Unfortunately, that's a question I don't have an answer to all too often. Sometimes I will get really motivated and plan out dinners for the week, but most of the time I am scrambling to figure something out at the last minute (which means we eat the same two or three easy meals over and over again), or we just go and get take out. I like to blame it on Matt's crazy schedule. With him out of town every other week it is hard to develop a routine for dinner, but in reality it really shouldn't be that hard, right? Now Matt really doesn't seem to mind, and Ella doesn't know the difference, but I still feel some sort of guilt over not cooking meals more regularly around here. So last night my sister-in-law Ashley and I tried out this Dream Dinners place. It's one of those places where you go put together a bunch of meals and then take them home and freeze them. I did six meals, but the great part about having a small family is that I could split each of the meals in half so I actually came home with twelve whole meals! It was actually sort of fun putting them all together, although Ashley and I felt sort of incompetent since we took so long to finish. We were the last ones there by a long shot - but I figure since we were first-timers we were probably slower than normal. Anyway, now comes the true test - seeing if the meals are actually tasty. I really hope they are so that I can make this a regular thing.
Although, I may not have to worry about cooking at all anymore since Ella has taken up a new hobby:
I gave her this bowl and spatula to play with the other day and it kept her more happily occupied than any of her other toys ever do! She just sat in the kitchen for what seemed like forever "stirring" very contently. She was even so smart as to go and get her cup of Cheerios and pour them into the bowl so she could stir them around. I think I'm onto something here. Ella may be taking over the cooking duties in this household sooner rather than later!