Creative Thinking

Melissa and I were talking a few weeks ago about a truly boring topic, but it got me thinking. We were discussing our lack of creativity lately with planning dinners for our families. Doesn't it just seem like it's the same ol' thing lately? At my house, the "same ol' thing" is tacos, pizza, or Wendy's. Not very fun, and not very healthy. Inspired by a few friends who have been posting recipes, I have decided to do something similar. My friend Annie takes pictures of the recipes she makes, and they are beautiful, but I won't do that because my camera is ghetto and it would show my messy kitchen in the background (Annie's kitchen, by the way, is always immaculate in her photos). Patti has been writing about healthy recipes, which is inspiring, but just be warned that my recipes won't always be healthy, per se. They will be healthier, however, than going to Taco Bell, simply because they are homemade. My goal is to find meals that are easier to prepare and will freeze well so I can freeze some dinners before baby Savannah makes her appearance.



My first "new" recipe is from Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious." I made the chicken salad. It has pureed cauliflower in it, which is actually a funny story in itself. I don't like most vegetables, and I bought cauliflower for the first time and didn't know what to do with it. Without laughing at me, Melissa talked me through the preparation and steaming of cauliflower. The only recemmondation I would have for it is to only use 2 stalks of celery and cut them, don't finely chop them. We are a cheesey family, so we put cheese on our sandwiches. They could also be put in pitas, which we would have done had our pitas not molded (grrr). We enjoyed it a lot, and best of all, I think it will freeze really well! The combination of spices on the chicken was really good, too. We'll definetely try it again!

Next up...semi-homemade ravioli.