My Newest System: Becoming More Domestic

It's 2am again and guess who's blogging...me! A lot of nights I fight sleep I really am tired, but once in a while I'm awake and productive. Tonight is one of the awake and productive nights.

I am my mother's daughter in so many ways. Yes, we have a lot of differences, but I love creating new systems and methods of organizing things. My most recent new system involves another one of our similarities: a love of food! Cooking dinner has become one of those chores I don't look forward to, and after thinking about why, I think it's because I want to be good at it without practicing (sounds like my years of playing piano and flute all over again...haha).

Anyway, numerous family and family friends that I consider talented in the kitchen have given me all sorts of cookbooks over the years. I should be using these resources! So, this past week I pulled a couple cookbooks out and thumbed through, writing down the entrees that I wanted to try (I intentionally skipped over the desserts). Then I did another one of my favorite things: created a spreadsheet! I organized the meals into two categories: "30 minutes or less" and "over 30 minutes." After the spreadsheet was complete, I had Matt pick out six meals for the next two weeks, created a list of groceries to buy and scheduled cooking into my calendar. I'm really excited about trying the following recipes:

• Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops
• Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry
• Beef Teriyaki
• Big Beef Burger Stack-Ups
• Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry-in-a-Hurry
• Chicken Schnitzel

On a related note, another fun tool I'm excited about is an application on my phone: OurGroceries. It allows me to create a shopping list on my phone that I don't have to worry about losing, but the coolest part: I can share it with Matt so either of us can add / take off anything. That means if either of us goes to the store, we just have to pull the application up to see what's on the list. Isn't that fun??