Since I’ve been at my kids’ place for the better part of 14 days, I have been eating well. They recently came home with a newborn and are in the process of adoption. I didn’t come here today to talk about him though. I’m here to talk about home cooking and what a joy it has been to be here while my kids get through the busy days of parenthood. I had forgotten how much the world revolves around little people when they first come home. Holy cow.
My son and his wife have always enjoyed cooking at home but since baby has arrived, I have been surprised by their continued commitment to cook all meals from scratch and keep it creative. We have been eating 3 beautiful meals a day. My job is to fill/unload the dishwasher. We eat so much that we run the dishwasher twice a day! Everything is made with fresh food and all the dishes lean heavily on the vegan side. My daughter-in-law is severely lactose intolerant so there is rarely any dairy in the fridge whatsoever. Hardly a day has gone by that we haven’t had something that wasn’t made better by adding a slice of avocado or a dollop of guacamole.
Typically, my kids sit down on Sunday and write out a dinner menu and then make a shopping list from that. They both have an app they each have access to so when one or the other thinks of something to add to the list, they can both see it. I’ve been invited to go shopping a couple of times and I jump at the chance to go along. It has been interesting and I’ve learned a few things that I’ll be incorporating into my own shopping sprees.
- Only buy what I’m going to use this week.
- I don’t need to put every vegetable in a plastic bag at the store.
- Sprouts has a nice bulk section in Denver so I’ll bet they do in Yuma also.
- You can take your own clean containers to fill up in bulk section and the cashier will subtract the weight of the container (called “taring”). (They use Weck glass containers, which are quite heavy)
- Last night’s dinner can usually be worked over into something fabulous for breakfast if you keep an open mind.
- Freeze leftovers for those days I just don’t want to cook.
Some of my favorite meals have been burrito bowls, Spanish rice, tacos filled with various food items from previous dinners, avocado toast with a fried egg, hash made with potatoes and beans, onions, peppers. We’ve had gnocchi twice now with a lovely homemade marinara. Nothing they have made has been difficult. I believe it is a matter of having the right tools and the right ingredients on hand. And, a really good cook book. I’ve never been one to use a cookbook but I think I may invest in one good book to start with.
For the month of January, my kids are going meatless. This, for me, is an easy one. I love all things beans and could live on eggs, peanut butter, and hummus. I will only be here a couple more days but I’m already looking forward to seeing what’s on my plate for breakfast tomorrow.
Do you cook a lot from scratch? What is your favorite go-to meal to make?
Love, susan
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