Some nights are just grilled cheese

After 7 days of using up what I had... with only one backup meal needed (poor 13yo, he'll never live down the turkey leg incident. 20yrs from now, family dinner with kids, their spouses, maybe some mini-me's calling my Aunt Viola...

...and we'll be sharing stories and hey, buttface killa! Remember that time you totally ANNIHILATED turkey legs and mom almost made you eat a sandwich while we had pizza?....)

When I started this blog, it was with the intent to find other moms and families like mine: busy but want more than pizza and other assorted foods wrapped in to-go bags to grace our coffee tables... without wasting tons of food that goes bad waiting for a "good night" to get prepared. I want a meal to put on my table that sits taller than my dog. I don't want a nervous breakdown either. I use my own, every day dishware and whatever "props" are nearby for my photos. I have a Canon Powershot compact camera. I blog between work, kids, work, commute, kids, sports, showering, and oh yeah.. cooking. In other words, this isn't my day job.

Some nights I don't take pictures...just the other night, life got messy, I got a migraine, and we had grilled cheese sandwiches after 8pm.

It started with the one that came asking for dinner... all I had in me was to stand by the stove for a bit... so the 3 of them appeared at the table, one at a time, from different areas of the house, drawn to the smell of melting, browning butter and bread... that aroma that only grilled cheese can give off... I took requests for types of cheese, cooking one sandwich at a time. I have bigger pans, one at a time just felt "right". One at a time drew out the time... the time with them sitting around the table, a couple with blankets, quietly waiting.  They took straight from pan to plate, happily munching as I started another. We didn't even talk much... the sounds were mostly butter sizzling and the swish of a spatula. Each of them said, "Thanks Mom" as they disappeared from the kitchen. I wiped up a few crumbs and sent myself to bed, thinking there is a reason that's considered comfort food.

While looking for inspiration or ideas I had poked around the web and saw some good things. There are some folks doing some amazing things out there- lots of ingredients, lots of time, lots of gorg pics. I love looking at them... but I have ingrates to feed and way more stress than time or money. I need simple. fast. appealing to hyenas.

Phrases like "cook once, eat twice" and "freezer meals for a month" appealed to me. Making big batches of anything and then "eat for a week" did not appeal. My family only eats leftovers for lunches. If it looks like yesterday's dinner, it ain't today's dinner. Making 4 or more of anything to be eaten during the next month would certainly cause a riot in my house. They're not PICKY eaters, they're FICKLE eaters. Unlike cats who get addicted to the shape of the meow mix, too much of the same and the turn their noses up and shred the couch.

Fickle is why I like to "use it up." Not just because I don't want shrimp languishing in the bottom of the freezer for a decade only to argue with someone whether or not one "could eat that." Things have a tendency to vanish into the bottom of a freezer. But also because we like a wide variety. I lean toward making 2 of something, cook once then disguise the twice as something else completely, and freezer meals that are more based on what meat or produce I have. I don't like using much canned (reduced sodium where possible) and even less processed foods. Hey, I ain't Emeril and I'm not too proud to buy a carton of Cool Whip and a box of instant pudding - but if I can plan ahead, even just a day or 2 at a time, I find I avoid much of the processed food that is really just filler and not food. I can do better than that... so can you.

Meal planning, shopping, and cooking doesn't have to be as daunting as it sounds. Really. Take an hour once in awhile, after dinner, before bed, or a lunch break at work and think about what your family eats. I have a running list in my head of meals that we eat- and what I need to buy to make them. What sounds good? Ask the fam if there is something they like or something you used to make.  If you're low on ideas, grab a cook book or google "dinners that don't suck." Do you have a crockpot gathering dust? It's not just for Sunday pot roast or little smokies any more. Search for a few recipes. Try to have dinner planned out for a couple of nights from the crockpot. I use my crockpot, and now also my electric pressure cooker, for the days I am in the office OR I know that there are kid sports and will either not be home until late, or everyone is in and out at different times. On those hectic nights, after commuting with people who are obviously crazier than I am, it's so NICE to just walk in the door and feed my kids REAL food.

I'm a regular person, you'll find spaghettios and mac n cheese mix in my pantry. I'm not vegan, anti-GMO, pro organic. I haven't had time to figure out all the details of red dye #3. I do try to use mostly fresh or frozen ingredients with processed items sparingly. I don't like the fat, sugar, and sodium contents. REAL food tastes better too- it actually tastes like food. But you'll still find Chinese take out containers in the fridge sometimes. There's Toaster Strudel and corn dogs in the freezer. Sometimes what I cook doesn't turn out so well... or the hyenas don't want to eat it. Hey, that's ok... without the mishaps, I'd be expected to have perfect pictures, perfect children, and perfect food. Sometimes, what is perfect, is just grilled cheese.