I’ve been married 10 years, I have two kids, but I am not a good cook. I should be though, right? If you are a wife and a mom you should cook. That’s what I’ve always thought growing up. It probably doesn’t help that my husband is a great cook. He cooks and I clean. I must admit, I clean well. I like to clean. It’s pretty sick I know. My friends call me Monica from the TV show Friends, cleaning all the time!
Anyway, I do want to cook more and cook better; I just don’t know where to start. I see these other women writing weekly shopping lists and planning out menus. The only thing I ever really cook besides Mac N Cheese is anything you can throw in a Crock-Pot. I have a recipe book for my Crock-Pot, so I can find ingredients and throw them together and push start. I can do that! And it tastes great when it’s done. That’s the extent of my cooking though.
What menus are these women planning? How are they so organized that they have coupons for each item? I can’t even bring myself to use the FREE Soy Milk coupon that keeps printing out at Stop-N-Shop. I suck at using coupons. I wish I could be more like these awesome homemakers, but I just don’t know where to start??? Help anyone???
Please give me some tips! I also want us to start eating healthier! I picked up some yummy veggies at a local farm yesterday, and my husband (of course) made an awesome vegetable stir-fry with brown rice, so that was good. We don’t always eat that healthy, though. I try and have a fruit, veggie, and main meal for my kids each night, but it’s hard. They also usually fight me on the veggies and leave them on their plates! Any tips for that?
I think it probably just comes down to making cooking a priority. I may not ever be as talented as my husband who can just see ingredients and create his own dish, but I know I can follow directions/recipes if I really want to. I do love to bake! I bake cakes, cookies, muffins, etc., so I know how to follow directions correctly. I just don’t cook well. Cooking is different than baking.
I guess it’s just easier being lazy sometimes. It’s easier throwing a frozen lasagna in the oven than making it from scratch. I will put my mind to it and try harder. I think I will make it a point to cook at least 3 meals this week from fresh ingredients. Post some easy recipes for me if you have any!
* Do you feel pressure to be a good cook because you’re a woman?
This was re-posted from my post at aMomKnowsBest where I am a contributing writer.
When I first started using coupons, I signed up for a free four week trial at the Grocery Game. They basically told me what to buy and which coupons to use. I liked that. I don’t cook all that well either. We keep it simple in our house. I would like to try and incorporate meals that include entrees with more than 3 ingredients 😉
What is the Grocery Game? Sounds interesting.
Haha- my husband is the cooker in my family. I do make some mean crockpot recipes! I find some great recipes and when I go to work, I put everything in the crockpot. Works out well:)
Great minds think alike!
My husband is the cook and I clean the kitchen when he’s done (geez, he’s a slob at cooking); however, I am an amazing baker. I think it comes down to the fact that I like baking and I don’t like cooking. I can cook, I just don’t want to! My husband is like yours, he grabs a bunch of ingredients and poof, we have a meal. Now why would I compete with that!! We are now empty-nesters (for some time now) and we are still living the this. It works, so why mess with it. As I tell people “I’m filling the male role, I love football and beer, my husband cooks and cleans, and I burp and fart! Men have had it this way for 200 years it’s now the women’s turn!” Why not, let’s not get hung up on who does what, but doing what we want together!!
That is AWESOME!!! Sounds like we’re a lot alike!
My husband is a whiz at throwing together a meal too. I need recipes. If I don’t use recipes, I would end up with grilled chicken breast, veggies and a rice mix every single night.
I have 80 gagillion recipes posted on pinterest, and that is where I plan my menu from. I also try to plan around what I have in the house. I have to plan my menu because if I don’t, I would end up with the meal above every single night. 😉
Coupons? Forget it. We try but for the most part, coupons are never for what we want or need!
Since your husband is the cook in the family (nothing wrong with that!) you should sit down with him when the grocery ads come out and figure out what sale items to buy. Then see if you can match those sales with coupons from the Sunday paper or online.
Thanks for the Alexa Visit!
I think every household needs to do what works for them. If your cooking/cleaning routine is working, I say stick with it!
I started making a meal plan for 2 weeks at a time, and then basing my grocery shopping off of that. We’re saving money, spending less time at the store, and eating less fast food because there’s 14 options hanging on the fridge at all times.
I suck at coupons too. I can cook and clean, but coupon nope! I should too since everyone says how much $$ they save!
I am halfway there with couponing.. I clip and print them out, but I haven’t figured out how to maximize my savings yet. My couponing friends tell me it doesn’t take much time, but it’s challenging for me to find even a few quiet minutes alone right now. It’s tough being a working mom and trying to do everything!
I would like to cook more, too. My brother recently moved in with us, and he likes to cook, so I’m hoping I’ll learn a few things from him.
Cooking for me is easy… but my mother was a home economics major in college and I grew up in the kitchen pretty much! The best advice I can give you is just keep trying! Cooking is like any other hobby, the more you do it the better you get! There is nothing wrong with crock pot cooking! In fact I do alot of it myself, in today’s world where we are all so hurried and life is so hectic, using the crock pot is one of the best ways to feed your family a good solid meal made from scratch that doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg! Watch my blog, Parga’s Junkyard for some great recipes, most of which IMO are fairly easy too! I have a page link across the bottom of the header for my recipe’s now and as I add more recipe’s I will try to always post them to this link so you can always come back and find the recipe’s! As far as couponing with specific recipe’s in mind…lol… who does that??? I tend to keep a fairly large pantry stocked with items that I use on a regular basis for my cooking and although I am a fairly avid couponer I don’t always go out of my way to find a coupon for any particular recipe…I do however always use my coupons when I do my grocery shopping! LOL… this is getting pretty long…maybe I should write a post for my blog about all this! LOL…