The Beginning of a New Journey

We've been married a whole ten days!  Of course, with a honeymoon we've only recently started our new reality of married life.  Unlike so many people these days we didn't live together before getting married.  This is my husband's second marriage... but I was a professional single of 34 years.  I feel some pressure to do things right.  Not by my dear hubby, but by my own standards... and maybe a little by society.  I want to be the homemaker... even in our extremely tiny one bedroom apartment.  I want to feed my family well.  (I have a beautiful five and a half year old step-daughter.  Don't worry, she's not in our little apartment full time!)  And I want to be organized about all of it!



As a single girl I could throw together a pile of veggies for dinner, or on a less than stellar night, a bowl of cereal.  But now I can't do that, at least not with a clear conscience.  Meal planning was just to difficult when I was cooking for myself, but now I want to jump into it with both feet.  I'm a little disappointed that I didn't have our first week home after the honeymoon all planned out, but you know... I had a little bit of stuff on my mind.

In a twist, we have our sweet little girl for five days post tonsillectomy.  She's already a very ... VERY picky eater, so that was going to be a challenge in itself.  With her eating limits post surgery I'm not even trying to cater to her.  She'll be content with eggs and other soft foods for now.

I decided to start slow... I still need a little time to figure out what recipes I want to try.  Three nights a week I work until at least 7:30pm.  So I need crock pot meals, casseroles, and other dishes I can pre-prep and give the dear sweet hubby easy instructions so they will be ready when I get home.

Here's the plan for the next three days:

Tonight, Wednesday, July 16th - Crock Pot Chicken and Rice from "Put a Fork In It" with sauteed green beans and brussels sprouts

Thursday, July 17th - Burgers, salad, and Ranch Roasted Potatoes from Momsdish.com

Friday, July 18th - Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole from "Sweet Daily Blog", salad, and sauteed brocolli

I had originally had Thursday and Friday flopped.  But at 10pm tonight I wasn't ready to start prepping the casserole for tomorrow.  So burgers it is!

Tonight's meal went pretty smooth.  I tossed everything in the crockpot this morning and set it to cook on low for 10 hours.  Around noon I asked my hubby to give it a stir.  I also got the rice cooker all set with brown rice so that about 20 minutes before I thought I would be home I could text him to plug it in and turn it on.  (Anything that doesn't go in a microwave is gourmet cooking for him... so I have to keep it simple.)  When I walked in the door I quickly used two forks to shred the chicken and fluffed the rice.  Then I cooked my green beans and brussels sprouts.  (Side note... I LOVE BRUSSELS SPROUTS!  I could eat them by the bushel... and in a moment you will understand why!)

At this point it is important to point out that all vegetables get cooked basically the same way... on the stove top with garlic salt, pepper, and lots of farm fresh BUTTER!  My brussels sprouts have been known to drip with butter.  Oh so yummy!!  I am a firm believer that the right fats are our friends (animal fat, coconut oil, etc.).  I use raw milk from grass fed cows, yogurt from raw milk, butter from raw milk... etc.  It's so good!  And SO good for you!

Ok... off of my butter tangent.  From the time I got home until we were sitting down to eat was less than 30 minutes, and honestly if I hadn't been answering text messages it would have been less.  My hubby gave the chicken one and a half thumbs up, which means we will be having it again!  I thought it was a little salty, but I caught my salt feign putting more salt on his... so to each his own! 

What are your "go to" recipes as a working wife?