Simple Cooking Part 1

BLT with Malabar Spinach from the Garden

I really have been cooking quite a bit the last month.  I just haven't had much time to blog about it.  My son started Kindergarten at the beginning of August.  I've also been busy with things at church, swimming lessons, spending time in the garden, trying to keep up with laundry, and a little girl who misses her big brother during the day.  We are actually eating at home more than we were this summer, I am just doing much simpler cooking.  Sometimes this means using more convenience foods than I would like (Knoor pasta and sauce sides, Kraft cooking creme, Velveeta shells and cheese, frozen pizza), but I'm at peace with that because we are all adjusting to a new schedule.  As long as we are eating dinner together as a family I am happy.  Most of the time, though, simpler cooking for me, is doing less labor-intensive main dishes with cut up fruits and veggies on the side.  I've been doing quite a bit of crock pot cooking.  Most crock pot meals don't photograph well, so I'm bad about blogging them.  I promise, I will eventually share them, even if there is no picture. I am planning on (slowly) doing a "Simple Cooking" series on this blog.  Most people know how to heat up a frozen pizza or cooking mac and cheese from a box, but I talk with so many people who want to know more about simple meals that use fresh ingredients.  My hope is to share some of our favorite simple recipes with you.
For now, I will post links to some things on my blog that are simple, fresh, and big hits around my house.  Two simple meatless meals are sweet potato black bean burritos and egg and beans.  My slow-cooker tag has a growing list of recipes.  Two simple recipes that we enjoy are Goulash and turkey soup.  To make the soup in the crock pot, just throw everything in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours.  It is up to you if you want to soak the beans overnight or not.  A quick meal with fish that seems gourmet, but is actually very simple is parmesan crusted talapia. To make this meal even simpler, use already grated parmesan cheese.  A final simple recipe is the Pioneer Woman's steak sandwich. I've made this with cube steak and sandwich steak.  It is always good!

I hope that this helps all of you who are adjusting to a new school year, new baby, or any big changes in life.  I will post some more easy, quick meals...and possibly my menu for the month of September :)