Showing posts with label cooking from scratch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking from scratch. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

Turkeys are 29 cents a pound at Safeway! I haven't seen a better (or even close) price elsewhere.

Also, I really liked this study on the Secrets of Low-Stress Families. Check it out at http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/seven-secrets-of-low-stress-families

  Officially, cooking from scratch is a secret of low-stress families! Actually I believe it. Families that use pre-packaged foods spend just as much time in meal preparation as families that cook from scratch. That's been proven before in other studies. So if you're not saving time, isn't peeling carrots more relaxing than reading instructions and scheduling the microwave? Of course. What I don't know is - does cooking from scratch make us a low-stress family? Hmm....

Thursday, October 28, 2010

If at First You Don't Succeed....

So last night we had an "Appreciation Dinner" - meaning what we ate made us appreciate all the other dinners we've ever eaten. I really had all the best intentions, but the rice didn't cook right (actually not at all), and the fried apples and onions that sounded so delicious and cozy in "Little House on the Prairie" were definitely not delicious and cozy in the year 2010. The kids and Jared ate without complaint - oh, how I love them! They did ask if there was any dessert - meaning, "Is there incentive to eat this pile in front of us?" But I didn't even have any dessert.
They were all so stoic about it, and I just kept apologizing, until Jared consoled me by telling me that it was OK; every dinner doesn't have to be a success story. That meant a lot coming from him, considering that 1) he knows I have my share of dinner failures and then some, and 2) dinner is his only really good meal of the day (He eats oatmeal for breakfast and no lunch.).
The real point, though, is that he is right. Cooking from scratch to save money is not always a success story - and that's OK. I'm a better cook because I've learned from failure, and my family seems to get easily over the less-than-delicious meals with no negative side effects. We can't learn and be successful if we give up because of failure. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!!:)