Monday, March 14, 2011

My New Quest {Cooking}

{Still no baby!  I know some of you are checking the blog to see pictures of sweet Baby G, so keep checking!  He has to come sometime..right?!  In the meantime, I am going to enjoy my maternity leave, rest, and blog a little bit!  Enjoy!}

Well truth be told, I am a horrible cook.  Actually, I wouldn't really know whether or not I was any good because I rarely do actually cook.  Make things from a box, sure.  Pull things out of the freezer and stick them in the oven, sure.  Make things from scratch, not so much.  I was recently invited to a bridal shower and was asked to bring a card that included a favorite recipe.  Duane joked around asking me which recipe I was going to use (I have about 2 to choose from).  I have promised Duane that while I'm home this summer I want to learn how to make better meals.  I don't want to eat out so much (we'll have a 2 month old, so obviously we won't be eating out a ton) and I want to learn to cook meals so I can feed Baby G healthy things in a few years.

When it comes to cooking I am all about simplicity.  When we first were married I tried several recipes out of cook books I had gotten from my wedding showers.  Even though they were delicious, they required so many random ingredients that I'd only end up using once.  I don't like to waste money on those ingredients, so I try to stick to some simple recipes with common ingredients.  Cooking is also difficult because Duane and I are both very picky eaters.  Baby G might not have much hope in this area!  I'm not a huge fan of meat unless it's chicken and Duane doesn't like any type of vegetables or salad.  You can see why it's difficult to come up with things we'll both eat!!  

On Valentine's day this year, I cooked Duane dinner.  We don't really celebrate Valentine's day, but I wanted to do a little something for Duane whom had worked all day and then gone to his grad school class (which meant he didn't get home until 8).  I made chicken parmesan (our favorite).  It tasted wonderful and was SO EASY!  This will definitely be the recipe I write on my card!

Photobucket
{Yep, I made that!  Please excuse the 2 different types of pasta.  I realized after I started cooking the chicken that we didn't have much spaghetti left..oops! :)}

What you need: 
*Chicken - I usually cook with the smaller tenderloinds because they cook quickly.  I used about 8 of them.
*2 C. of Prego
*1/2 C. of shredded mozarella cheese
*2 TBSP. grated Parmesean cheese
*4 C. of cooked, hot spaghetti

What to do:
1. Place defrosted chicken in a baking dish.
2. Cover chicken with Prego.
3. Add both cheeses
4. Cook on 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.
5. Pour chicken and sauce over pasta and you're done!

See how easy that is!  It only took me about 30 minutes start to finish and it was yummy!  I'm sure some of you veteran cooks think my little recipe is lame, but hey, it's a start! 

So that's my goal, to become a better cook!  I'll update you with new and easy recipes I try.  Give me a little time though. After all, I do have a baby on the way! 

I'm off to enjoy my first day of maternity leave and wait for Baby G to join us.  Happy Monday! :)

No comments:

Post a Comment