Lessons from the Kitchen

If there is anything I've learned from being a mother, it is how to be efficient. I'm not saying I have mastered it (or will ever master it!), but I find that every moment I have free is filled with doing something efficient.

I've learned a few lessons the past couple months that I thought I'd share.

1.For the past 3 months, every single Monday I take 10 minutes and clean out my fridge, freezer, and pantry. It literally only takes ten minutes. That way I get rid of any bad leftovers or produce, which means I don't ever have to do the dreaded 2 hour long, gagging clean up of the fridge every 4 months or so. It also really reminds me what I still need to use, what I need to by, that sort of stuff. I've noticed that the food I've wasted (which used to be a huge problem for me) has significantly gone down.

I also try as much as I can to loosely menu plan and grocery shop on Mondays. With what we have left to use fresh on my mind, it makes it so much easier. I usually do the all this as Barclay is eating breakfast in his highchair each morning.

2.I have cleaned out an entire lower pantry for Barclay. He kept getting into my pots and pans so I just cleaned one out and filled it with toys. Now when I'm cooking, he goes and gets in his little hide away and plays.

3.I've also started making a big pot of soup on Monday or Tuesday. This is so that I can have an easy lunch throughout the week. My husband has lunch meetings and is never home so I was sort of skipping lunch...which made for a very testy wife at the end of the day. I personally don't like leftovers too much, but I love soup so it's worked well for me.

4.I've started cooking 2 meals at a time. That way it's only one kitchen clean versus two.

5.I just bought for $4 at Ross, the cook book Deceptively Delicious. I've seen it for years and just figured it was probably a cute cover but probably no good (why else is it at Ross?) I finally bought one that was slightly damaged because my curiosity had been peaked for so long.

I LOVE it. It may be my favorite cook book ever. It's by Jerry Seinfeld's wife and it is basically about how to sneak in pureed veggies into every meal. It's for children, but I see it as the perfect solution to a picky husband...

I've made 4 of the recipes in the past 24 hours and I LOVE 3 of them...hate 1.

Seriously they are so good!

I'm going to post the three recipes that I did like. And seriously ya'll. I would not post them if I didn't think they were worth it.

Enjoy!