Cooking

I'll be honest (when am I not on here) I am NOT a fan of cooking. Or at least wasn't would be a better statement I guess. I'll start from the beginning to help you understand.

Growing up we had to help with dinner. We had to help cook, and most of all we had a night we had to set the table. This was a required part of being the Cade/Machiela family.

When I went off on my own, my Freshman year I lived in the dorms, and the extent of cooking was microwaving some mac and cheese, or ramen noodles. When I moved into an apartment my sophomore year, I also got my job at Steak N Shake. As unhealthy as that seems it was cheap and I just ate there. I could cook, using a recipe if I wanted, but just choose the easy way out.

When I got married, we lived in such a tiny, super duper, small apartment (600 sq. ft) it was almost more work to cook. Jacob and I also worked at SNS, and had opposite schedules, so we were only cooking for one. More of the microwave, or eating out.

Then our big move to Atlanta. We had a nice apartment, and a nice kitchen, and I became domestic. We were watching our budget closely so I picked out recipes for each day, and only bought what we would need for the week. Everyday had a plan, and we stuck to that quite easily. As time went on I became more relaxed with the eating schedule and just picked out 5-6 recipes per week, and we could choose on that day what we felt like making.

Then came me getting sick. This seems to come up a lot. It was a life changing event. Some of the things I changed were great, others not so great. Anywho, when I got sick, I just didn't care. I didn't want to get up and cook, so if Jacob didn't feel like cooking then we got something to bring home. And when Jacob did cook, somehow my kitchen became a mess. I am a self proclaimed neat freak (on the verge of OCD at times) and when I wasn't feeling well I would walk into the kitchen, and just get so down that I did not have the energy to clean my house. That would tumble into a depression of not being a good wife and so on! So I almost didn't want him to cook. That would leave my kitchen clean, and the probability of me staying above the depressed line.

I finally started feeling well about the time I started my Masters. So then my life consisted of teaching all day, taking night/weekend classes, and tutoring. I just felt that I was too tired to cook, and it was easier to eat out, or have Jacob cook. I had the energy to clean up the kitchen, but it had gotten to a point where I associated cooking with a dirty kitchen, and the thought of a dirty kitchen sent my OCD into a tailspin. Jacob enjoys cooking, but doesn't want to do the clean up, and when I would clean up, I would almost have manic attacks as I was cleaning. I would go over the top, and then want to continue through the house, only to find I didn't have time to clean the house, which then lead to me becoming upset, and so on and so on....

That brings us up to present day. Jacob is now into his major classes, and doesn't really have the time to devote to cooking anymore. So I started small. Just warming up something in the microwave. Then I cooked some pasta, and then a homemade pizza. And guess what...I found that when I cook, I keep the kitchen up to my standards. It might take me longer to cook, as I take out one item at a time, and then put it away and clean up immediately, but the cooking gets done, and my kitchen is clean. I feel that this has become a win win situation. We can eat at home, saving us money, and most likely calories, and I clean up the kitchen, dinning room, and living room in the process.

I am happy to report I have cooked all 4 nights this week, my kitchen is clean (even with the Weight Watchers Mac and Cheese in the oven), and I have the dinning room cleaned. I still have enough energy to get in some kind of a work out. I could get used to this. Somehow I feel like I have added time into my day.

And on the T.V. note - I have been doing so well. I watch maybe a half hour of news in the morning, and then maybe 2 sitcoms, or a Law and Order at night. I am totally caught up on the magazines, and will dive into my novels tonight. Turning the T.V. off also might have added time into my day. I just hope during the school year I can keep all of this up. I am feeling so good right now!