Momma Says Mondays

My mom visit this weekend for shopping and her annual spa treatment (I get her a gift certificate every xmas just to prove that I'm a good daughter). She is one of the smartest, strongest women I know. Despite never having it easy, she has always given everything she could to her three girls. During her visit, I started thinking it might be fun to share some of mom's wisdom.

Let's kick it off with my all-time favorite:
"If you can't cook; he can't make you."

This is why she says (only half jokingly) she didn't teach me or my sisters how to cook. Sure, we learned the basics; how to boil water, microwave popcorn, burn toast. But anything involving chopping, mixing or sauteeing was not in her lesson plan.
Mom worked full-time, took care of three girls, ran the house and cooked dinner. Every. Night. So to her - giving her girls a better life meant that they wouldn't have to cook. I think she's a closet feminist as well.
As Sparky and I have done more and more cooking at home, I learn more about the great things you can create with food. Slowly, I have started to see the value (and teensy bit of enjoyment) in it - as long as it's a shared task.

What's for dinner?

Two years ago; Sparky and I realized that we needed to start saving for our wedding. We decided that a good way to but back would be to stop ordering pizza and eating out and start...cooking (gulp!). The problem was; Sparky had hardly cooked anything but hashbrowns in his life and cooking is just one of the areas where my nesting instincts fail.
Fortunately, Sparky soon discovered that he really enjoyed cooking. And menu planning! On Sundays we began digging through cookbooks (I owned one; the others we got at garage sales) and websites to choose meals; make our shopping list and buy our weekly groceries.
We still went out to eat occasionally; got frozen pizzas; etc. but the majority of our weekly meals were made at home. We've been going strong with only a few lapses. Until recently.
The past few months, weekly meal plans have been few and far between. Sparky's picked up an extra project at work that takes up evening hours and well, there's my whole cooking issue. Add in all the great restaurants that have sprouted up in DeMo and we have been slacking. We started back in this week with a menu that we are excited about and hope that will inspire us to start again.
Monday - Chipotle Sloppy Joes
Tuesday - Roast Pork Tenderloin with Orange and Red Onion Salsa
Wednesday - Mediterranean Turkey Burgers
Thursday - Salmon with Maple Lemon Glaze
Friday - Quick Barbecue Flank Steak
Saturday - OK - it's not a full week - we're planning to go out to eat Saturday.
Sunday - Sausage Stuffed Manicotti

I really hope this works; because just thinking about eating more pizza is making my hips bigger.