Natural Living Part2: Cooking good for the soul....

"This Mama COOKS!"

Whole Wheat Homemade Bread!

 Ok, so there is something funny about this blog! If you asked any of my family members, "Growing up did you ever think she'd be able to cook?" The ANSWER: "NO! Well Breakfast yes, any other meal no." And that would have been my answer too! I never had a desire to cook, let a lone cook from scratch! I always cooked from a box, or drive through. It was easy considering I worked 6 days a week, and saw no need to pack a lunch or make food. Now you cant keep my cooking creativity down! I love looking at what I have and creating! And honestly me becoming a stay to home mom forced my hand to start cooking! After I quiet David's Bridal, and worked only for my mom (3yrs ago) I started to start playing in the kitchen, but after I had my daughter I made the hardest decision to stay home, and that gave me lots of time to get in the kitchen and really start. And it was AWESOME!

Calzones! Yum! Fresh from the Garden!

Now here's a little secret: I have NEVER made cookies, cupcakes or a cake independently! *SHOCK* and when my sister left for California I was thrown into an emotional whirlwind because my daughters 1st Birthday was coming and she wasn't here to make the cup cakes. Shes made EVERY cupcake, cake for parties for me! Because between us shes the baked goodies and I'm the main coarse cooker!  LOL I can make a full batch of cal-zones, tacos, lasagna to feed 20 people.. but tell me to make cup cakes I was panicking! Now after facing my fear I can make anything I want, as long as i have time to work with it.

Cookie Dough!

I will say learning to cook hasn't been the easiest! I have had some PRETTY bad recipes... finishes... and flat out failures! My worst failures that come straight to mind is back when we lived in our first apartment, and I never cooked then, but I thought lets have my in laws over. And i was attempting to cook Italian Chicken and rice, and I was following a boxed rice meal directions, some how messed up and the rice didn't cook, and was watery! It was horrible!!! I was so embarrassed! I think I secretly cried because here I cooking for my in laws and I failed. What did they think? "This is what my son eats?" I couldn't even cook a meal... But they never once complained about it!

Home made General Tso

After that failure, I vowed that I need to learn!  So I sat back and watched my mom and grandmother cook! I saw how my mom cooked, which is by READING ALL directions, and watched my grandmother who cooked by sight, smell, AND taste. As well as reading but never really followed directions! The from scratch took awhile to get into... but I started making my own bread, and that was fun and really cool! It also saved us money. Because we never ate a whole loaf of bread. After making my own bread kinda sparked the cooking from scratch! And I slowly embraced it! I stopped buying pre-cooked meals and boxed meals. Then started looking up easy ones to make! As well as Recipe exchange parties, and blogs! There are TONS of fun and exciting chances to learn! This a lone has taught me the importance of feeding you family the RIGHT way and how cooking shows them I love them!
 But don't be scared to just go in and learn on your own, if your concern about wasting, then try cooking by a recipe but make a little twist to it... Then keep building til you can see something, and make it!
 So in short, JUMP IN A ENJOY! Don't be scared to fail! Because with failure comes SUCCESS!!!!

So good I dont wanna let go!