Cooking Lately

Something that David and I really love to do together is cook. Ever since we have been in grad school together our one time of day when we can spend a little bit of time with one another is dinner time. We have always tried to make it a priority, and so our routine for a long time was to come home from school around 5 and then cook and eat dinner together. We never made anything fancy, but we ate at home 95% of the time both to save money and try to eat healthy.

Since having a baby this routine has drastically changed. For the first 3 months dinner time was a bit hectic. Usually Lydia would need to eat right when we got home and at this time she was still taking 45 minutes to do so. That means David would be getting dinner ready by himself with my only my instructions as help. Some days things are still hectic, but in general we are starting to get a system these days. Lydia eats quickly and then she can lay on her play mat or sit in her Bumbo while I cook dinner. I really do love cooking... it is relaxing for me, and I love the outcome too.

So here is a good recipe that I have made lately, along with a couple easy ideas for breakfast and lunch:


1) Peanut butter oatmeal.
Anytime I tell someone that I had peanut butter oatmeal for breakfast they look at me funny. Someone made me this combination the summer that I spent at Cornell and ever since then it is easily my #1 choice for oatmeal. If you like peanut butter you should try it! Basically, just cook your oats on the stove with milk. While they are cooking put (about) 1 Tbs of brown sugar, and 1 heaping Tbs of peanut butter into a bowl. When the oats are done, just stir it up and enjoy!

2) Black bean quesadillas.
For the past 2 weeks I have cooked up a can of black beans with a little bit of chopped onion and red pepper, cumin and garlic salt in a skillet. Once the beans are a little soft smash them. I spread the black bean mixture onto a whole wheat tortilla and add some mexican cheese, and then put it on my panini maker. I have a delicious quesadilla within 10 minutes! You can garnish the quesadilla with salsa and/or sour cream, and obviously add whatever else you want to it. I refrigerate the leftover black beans and it makes for 2 more easy lunches throughout the week.

3) Spinach and Artichoke Dip.
My usual lunch of choice is Tricuits and cheese. So, sometimes I spice things up and incorporate some vegetables into this staple by making Spinach and Artichoke Dip. I use the recipe here, and just use sour cream instead of mayo (because I hate mayo...).

4) Homemade Meat Sauce
So this is the only "real" recipe in this post.

Last weekend David and I bought some fresh ground beef from the farmer's market (it was cheaper than what we buy at the store!). I decided that I needed to do something a little fancier with it, so I made homemade meat sauce. It was delicious if I may say so myself... and it made like 10 servings!

I adapted the recipe found here as follows:
1 lb of ground beef
Chop the onion and pepper very fine - this way you don't have to involve a blender
I used 1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes and one large, fresh chopped tomato
I left out the mushrooms, balsalmic vinegar... and the bay leaves (b/c Kroger didn't have them)

From that point on I followed the recipe pretty closely. I browned my beef in a separate skillet while the oil and onion were cooking so that I could drain the fat and, like I said, I didn't wait to dirty the blender so I just chopped the onion and pepper small and it worked out fine.

It really was good, and even though it took a while to cook it was really easy! Definitely a recipe I will be repeating.

I know this post is a bit random, but I want to start getting back into cooking. And I wanted to share the yummy things that I have been eating since I am finally excited about food again!