Spiralizer Adventure

This week I found some time to use a much-loved Christmas gift. My husband has been bringing home beautiful vegetables from his co-worker’s garden. These gorgeous summer squash and cucumbers were a motivator to bring out the spiral veggie slicer and cookbook that have been sitting on a shelf for way too long, since last Christmas to be exact.

Cooking is one of those things that I am bad about making time for. Eating out and take out have been a go to for me in the past and it wreaked havoc on my weight and my wallet.   I love to bake, cooking not so much. Now that I am trying to maintain the weight I have lost and maybe lose a couple more pounds eating at home has a new appeal. I tried several of the meal home delivery services. It was fun for a while but with all the packing materials and pots and pans to wash the fun went out of it. For all their proclamations about being less expensive than eating out I am not fully convinced… It seemed expensive to me. So, I tried it, will maybe try again but not until after I’ve exhausted my cooking motivation.

Spiralized Summer Squash & Cukes

A fun gadget like my spiralizer is just the item to get me excited about doing some cooking. The fall also tends to bring out the interest in it for me. Crock pot meals are likely next on the agenda. A friend of mine introduced me to one of my all-time faves for the crock pot – salsa chicken. It could not be easier. Put chicken breasts in your crock pot, dump a big jar of salsa on top and cook all day while you are at work. The meal possibilities with this are plentiful: salad topped with salsa chicken, tacos, fajitas, nachos … all are so delish.

Last fall another friend created a Facebook group for sharing healthy but easy recipes for the work week. There were so many good ideas. A couple of the top ones that I seemed to make over and over last year were Italian Wedding Soup with turkey meatballs, Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls and Stay in Bed Beef Stew. I’ll post the recipes in the comments. If you give them a try let me know what you think. If you are a spiralizer and you have tips or great recipes, I’d love to hear those too.

The internet opens so many opportunities that you otherwise would not have when it comes to so many things, cooking lessons among them. There are endless videos with step by step recipes, pie crusts (hoping to try some over the holidays) and food blogs for days. One thing I liked about the Facebook group is that I knew it was real people and not professional chefs making these meals so I figured they would be within my cooking capabilities and would likely be edible.  Some of the stuff you find online is just not realistic for a regular person in a fun of the mill kitchen. Ingredients I’ve never heard of, cooking utensils I don’t own and hours of needed prep time I don’t have. Simple but healthy and delicious is what I’m going for.

I’ve started some regular posting on the blog: a Monday post with a quote to get your week started on a positive note and Wordless Wednesdays has been going on for a while. I am a visual person and I am loving posting a beautiful photo mid-week either of my own or from a photo sharing site like Unsplash. There are so many talented photographers sharing what they have captured with their lense.

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