Keepin' it Real

kitchenSWard; “A blog about realistic, fun home cooking!”

You’ve read it, I wrote it. But I have been contemplating its accuracy. Not the fun part. Cooking is fun for me. I’ve just been wondering if the recipes I have posted are realistic. When I first put it out there, I was thinking realistic in the sense that everything I post on here, I have actually done at home, without professional training or commercial grade equipment. My goal was to share ideas in a way that make them easily attainable and customizable for anyone who reads my posts to be inspired.

Let’s talk about what is “realistic” though, shall we? Realistically, I probably spend more time thinking about food than the average, healthy person. I seem to have a food obsession. Everything can be related to food. The Super Bowl is less than 2 weeks away, let’s make tailgate food (it does not matter that my team was shut down yesterday, I’m still making food). We have to drop the car off for maintenance, let’s go out for lunch. The grocery store is selling whole New York strips, how many ways can I use New York strip? I can’t wait for strawberry season so my kids can pick them and I can make them into jam. Seriously, I do not go more than an hour without thinking about food! Don’t worry, I can go more than an hour without eating food though.

Realistically, I let my dishes pile up. Whenever we stay at my in-laws, we have dinner and then my mother-in-law always loads the dishwasher and often washes the pots and pans before she sits down. Every time we go there, I think “why don’t I do that”. And then I come home and I spend an hour cooking and I sit for 10 minutes to eat before my kids are done and ready for their baths and stories and bed. Oh, that’s why! However, I have a friend who has two small kids also and she gets her dishes done right away. I’m not sure but I think she must have a genie or something.

Realistically, I have to write stuff down. I cannot go to the grocery store without a list because I will get ingredients for 7 different meals and when I get home, I will be missing one thing from each recipe. I’m blaming this one on the kids. Baby brain is real my friends! Every week I make a meal plan and a grocery list. I also try to limit my grocery shopping to once a week. It helps me to not over spend and sometimes it results in my most creative recipes.

Realistically, cooking is in my job description. My husband and I are fans of Dave Ramsey and I like his title of “Home Economist”. When I was pregnant with our daughter, my husband and I made the decision that I would leave my paying job to raise our babies. As we were giving up my income, part of my responsibility became to help reduce what we spend. This is a part of why I meal plan, make grocery lists, get creative with leftovers and pack my husband a lunch each day. Also, I do it because I believe I was built for it. I am capable of being out in the work force but I feel called to care of my family. This does not mean my house is perfectly clean, it’s not. This does not mean that I cook from scratch every day, I don’t. This does not mean I take care of all the household chores or parenting on my own, my husband helps. All it means is that we decided earning an income is my husband’s responsibility while taming the home front is mine. And I would not ask to have it any other way.

Realistically, I worry about my family’s health. A huge concern for every parent, I think. The root of my belief about health is that the more nature, the better. Our bodies are incredible! They just need the right tools. I prefer to feed my family ingredients that are as fresh as possible and have endured the least amount of processing possible. I have not cast out all processed foods and I still buy potato chips on occasion but I try hard to keep more good than bad in our diets. Sometimes, this causes me to put a lot of pressure on myself but I’m going to keep at it in hopes that my kids learn decent eating habits that they can take with them through their lives.

Realistically, I run out of energy. This is the primary reason why you don’t see blog posts from me every other day (or on any consistent basis, really). I believe that my husband and children are greater blessings than I deserve. And some days, they take everything I’ve got. I probably have 30 – 40 food pictures on my phone that I intended to share with you on here but I just never got to write about them. Sometimes, I spend all my creativity on making the food that I just don’t have enough left to write about it. Then again, some of those pictures just look better than they tasted…

I think everyone’s reality is different. Some of you will be right with me on some of my realities and others will be like my friend who never has dirty dishes on the counter. My hope is that all of you who follow this blog get a little something from it; a smile, a recipe or inspiration to try something new. I am a real person. I have good days, bad days, busy days, boring days… I’ll do my best to keep it realistic on here. Now I have to go do some dishes.