Getting Started

It occurred to me that I have been posting to my LJ a lot about food, and part of that may possibly be because I am pregnant and food is very high on my priority list right now. Then again, I've always loved food, loved cooking since college, and figure it's time to start consolidating my thoughts about food and recipes and cooking methods into one place.

I'm not an expert to be sure. 

I've recently started Once a Month Cooking, and to be honest, most of the recipes that I see out there look fairly vile on paper. Having come from a household where we had gourmet-type meals just about every night, seeing so many recipes that include cream of mushroom (or chicken or celery) soup is pretty distressing. I'm not a casserole girl. I'm not a cream of anything girl. And yet I have a toddler, a husband, a career, and another baby on the way, and cooking every night is pretty distressing to me as well. So what's a girl to do?

I've been scrounging the web for really good recipes that I think will stand up to freezing. And I've been trying to convert some of our favorite recipes to something that will also stand up to freezing. So far, it's mostly been good. We'll see. I can stand a few casseroles. But I need to figure out a way to make them a bit healthier, too.

Meanwhile, this is what I've got on my list for next month's cooking. Thoughts are welcome. None of them use cream of anything soup (even the chicken & broccoli which traditionally does:

White Veggie Lasagna (I don't consider this to be a casserole)

Tilapia Pepper packets (in foil packets for baking later)

Pork chops with peppers/onions/tomato (partially cooked for later baking)

Chicken w/ broccoli (the one major casserole)

Chicken pot pies (the perennial favorite)

sausage rolls (this is an experiment using my recipe for sausage & peppers and then wrapping it in dough and freezing for later baking)

mango curry chicken (prepped and frozen without cooking)

So, thoughts are welcome.