"I eat better than I cook!"

You may have seen the cute kitchen sign "I eat better than I cook!". I think I probably fit into that category! I have never been interested in cooking and always said that I wasn't in the right queue when the cooking gifts were given out!

At times, when I've said that, members of my family, have told me that I really don't do too badly and my cooking is quite OK! They probably are just encouraging me and being nice! We actually have three chefs in our family (two grandchildren and a grandson's spouse) and it was certainly not my genes that were passed on!

During my illness, (see last post - https://val-laird.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-fs-and-ps-of-pericarditis.html) my daughter did all the cooking. She is a great cook and the meals were so lovely that I enjoyed them, even when I didn't feel much like food. But her holiday ended, and the frozen leftovers eventually ran out, and it was back to my very ordinary meals prepared in the quickest time possible.

I was still recovering from my illness and those tasteless meals just didn't cut it! Food is meant to be enjoyed, so something had to be done! There are a lot of prepared meals available now, or fresh kits to make them, but with my significant number of food intolerances, it just wasn't feasible to go down that path.

So, I came up with a plan - well actually four weeks of plans. I always find thinking about what on earth I am going to cook is one of the major issues, so what was needed was to have everything thought out beforehand.

 

It was on to the trusty computer, and I soon had a layout set up with the days of the week, a column for lunch meals, a column for the carbohydrate (potato, pasta, rice etc.) and a column for the evening main meal. Then I decided to stick with the same meat on a certain day for each week - Monday is chicken day, Tuesday fish, Wednesday Pork etc.

Then it was out with the recipe books, spread all over the table! There was plenty of tossing out of recipes with food that I can't eat now, or that I know I would never make, or that would require too much preparation. Eventually I had gathered together four weeks of recipes, some tried and trusted, some that looked interesting, and all with ingredients that I would normally carry in my pantry.

I soon found a binder, printed out my four menu plans and behind each week's plan I placed the recipes for that week in plastic sleeves. There are choices within the week's plan so 10-12 recipes are all there ready to go.

I am delighted to say that I have now been through the month's cycle, enjoyed my own cooking heaps more than I have for a long time, crossed off a few recipes that didn't meet expectations, and added a few I have found online. I now allow that extra five minutes that is needed to produce a meal that is tasty and enjoyable and have found that the discipline of following a planned menu has been really worthwhile. And if I ever get sick of making the same meal each month, then I will just add another few weeks of plans!

God bless you.

Val