I can't stand it if the house isn't filled with food by 2pm every Friday. I've literally lost sleep over missing Grocery Day. I wasn't always this way. I used to just keep enough food in the house to make about 7 - 8 meals. Those were the days when it was easy to throw a couple of kids in the car and head to the store if I needed one thing. Those days are gone! We just need the schedule. Especially since now I'm planning grocery shopping around my kids' schedule.

"Do you ever make a 'Back-Up' meal?"

Oh yes! I keep a couple of things in the house for "just in case" type situations. Things that tend to be rotated with our regular food storage anyway. Crockpot Chicken and Rice & Cincinnati Chili. Both can be made from mostly pantry products, both are favorites.

"What do you do if one of the kids just won't let you cook?"

This is where I turn into "The Mean Mom". I had to learn a long time ago that I can't keep everyone happy 100% of the time. Actually, I'm lucky if I can keep everyone happy 65% of the time. By dinner time, all three kids have usually had a meltdown over something else. They've all received some sort of sympathy/attention. When it comes to dinnertime, I'm cooking for the entire family. If you're having a meltdown because someone took your toy, or someone hurt you, or you don't want to eat that, or you want to eat right now - you're basically told that YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN! It's a little harder with Maddox because he's too little to understand - but he's hardly ever the one causing problems during dinnertime. There's been so many times where I've looked at the girls and said, "I'm sorry you're frustrated, but I'm trying to cook EVERYONE'S dinner, not just yours. You'll have to work it out or wait until I'm done!". They're getting to the point now where they just know that when my apron is on, I'm only available for SERIOUS issues (i.e. There's got to be blood). Things get crazy around dinnertime. I've just learned to cope. I finally just asked myself, "Am I going to wait until it's easy?" The truth is, I realize that once my kids hit a certain age, they're probably not going to be around for dinner anymore. Their social lives and outside schedules will take them away. It was either I cook now or never. I can't even begin to count how many nights I've cooked dinner with a screaming child at my feet.

"What do your kids DO while you cook every night?" This question always baffles me. They basically do what they do all day long, Play! I've never been a "Playmate"-type Mother. I've never really had to, there's always been a sibling around! While I'm cooking, toys are usually scattered every where. If you want to see a messy house, come-on over while I cook. My contents of my cupboards are usually out on the floor. Toys, puzzles, paper, crayons are mixed in with the pots and pans. There's ALWAYS toilet paper going down the hallway. Someone's usually got a dirty diaper and, like always, someone is MAD for some reason. I love a clean house, but I just can't keep up while cooking. Yes, the messes nearly drive me to drink, but I just have to turn my Ipod up and keep cooking.

"OK. Do you do your dishes every time you cook?"

Unfortunately, yes. I wish I was the type of person who could leave dishes in the sink, but I'm not. Luckily, I have a WONDERFUL husband, who's totally willing to handle most of the dishes in the house. I really don't mind rinsing dishes as soon as they're used and putting them in the dishwasher, but I really DO NOT love doing a bunch of dishes at once. Matt handles most of the dinner dishes. He's also really good about unloading the dishwasher before he goes to work in the morning. That man knows that I love me an empty dishwasher every morning. ;) I'm not going to lie, sometimes we eat off plastic plates and call it good.

"Recipes. What do you like to cook?"

One of the biggest mistakes I made was making the same things over and over. I got SICK of making them. I had to keep it interesting and so I do try to search out a few new recipes every week or so.

However, there are just some favorites that we can't live without in this house.

*Chicken and Dumplings. I really thought that homemade dumplings would be hard, but they are NOT! My kids love it and the recipe I use is relatively easy. It does involve cutting up a whole chicken, so I guess it's not for those that don't love to break a few chicken bones.

*Kalua Pork. My Sister-In-Law, Angela, is the person to credit for this recipe. I really thought it would be hard, but it so isn't. It does require almost an entire day in the crockpot, but it only calls for a few ingredients and the kids love it. Although, we do tell them it's chicken. ;)

*Creamy Shrimp and Pasta. I don't make this one as much as I used to. Mainly because we now require an entire bag of shrimp to feed us all. It does seem like quite the splurge to spend 12 dollars on just one ingredient for the meal, but my husband does love this one.

*Good ole' Spaghetti and Meatballs. Yes, I'll admit it. I used to buy meatballs from Costco. (GASP!) But my friend Nicole introduced me to the BEST meatball recipe and now I can't go back to frozen. Holynd used to hate "red sauce", but I just kept putting it in front of her and one day she was hungry enough to try it. She's now the one who gets excited about this meal.

*Meatloaf and Roasted Ranch Red Potatoes. I really love recipes where the side dishes are just a given. This recipe is one of the Worldwide Ward Cookbooks. I seriously didn't even give it a second-glace when I got the cookbook, but my friend Nicole (you seem to be mentioned a lot in this post!) told me to try it. I was really skeptical. (It's meatloaf! All meatloaf sucks right!?) All I'm going to say is, there are hardly ever any leftovers.

*White Chili. White Chili also comes from Nicole. It was her grandma's recipe and it's delicious. Matt requests this recipe quite a bit. It must be eaten with rolls. The broth is divine!

The next part of this list, is just basically for me. I made Matt a weeks worth of his favorite meals for his birthday. It was really cute to hear the things he wanted. Maybe I'll make it a tradition... Maybe. ;)

*Kalua Pork made this list. I wasn't at all surprised.

*Crockpot Ribs with Mashed Potatoes. I make my mashed potatoes like my mom does. Lots of butter and cream. ;)

*Cincinnati Chili. Not a lot of people even know what this is. I didn't until I started dating Matt. It was what my mother-in-law made the first night I ever had dinner with Matt's family. My kids have basically grown-up eating this. The packets can be tricky to find. I just buy a package of 10 off Amazon.

*Gumbo. This soup is SPICY. I DO NOT feed this to my kids. This soup also takes a few hours to make. (Close to 3). I don't make it very often. It's basically my go-to dinner when I want to make Matt something special.

*Breakfast for Dinner. I don't have much to say about this one. I'm not a breakfast fan, never have been. However, my husband is. 'Nough said.

So there you go. That's how meals get done in Chaos-ville. I've wanted to record this for awhile. Maybe it'll help my kids later on when they have their own families. Maybe it'll be funny for Matt and I to read about later. (Can you believe how crazy mealtime used to be?!). Or maybe one day I'll wonder why I even went through the trouble.