That’s right, I’m changing my nickname from Libby to Betty, Betty Crocker. Ha, just kidding!

Part of this European adventure is the whole stay-at-home mom thing (I know I’m beating a dead horse on this), and with this is the sole responsibility of feeding my family without fast food, without take-out, and without restaurants. So, my hand has been forced and here I have made a complete 180 from my previous life.

I will say, I still don’t like to cook. I like the outcome most of the time and I like that it feels healthier and better for my family. But I still find that the preparation for dinner starts in the morning, usually requires a daily trip to the store (for one or two small ingedients – I never quite have everything I need) and still gives me some anxiety all day.

When I first posted my question on FB about learning to love to cook, I did get some “it’s even worse when you spend the time and effort and the kids won’t eat it.” I have been extremely lucky with this. Even before I was actually cooking (while Justin was deployed and I was sick), they told me I should open my own restaurant because they liked my soup so much (Lipton noodle soup) 😂😂😂😂, so maybe they’re not the best judge of “good”. BUT –  they are willing to eat pretty much anything and often prefer the more adventurous meals to the plain ones. They all love shrimp and steak and most of our foreign-type meals (Asian, Mexican, cajun, etc), but are less enthused by a run-of-the-mill ham and potatoes meal. We usually have to force them to eat that – I mean, who doesn’t like ham and potatoes???

In the 5 months of cooking, I’ve only had two meals they didn’t like (one was last night!) and to be fair, Justin and I didn’t care for the first one either (it was a ginger ground beef meal…just didn’t work). Last night’s failure (at least for the kids) was peanut-sesame noodles. They didn’t care for the flavor, or the texture (it ended up being too sticky). Otherwise, they’re pretty excited to eat dinner every night. Their current favorites – fiesta lime  chicken and Cuban chicken (I don’t have recipes – I google them each time 😬).

BUT (BIG BUT) – I use rotisserie chicken for 90% of our meals 😂. I have never been a fan of cooking meat and in the past I have very much disliked the texture of some chicken I have baked myself. Last week, however, I baked some chicken breasts and they were delicious! (So maybe more in the future, but rotisserie is just SO EASY). Outside of rotisserie chicken, I probably use ground beef for 8% (taco Tuesday!) and Justin grills 2% of the time (these numbers are EXACT haha). I have never used a grill in my life and have no idea how to even turn ours on. I can marinate the meat before hand, but I’m going to just stay out of the actual grilling part.

The cooking part. It’s amazing that I have a kitchen FULL of cooking equipment, but never seem to have what the recipes call for. (Side note – up until about two years ago, I had 9 stock pots. Why? Who needs that many and what are they cooking??? (I donated to family who cooked for us 👍🏻). I always use the same pot for large amounts, so I definitely don’t need 9. One will do, though we probably have 4 still.) I have drawers and drawers of pots and pans and muffin tins and utensils, but never what the recipe calls for. An immersion blender? No, don’t even know what that is. Potato masher? Nope, but at least I can guess what this is. Dutch oven? Definitely not. Crock pot? Didn’t make it overseas (wrong voltage). Mixer? Nope, don’t have one of these either (and never have). So far it really doesn’t seem to have impacted the cooking (nor do I need more “stuff” in the kitchen). A fork works great for mashing beans and potatoes and for mixing/beating. Not sure exactly what a Dutch oven does but I instantly substitute stock pot and the two chilis we made came out great. (Another side note – I watched a documentary on the lowest caste in India and they cook with practically nothing. It’s super sad, but if they can do that, I can cook with my 8 drawers of stuff without buying more.)

Like I said before, I can’t quite get the exact meal planning thing down. I really just buy the same basic ingredients every week and try to make them work – peppers, tomatoes, lemons/limes, carrots, cucumbers, chicken stock, rice, cheese, and of course, rotisserie chicken 🍗. I try to work with what I have, but fresh veggies go bad quickly and so does the fresh bread, so I still end up at the store 2-3 (or 4 or 5) days a week, and there’s always a new spice or oil I don’t have. We are lucky that fresh fruit and vegetables are affordable here and so is fresh bread. Baguettes every day! I even have my own window herb garden (because every meal needs an herb).

Could use some watering, but we have parsley, cilantro, basil, and rosemary.

Really all of the meals have been excellent – grilled chicken with rustic mustard sauce, creole turkey jambalaya, pulled BBQ chicken, buffalo chicken grilled cheese, Cuban chicken (Family favorite!). And I’ve learned that my herb garden is amazing, lemon and lime juice and Dijon mustard make everything great, leaving onions out doesn’t ruin the meal 😂, and having every flavor of shredded cheese (and fresh mozzarella) on hand makes life easier.

Besides the main course though, some of my favorite things I have made recently are sides – fresh garlic bread (local baguette with garlic butter and parsley), rice fritters (tasted like something we would have at Cracker Barrel!), banana bread and fried cinnamon apples (even better than Cracker Barrel and came from the neighbors tree! BTW, the neighbor’s house is at the kids’ bus stop and they seem to not like that I park at their house. One person came over to ask me what I was doing one day and I had to google translate to talk to them. She seemed ok with that but still makes me uncomfortable. Next day, another neighbor came over and I though she was going to ask me to move away from her horses, but instead she gave me a huge box of apples from her tree for the kids!)

So while I don’t love cooking, I have somewhat embraced it.  I mean, no one else is cooking it, so I have to do it. I’m trying to relax a little more and not let dinner anxiety set in at 9 am. If only it were all as easy as pie (desserts!) – I am a “Baker” after all.