The Real Deal Meal

Issues (excuses maybe) why I haven't been much into cooking this last year:

• Constant nausea during the first half of my pregnancy.
• Once nausea got better, that growing baby taking residence in my belly left me less hungry.
• Bringing new baby home and suddenly having no time to spend in the kitchen
• To now going back to work and having even less time than before.

OK, let's be honest. All those reasons, excuses or not, have left me hardly ever cooking a prepared, from scratch meal. Sure, I've whipped up some dinners, but they are generally nothing to be proud of and usually involving a box, can or frozen option. Whenever I am perusing blogs in Google Reader, I see my friend Linda's site and just feel plain guilty. She prepares amazing, gourmet, delectable meals with fresh ingredients for her husband Ben and herself just about every night. Plus, she works in marketing for Jack-in-the-Box, so her meals are always styled beautifully too!

I decided to set that guilt aside, and just do something about it! Bill and I were headed to the store Saturday morning and I pulled up Linda's site and printed out three of her recipes and jotted down all of the items I needed. After we arrived at the store and I had left said list on the kitchen counter, we drove all the way back home to get it and were finally able to purchase our groceries. We headed home with our bags full of fresh veggies, meat and herbs.

Last night, I prepared Linda's meal of Grilled Citrus Pork Chops with Carmelized Onions, Sweet Potato Mash and Citrusy Green Beans. I added to the meal some cheddar biscuits and I have to tell you, I was quite proud of myself. I created quite a mess in the kitchen with my three pots/skillets, cutting boards, zesters, knives, measuring cups/spoons happening and I had some issues with the timing of trying to get everything prepared at the same time. Bill was upstairs with Elyse watching the SuperBowl as I madly raced to get our meals together. It turned out great, Bill enjoyed it and while it was technically two servings, we had just enough for him to take a plate to work. This is perfect for us, as there are very few meals in which we actually covet the leftovers anyway.

I'm excited to try out more of Linda's recipes. With the limited time I have for food preparation these days, I like how I can go to her site and easily pull up the recipes, job down the ingredients I need and she explains step-by-step how to get the whole meal on the table.

Thanks, friend! Let's hope I can keep this up!