My Mistake

Exactly 1 week and 4 days ago I made a mistake. I cooked something NEW for dinner.

As a mother of a VERY picky toddler (I'm talking hot dogs and plain spaghetti noodles only), and a VERY picky husband (corn is the ONLY vegetable he eats), I play it safe every night and cook things that I KNOW my family will eat.  This means we have a rotating menu of

• Spaghetti
• Taco Salad
• Chicken Sandwichs (with corn)
• Hamburger Helper (which I don't like, but they do)
• Hamburgers
• Cereal (and yes, I know this doesn't qualify as cooking, but if it works it works right?)
• Tacos
• Pancakes (yes for dinner)
• Pizza
• Pork Chops (with corn)

Occasionally we will spice it up a bit on the weekends with steak, or ribs, or something that takes longer to cook than we can handle on a week night. We also eat out. A Lot. It's not that I don't like to cook, actually I enjoy it.  The pleasure of cooking a new recipe and having it turn out just as good as the picture is a mini victory in the kitchen and a confirmation to myself as a woman and mother that I CAN feed my family good meals. It's just that who has TIME to cook a new recipe or meal every night?  AND even if you DO have time, who can think of something new to actually make?

So, back to my mistake.

I was CRAVING Smoked Chicken Nachos from Rib Crib like a pregnant woman craving pickles.  I could smell, taste, and feel the crunch in my mouth-in fact my mouth is watering now just thinking about them... It was Sunday evening, I still had about an hours worth of homework to do and enough money in the bank to cover the necessitys for the week plus our McDonalds budget.  I didn't really want to spend extra money ($10.00 in fact since those nachos are a bit pricey), just to satisfy my craving.

I decided to make them myself.

Sadly, they turned out great.  In my opinion-better than Rib Crib. Even better, my husband liked them. Even MORE better (ok, I'm not an english student) my son liked them. The fact that everyone liked them was a victory in itself. 

At this point you may be asking youself, "Why is this a bad thing?".  Well, let me finish.

We are all munching down, enjoying this new creation and I ask my husband, "Well, do you like them?" Obviously he does since he is eating them, but you know....

He responds, "Yeah, they are really good." (THAT'S IT?) No, there is more..."You should cook stuff like this more often.  I'm getting tired of what you make." (Yeah, THAT'S IT.)

"I'm getting tired of what you make"????

In my mind there was a full on rebuttal forming, "Why don't you cook, why don't come up with something new, why don't you try and please two of the pickest eaters ever, why don't you..." (I'm sure you can see where this is going). What I actually said was, "Do you know how hard it is to come up with new stuff? You guys are hard to please but ok, I can try and cook new things."
Alright, in reality it was more like what played out in my head but I did agree to try new things.

So, here I am. 11 days later and we have had 6 new meals.  Most of which have been easy, quick, and everyone has (mostly) enjoyed. I have spent a lot of time searching the internet and recreating dishes that we already like.  Out of the 6 meals we have loved 3, hated 1, and split down the middle on 2.

Since I love talking about myself (well, who doesn't?) I decided I should blog my trials, triumps, and failures in the kitchen to give others some fresh ideas on boring week night meals. Unfortunatley I didn't have THIS great idea until 11 days in so I have no pictures of my fantastic meals up to this point to share. But I will. With each new meal I'll share a photos of the steps and the finished product, the recipe and how it rated at our house.

Feed ya soon!

A