Cooking Challenge
It supposedly takes 3 weeks to form a habit. Fine. I need to eat healthier. Cooking and eating at home saves a hell of a lot of money. Problem: I have basically one or two recipes that I can successfully manage. I also tend to not cook because of the time involved and the inevitable clean up that is necessary.
Solution? I have a Turbo Cooker (yes a turbo cooker) that my mom gave me. (It was a gift to her as well…). I’ve used it successfully a couple of times, but have never really put it through the paces. Enter my “Cooking Challenge”. I went through the enclosed recipe cards and have chosen 7 or 8 that seem tasty. The incredients are all pretty basic. I made a list of what I’ll need to keep on hand. My goal is to cook at home for 3 weeks straight. Here it is laid out with a couple of exeptions/caveats:
3 Week Cooking Challenge
I will cook at home for the next 3 weeks with the following exceptions:
- Special dinners out with M. are considered an exception to the challenge.
- Days where I am out all day working or running errands and am unable to get home to cook are considered an exception to the challenge.
My thinking is that the “one pot” nature of the Turbo Cooker will make clean up easier. Laying out and deciding on 7 or so dishes that look tasty should also make it easier to maintain for the 3 week stretch.
Things that I need to watch out for:
- I need to really plan my day so that I have time to cook/eat/clean. This might mean that on days where I have an appointment around 6 p.m. (like I do tonight with my dance class) I would eat my main meal in the middle of the day, then have the leftovers for dinner.
- I’ll need to keep soup and sandwhich material on hand.
- I need to plan out my grocery shopping. Most of the ingredients needed are pretty basic and I can get them at the closest grocery. There are a couple items that I’d like to get at Fairway and I need to plan this out.
So there it is. I have fear about making such a bold commitment to something like this. Really what it is is my fear of this being just another thing that I’ve tried to do and been unable to stay with for the long term. I need to remember that this is something that I’m going to do for three weeks. I’ll then assess the process at that time. I need to put this out there and then just “act as if” I know what the hell I’m doing.