dinner goals

I settled on a resolution for the new year as I was flipping through a new cookbook I ordered for myself - Dinner: A Love Story, (from the writer of this blog).  It's time to focus on dinner.  It caught my eye as she describes herself as a dinner doula - someone to talk me off the ledge of dinner anxiety and all the pressure I've put on myself, as well as to inspire me to put a little more thought into dinner each night and try some new things.  I actually really enjoy making dinner.  It's the stress of coming up with what to make and the frustration of not having ingredients on hand that makes me want to bang my head on the counter.  With a little effort put into meal planning for the week and a proper grocery trip executed, it's actually completely enjoyable.  Levi will come home and keep the girls in the basement while I cook upstairs in the kitchen, music on and nobody weaving around my legs crying.  I'm even happy to clean up, if it means I'm off bedtime duty.

On Saturday night I made a chicken pot pie.  Easy accomplishment for most, but for some reason it's been on my "I would love to make this, but I'm just too afraid of failing" list.  I'll admit, I only tried this because the recipe in DALS suggests using cooked rotisserie chicken and frozen pastry, both of which I bought and didn't prepare myself and that is why this was no longer a dish to fear.  Will I ever make it completely from scratch?  Not likely.  This way, we will enjoy it again and likely again after that.  It's comfort food ... and this recipe used yams, which was pretty delish.

Tonight we tried DALS's Spicy Shrimp with yogurt, rice, cilantro, lime and naan bread.  It was really tasty and I'll make it again, but I will never again buy shrimp that hasn't been completely deveined and peeled.  Big mistake.  Turns out I'm a little more creeped out about raw seafood than I thought.  

I've started to keep a bucket list of meal ideas at the start of each new season, with both new recipes that I want to try and old favourites that I don't want to forget about.  It's been a good way to narrow down the options when I'm drumming up ideas of what to eat each week.  I like having a pretty wide variety of meals on the go, as opposed to Levi who'd be happy with his top 5 on repeat all year, or Avery who likes to order up a peanut butter sandwich any chance she's given.  She's always been a pretty good eater, but turning four has made her a little more stubborn and sometimes she goes to bed hungry.  Ella is usually a super good eater and shovels food into her mouth at the same time as pointing for more. Only once in a while will she take a quick scan of her plate and then hand it right back to me (and then start grunting and pointing in the direction of whatever carbs she can see).  In general, the kids eat what we eat, they all eat what I want to dish up and I'm not afraid to keep trying new things as long as it keeps me motivated to keep up with such a daily job.