Trying to Cook

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not much of a cook. A lot of my friends are very good cooks, and I'm always jealous at how easy cooking seems to be for them. I don't think it's necessarily that I'm bad at it (despite the evidence to the contrary in this blog post); I just haven't really tried very hard to learn. Part of the reason for this is probably that I hate cooking for just myself. It seems like a waste of effort to cook a full meal for just one person, especially when I have to store the leftovers and do all the clean up myself afterwards, too! Before Shawn and I were married, I had been living alone for over 7 years. And even after we were married, I was alone during the week, and we often went out for meals when Shawn was home on the weekends.

But now...things have changed! We've been in our apartment for about 2 weeks now, and I've actually been cooking quite a bit! So far, most of what I've made have been meals that I already knew how to make, but I've been searching for new recipes online and in a couple cookbooks that I have. On Wednesday night, I made my first "experimental" meal. I tried making the Cheddar Chicken and Rice Skillet that I found on kraftfoods.com. Despite a minor issue I had with the rice, it turned out to be quite good! I substituted broccoli for the peppers, just because I had it on hand. Shawn and I both liked it, and the recipe makes a LOT. We've both had leftovers for meals since then, and it's still not gone. For the record, Shawn actually had his leftovers cold, and he said it was just as good that way. It's also actually pretty healthy.

I've also been baking a little bit. Last week, I made brownies (from a box, so don't be too impressed), and last night, I made my mom's chocolate chip cookies. I think I baked them a little too long, but otherwise, they're good. I really would love to bake more, but we're trying to eat healthier, so I made have to hold back on the baked goods.