Miranda's House of Doom

As part of an effort to be more responsible the husband and I have been trying to cook more often as the amount of money we were spending eating out was, frankly, obscene.  It was decided that we were going to make a serious effort to eat in more.  I planted a garden to provide us with home grown veggies (watch for the upcoming post “Garden Watch: 2010!”).  I got into meal planning.  Lord knows I’ve been collecting recipes for about a year now, and have enough that the husband and I could eat something different every night of the week and still go about two and a half years without repeat.

You’d think that I’d cook more since I actually enjoy it, but that isn’t the case.  I’ve had to get into the habit of banging pots and pans around after being spoiled by restaurants every night.    Part of my unwillingness to cook since I moved out on my own was that I have always lived with people much better at it than me.

My brother has always been a remarkable cook, even when we were little.  He and my mother (a terrific cook in her own right) bonded over cooking together.  I didn’t want to get in the way of this, so I stayed out of the kitchen.  After college I moved in with my best friend who can make vegetarian food that knocks your socks off.  She made me my first curry, and I will always be grateful.  Surrounded by such awesome people I never really had to worry about providing my own meals.  More often than not I would come home from things and food would be there for me like magic. 

Eventually I moved in with a carnivore that has always had a warming drawer that provided him with tasty food.  With no warming drawer or best friend to provide meals, we were on our own.  Then after a few arguments concerning vegetables it seemed like eating out was instrumental in the success of our relationship.  He’s gotten more lenient recently, so I figured I should reward him with delicious things to encourage the devouring our or plant based friends.

Our menu plan for the week is above.  By posting it on the internet I feel like I’ve got thousands of people that know what I’m supposed to be eating thus making any trips to Chick-fil-a a massive cop out.  We’re also trying to cut out most red meat (if you see my husband tell him how brave he is), limiting it to once every couple of weeks for starters.  I’ll probably do some sort of “This is what we’re cooking this week” post every Sunday or Monday.  Occasionally I’ll post recipes of the things we’ve made if they turned out well.  I hope you enjoy them!