Domestic Mommy Makeover

I feel like I've had a domestic mommy makeover this month.   Between making home made strawberry freezer jam, cooking my sons baby food, and making home made meals much more often I have completely transformed.  

There's something very therapeutic about preparing food for your family.   I've never been much of a cook and between the three recipes I had mastered we were eating the same thing week after week.   I think I was afraid of cooking.   While in high school and college it seemed I'd always mess up a recipe.....even if it was on the back of the rice a roni box.   I'd put all the ingredients in at once when I was supposed to put them in one at a time.   We were out of vegetable oil, so I figured peanut oil would do the same trick in my brownie mix.   Let's just say most of my dishes came out tasting anything like the real deal, so they'd get tossed and I'd head to Mongolian BBQ.  

The most rewarding task I've taken on is making my sons baby food.   My Aunt Marci got me this amazing cook book for baby food called Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel (highly recommend).   I haven't found a recipe that Ryker doesn't love and it's amazing how excited he is to eat dinner when it's the home cooked meals compared to the jar baby food.   After my parents got me a food processor/blender making his meals was something I could accomplish while he napped and I even had time to spare for reading a good book or taking a nap myself :)   Today I made him blueberries with plums, bananas and apples- Broccoli with potato and carrots- Sweet potato with cauliflower, onion topped with a tomato cheese sauce.   Sounds so gourmet, but it was a piece of cake.  

My new favorite website for tasty recipes for the grown ups is thepioneerwoman.com.   I have had so much success with everything I've tried from her site.   Tonight we are cooking up Spicy Dr. Pepper Shredded Pork.  Go to this website to try out the recipe for yourself!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/03/spicy-dr-pepper-shredded-pork/

Last night we had some great friends over for dinner and enjoyed my favorite lasagna ever!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/the_best_lasagn/

Overall, I think my family is really benefiting from this makeover of mine and so am I :)  Happier, healthier and such a feeling of accomplishment washes over me!