So my hubby suggested that instead of our regular weekend take-out we try to make it at home from now on( and by we he meant me) to save money and try new things.I love cooking and trying new recipes but was a little irritated that he was nixing my one day off and thought it sounded like alot of work to save a little money. Oh and he wanted chinese....ok.Well my 10 year old was up all night ( as was I) with a horrible case of swimmers ear. I called this morning to get him an appointment and they said they had one opening at 8am and this was at 7am and we live half an hour away....ok. Then I find out what I thought was a 24 hour pharmacy didnt open until 10 and I didnt want to drive back and forth so I walked around walmart for an hour and a half with a sick kid. Then we finally get home and my other kiddos remind me that dinner needs to be done early because VBS starts tonight....ughh. I was super tired and not in the mood to cook but we did it anyway. My kids and I made orange chicken,crab rangoons(sp?) and fried rice. It took forever but it was super yummy and we had soooo much fun doing it( my daughter kept saying I cant believe it really tastes like *our fav chinese restaraunt *and we made it...lol). So we decided to do this every Sunday...making take-out at home....we cook every night(mostly) but now each family member gets a turn to choose what to try to make. My question is when was the last time you were not looking forward to something but it turned out being fun?
A couple of nights ago I was super tired. I remembered I had carrots and celery to use up. I had a blast sauteeing them with garlic and onions, mixing with sprouted beans, and serving over brown rice. I actually enjoyed cooking! And the kids loved it. I think I'd enjoy cooking more often if I didn't stress so much over everything else I "have" to do.
Sometimes, making it yourself from scratch, can actually cost more, that just getting take out.
Our (four year old) son's first REAL dental exam/cleaning in the BIG chair last month. He was LOVING IT and I was thrilled all our "fighting" with him to let us brush his teeth was all worth it...NO CAVITIES.
today I went to a 2pm Texas Ranger game. It's 100 degrees here and feels like the inside of a clothes dryer full of hot wet clothes outside. The tickets were in the nosebleeds and I thought it was going to be a whoopin. It turned out great. There was a nice breeze and we were under a shady area. We lost....but hey, it was good relaxing fun.
Here's a very easy couple of recipies for the asian arsenal. peanut satay and peanut noodles are so very easy. Buy the bottle of BANGKOK PADANG Peanut sauce in Asain section. My teenager says that tastes beetter than the Thai restaraunts make. Marinate and baste chicken skewers in it and serve with a sauce made from shredded cucumber, sour cream, salt and pepper. Also just add this bottled sauce to vermicelli and its extermely good peanut noodles.
One more quick and easy one - lo-mein - cooked fettucinni noodl;es
and soy sauce.
Every day of my life seems to be like this. I anticipate a full day of activities and cranky kids, not to mention myself cranky after a long day, and an extremely well intentioned husband, who gets home from work and is ready to "interact" with the kids. He wants to take them outside after they've been bathed, and walk the dog, or visit with the neighbors. This used to be extremely annoying to me, and I would pray that I could get the kids to bed by 7:30 before he could get home. Now, we try to relish in the moments, and remember that when they're 16, they won't want to have anything to do with us. Finding time is so hard when your kids are young, (2 and 4) but these are the best times!!! We have made an effort to try to make everything turn out better than expected, which I feel is all about perspective......I assume the worst at the beginning of each day, and while life here is SUPER hectic, at the end of the day, it's always better than it could have been...
I was newly pregnant w/our third child and just not feeling well. Our friends had bought us tickets to go see a modern take on A Midsummers Night Dream that in all honesty, was the last thing I wanted to do. I really just wanted to stay home and go to sleep. My mood got worse when I called the theater to see how long the play was and it was 4 hours and it didn't start until 9pm!! I was dreading the evening so bad. Our friends came and picked us up, we went to dinner and it didn't settle well so my hubby came super close to telling our friends we needed to split but since they bought the tickets I felt obligated to stay. We sat down in our seats, I'm yawning away and all the sudden, 4 hours had passed and I realized I LOVED the play! We all couldn't stop talking about how spectacular the modern take was and the costumes/music etc.. To this day we bring it up, it was really something I would have loved to see again!
We were working/playing outside tonight and I saw my SIL's car coming down the road. I instantly felt disappointed. We were all having a good time and I was not looking forward to addition of 5 people to our quiet evening. Well, it was the best time we've had with them in a long time! The kids played great, the adults had good conversation, and they didn't stay too late! It turned out to be a very enjoyable evening!
Wednesday night is our family night...we make pizzas...there are times when I just don't want to do it - I've been cleaning, organizing or listing stuff on ebay and like you too tired to cook!!!
So on the days that I'm that tired....they kids come up and roll their dough out (I make it from scratch) and they get to put their pizzas together!!! It's great - i"m still tired -but i enjoy my kids in the kitchen!
Send me the recipe for the orange chicken please!!!
