::a good day for the kitchen::

I couldn't believe it. Yesterday I cooked a whole bunch of stuff.
I'm not really a cooking kind of person. Honestly I haven't had much time for it the last few years, and it was quite a chore to make dinner between all the stuff I was doing. So Kris or I would make dinner from time to time, and we'd eat out from time to time and sometimes we'd just have to eat pancakes for dinner.

The only things I actually enjoy cooking are yummy treats like cookies or cupcakes. I could make those all day. So I would make up a batch every once in a while and we'd share them with friends. Other than that though, the kitchen didn't get a lot of workouts.

Anyway, since we've moved out here work has been a lot slower for me and I'm finally done with school, so I've had more time on my hands, which is amazing. And since Kris is finally making some money I have no excuse. I've had to start cooking dinner.
And I think I've been doing a good job! I've a least planned for a different meal every night, whether it's a whole new one, or leftovers or sandwiches or whatever. So we usually know what we're eating beforehand which is really nice. It's also nice for Kris to have leftovers to take to school to eat for lunch.

I know for sure it's saving us a lot of money, since before we had to go out to get food a lot. It was expensive. Kris often had to go buy lunch during the day too, which added up quickly. I'm sure we're also eating healthier than we were. So I feel good about it.

I had a marathon 24 hours of cooking yesterday. It was crazy. A friend brought us a big zucchini, and since I don't really like zucchini I figured I better try to make it into a bread. Which I did on sunday afternoon. Kris was nice and helped me grate it up. The bread turned out totally delicious. I'll eat zucchini any day if it's hidden in a bread like that!


On saturday I bought 4 pounds of strawberries because I really wanted to make some freezer jam. Kris's mom often makes freezer jam and it's just sooo delicious.
I pulled out the strawberries yesterday and a couple of them were already moldy! So I knew that was my cue, and I started in on the jam right that second.

It turned out great, which I'm really glad about because it was my first time making it. I used a lower sugar recipe and it tastes so much better than the lower sugar jam we were eating from the store. There's just no comparison.


After I made the jam I got dinner ready, Max's favorite, chicken and rice casserole.
But then I realized that the jam had only used half the strawberries. We had gotten way too many. So I needed to find something else to do with the rest. Luckily I have a baking blog that I love to read. It's delicious just to read it. I found a recipe there for a oatmeal berry crumble or something like that. Boy is it yummers. It's a flaky bottom crust with strawberry (or any berry) filling and flakey oatmealy topping. It used up the rest of my berries. I would highly recommend this recipe to anybody wanting to eat something yummy. And I would highly recommend the Baking Bites blog. It's great.



This stuff served as a perfect family home evening treat.

I couldn't believe I had cooked so much in one day! It was like a world record or something.

And to top it off I got Max to do this for his little friend who has a birthday this week:


So all in all it felt like a pretty good day yesterday. And we'll have delicious jam in the freezer for a while to show for it!