New Year's Resolution: Enjoy Cooking Dinner

Okay, this may seem like a REALLY dumb New Year's resolution to some of you, but for me it is going to be a HUGE challenge. Why? Because I loathe cooking dinner. I'd rather be scrapbooking, sewing, playing with the kids, heck I'd even rather scrub toilets or vacuum than cook dinner.

Now don't get me wrong, I do cook dinner........it's just like a chore to me and sort of ruins my day EVERYDAY around 4:30pm. I realize that dinner is important and eating dinner together as a family is REALLY important so this is why I'm going to try and change my attitude about cooking it.

In trying to figure out WHY I hate cooking dinner so much, I've realized three things: 1) If I don't know what we're going to have for dinner then it's STRESSFUL to try and throw something together. 2) If I know what we're having, but I don't have all of the ingredients it is FRUSTRATING. 3) By the time 4:30 rolls around and I'm supposed to be cooking dinner, Hyrum is already starving, and the other kids are getting restless and cranky AND I'm worn out and feel like doing nothing!

I realize that this weakness of hating to cook dinner makes me a horrible wife and mother, but was super happy to find that our bishop's wife also HATES cooking dinner as much as me! Finally someone to commiserate with! My good friend, Jen, LOVES to cook and Layne is super excited for me to be friends with her in hopes that her love for cooking will rub off on me. The only thing I really LOVE to make is dessert and it's been that way since I was young.

Anyway, in an attempt to enjoy "serving my family" (as Layne put it), I have come up with 6 weeks of menu ideas AND a grocery list for each one which has every possible ingredient I should need to make the meals. (This took me the last 6 months to do! AND each week I have at least one meal that is already prepared and not by me!) I am also attempting to prepare what I can for dinner in the morning to avoid my 4:30 pm cruddy feeling that it's time to cook dinner.

So, I'm very happy to report that yesterday, in spite of very little sleep in the past 5 days and having sick children, I made one of the best dinners ever! I found this recipe for Crock Pot Lasagna on-line and I LOVE it. It's right up my alley because you throw it all in the crock pot by noon and it's ready by 5:00. Layne said it was better than Stauffers and my kids liked it too!

Crock Pot Lasagna

1 1/2 lbs. browned hamburger (add onions if you'd like or onion soup mix)
1 jar spaghetti sauce (large)
1/2 cup water
6-10 dry lasagna noodles (they don't even have to be the special kind)
1 carton cottage cheese (large)
2-3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Combine hamburger, sauce and water. Then layer the following in the crock pot: meat sauce, 2-3 dry noodles, broken into potato chip size, cottage cheese, mozzarella. Repeat 2-3 layers. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or high 2-3 hours. It's great because you don't have to cook the noodles ahead of time.



There you have it........I have enjoyed making ONE meal so far this year. Success. If you have any suggestions or great recipes, let me know. I prefer recipes that have fewer than 10 ingredients and I like to be able to pronounce the names of them.