Adventures in Cooking

Jump to Comments

Okay, I joined a produce co-op and it’s been interesting so far.  Unfortunately, I don’t know what I’m going to get until I get it.  That means I end up with food I’ve never seen or heard of before and I have no idea what to do with it.  This week I have squash.  Lots of squash.  Yes, I’ve heard of and seen squash before, but I’ve never eaten it.  No, I wasn’t one of those kids raised on tv dinners and McDonalds.  We had home cooked meals all the time.  Just not squash.  I’m a picky eater, but I’m mostly picky about who cooked it and about meat.  I’ll try most veggie dishes (depending on the cook).  No mystery meats for me, though.

Today I found a recipe for squash casserole online.  I picked one that sounded halfway healthy, because if I’m going to take the time and effort to cook, it’s going to be healthy.  I do cook, it’s just usually the same chicken dishes every night.  I’m always trying to find ways to cook something quickly and keep it nutritious.  I forced myself to start cooking when Shiloh started eating real food.  I’m very weird about her eating healthy and I know they give her junk at daycare, so I try to balance it out at home.

I started out by slicing the squash and then I realized that I didn’t know if I was supposed to peel it or not.  I can’t call my mom because she’s in Italy right now and it costs about $10 for five minutes (according to my dad), if I call her cell phone.  I thought about calling Holly, because I know she just cooked a bunch of squash too, but it was getting late so I googled it.  The best that I could see, it’s okay to eat the skin on “summer squash” but not on ”winter squash.”  Since it is summer, I’m assuming this is summer squash (it’s yellow) and I left the peel on.  It said to cook it (plus some other ingredients) until tender.  Well, it seemed tender when I put it in the pan so I just cooked it awhile.  I’m a firstborn and I need exact directions.  All this “season to taste” stuff doesn’t work for me.

Then I was supposed to make a cracker crumb and cheese mixture.  It said to use Ritz crackers, but I looked at the ingredients and they aren’t very good for you, so I used Kashi crackers instead.  Unfortunately, they were on the top shelf at Walmart and the only ones I could reach were garlic, so I hope they taste okay.  The recipe said to mix half of the cracker stuff in the bowl and save the other half to put on top.  I resisted the urge to measure my cracker mixture, so that I could add exactly half (firstborn).  I added eggs and milk and everything else it said and put it in a pan.  It should be done now and I’m kind of scared to taste it.  Usually I make Shiloh taste stuff first (I know that’s mean), but she’s in bed.  Okay, I’m going to taste it… not bad.  A little garlicy (that would be the crackers – and yes, I know garlicy isn’t a word, but I just made it one) but I think it will be fine.  I’ll pop it in the fridge and we’ll have it with dinner tomorrow, after church.  I sure hope squash is a nutritional superstar after all this work.  It’s 9pm and this is the first time I’ve sat down all night. 

I’m quite proud of myself.  My floor is vacuumed, the dishes are washed, I’ve done some laundry (it’s never done), I fed and bathed and read to Shiloh and got her in bed by seven, I cooked tonight’s dinner, and I have food ready for tomorrow night.  Now I’m tired and I don’t feel like washing my hair (somehow even that becomes a chore) or doing my devotions (I should really do that BEFORE I wear myself out) or folding the laundry I washed or packing my lunch for tomorrow.  I better get started. 

Who knew I could write 700 words on squash?  Sorry to those of you who actually struggled through this whole post.  Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end! 

6 Comments

Filed under healthy stuff

Tags: chores, cooking, healthy eating