I AM NOT A COOK

As my family and friends will attest to....I AM NOT A COOK! I cook a few things well, chicken, spaghetti, lasagna, desserts, breakfast, salads and a few others, but my repertoire is not very advanced.


My mother is an AWESOME cook. I even have a lot of her recipes. They feed 10-12 people at a time. My mother was also raised by an awesome cook and because she was spoiled by her mother, when she got married she only knew how to make fudge. Out of necessity...my father needing to eat...and starting to produce mass quantities of children....she learned fast. I was raised with the understanding that you eat what is on your plate or you go hungry. I also learned to love left-overs.

THROWING MY HUSBAND UNDER THE BUS...a little...My husband is a picky eater and does not eat left overs. When we first got married (seven years ago), I would prepare a meal and he would come out with a comment like, "I'm not in the mood for that tonight." So, since I didn't want to waste food I started planning menus WITH him and but even after preparing what HE wanted for, say Tuesday night, he'd still say, "I'm not in the mood for that tonight." Then I started telling him to TELL ME what he wanted me to make and I'd do it. This worked a little better, but sometimes I didn't have the food on hand. Anyway...cooking has become very frustrating for me because I haven't learned to read his mind yet. I think that ability comes during year ten.

Now, he has never been mean or rude about any of this. In fact, when I would try something new and it came out HORRIBLE, he would still try it and smile.

Over the past, 5 years we have been eating more and more frozen meals, so he can just pop in what he wants when he gets home, since he works late and doesn't like leftovers.

I've decided to try something new.....I come from a family where Daddy and the kids ate whatever my mother decided to prepare and we darn well liked it! Even to this day, I have noticed, that my brothers eat whatever is prepared for them, and they darn well like it!

Anyway....now that I have my own son and he is finally eating human food, I've decided that I am going to prepare WHATEVER I WANT and they will both have to learn to DARN WELL LIKE IT!

I am hoping my efforts will produce something between this.....

.....and....

.....this!

I don't have the skills for anything extravagant. I also don't have a lot of time. And if it were just me, I would toss together anything, as I only eat to live, not live to eat. It's not something that excites me. I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP!!!!

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE, EASY, QUICK MEALS!