Not just a mommy, a wife too

I will admit it. My cooking has been horrible lately. Well, that's not entirely true. My cooking skills are fine, but I have not been cooking dinners in a very long time. It started back when Alex was in Paramedic school and was gone nearly every night, and now that he is gone a lot of nights working at the fire station I have found myself in a rut, just so out of the habit of making dinners. So what have we been eating for the last 2 years? Well we have prepared food but it certainly has not been interesting food or well rounded meals. Sandwiches, cereal, eating out, or our go-to meal; pasta of all sorts. Stuffed peppers and fajitas are about as exotic as it's been lately.

Now that we are well into the swing of things with Matthew and we are both home more in the evenings I have decided to do my part a make good dinners for us, only I need new recipes because I am so bored of all my same stuff. My cousin sent me an email for a recipe exchange which I was excited about, but I have not had one reply from any of my friends.

About as month ago our friend Jaime, who knows how much we love her kids, sent us a fundraiser from her daughter's school for magazine subscriptions. Since we are suckers and always give for the kids' fundraisers I decided to get a subscription to a cooking magazine (got Alex a fitness magazine subscription- hey, he can be a hunky husband too). It came last week and we sat down together and went through the whole thing and pulled out about 6-7 new recipes that look easy, good, and healthy. We made a shopping list and I got all the ingredients needed, and a lot of it is different stuff from what I normally make. And veggies- we are back to eating lots of veggies!

I'm really excited to do this for us, and I think it will be good for Alex and I to sit down to a nice meal and talk and have some nice time together as a family. After all, we do finally have a table to eat at after 4 years of marriage.

Here is what I made tonight, my first meal from my Cooking Light magazine. Shrimp, avocado, and grapefruit salad (but I used oranges). I even made my own dressing! I think it looks a lot like the picture! It was really good, nice and light, healthy and different!

Matthew was busy being a squirmy wormy while we ate. If he isn't careful I might just eat him up for dinner!