31 days to happiness: day 2

Not gonna lie, after my last post I was having some serious self-doubts about me actually following through on posting again tonight.  But, here I am! My day 1 post had me all fired up and excited about this 31 days...but I knew there was a good chance that, after working for 10+ hours today and spending another hour driving home, I would want to come home, crawl into my pajamas, eat dinner, and head to bed.  

I'm pleasantly surprised to inform you that, although I did make a beeline for my pj's, I managed to stay up to write this.  I even browsed a few of the other 31 dayers, and I'm even more inspired.  There's over 1000 of them, and you can check them out here. All of those guys have linked up to The Nester, who has an amazingly awesome blog chock full of great stuff!! 

We're gonna go with day 2 of happiness being cooking.  I love, love, love to cook.  Ever since I moved into my first apartment in college, I was always the one who had friends over to eat dinner at least once or twice a week.  I still love to call up my best friend and tell her to come visit over a home-cooked dinner.  When I started my job a few months ago, I was upset when cooking dinner became more of a chore than something that I wanted to do.  See, we're working four 10 hour days, AND I have an hour commute each way.  Factor in my break, and I'm away from home for almost 13 hours almost every day.  Toss in over 20 3 and 4 year olds, and you tell me how excited you are about cooking. I don't care if your Martha Stewart, Paula Dean, and Betty Crocker all rolled into one- you'd be one worn out woman before you touched the first pot or pan.  

I realized that I had gotten out of the habit of planning my meals a week or so in advance, so I tried to get back into that habit to make it a bit easier more enjoyable.  Although that it helped a little to know ahead of time what I would be making that night, it also made it easier for me to talk myself out of cooking.  Instead of harping on what I was cooking, I was thinking about how long it would take, and how much I would have to do.  Usually about half-way home, I'd call up G and ask him if he wanted to just go grab us something.  

A friend of mine was sweet enough to share with me a method of cooking that she used for several months to feed her family of 6.  She cooked for an hour or two once a week, and they had dinner for 5 days.  Clearly, I was quite excited to learn about this! But, being the old maid that I have become lately, I wasn't so excited about having to throw something into the oven for 45 minutes or an hour when I got home.  Remember, my days are l.o.n.g.  I want to come home, eat, chat with my fella for a few minutes, then hit the hay.  I was, and am, still planning on trying it, but I plan on changing it up a little to better suit my needs laziness.

After sharing the method above with another friend, she told me about freezer cooking.  While looking at Pinterest, she found a link to a blog about freezer cooking.   Jaima at Ring Around the Rosies did an amazing job of making my life much simpler, and bringing back the happiness to cooking! You can find her freezer cooking section here.  Between her and the freezer cooking section over at Six Sisters Stuff, I have found the happiness in cooking, once again!! Although I didn't take pictures to share [I'll do better next time!], I was able to prepare 2 weeks worth of dinner (and plan on leftovers for lunch!) in less than 3 hours! Including grocery shopping!! 

It's so refreshing to actually look forward to getting home after a long day again! So far this week, I've come home to a crock pot filled with chicken cacciatorie, newlywed beef tips, and taco soup! They were all so delicious that I look forward to taking leftovers for lunch! 

Freezer cooking is definitely one of my greatest discoveries! I'm so happy I found so many great make ahead meals, and I've even started planning on making some of my own recipes into freezer cooking meals! Like I said, I am still going to try my other friend's method, but I definitely think I'll change it up a little to make it even easier.  I mean, what's easier than dumping a freezer bag full of food into a crockpot in the morning?! It's become a good way to start my day- because when I throw the contents into my crock pot, it makes me happy knowing I'll have a healthy, delicious meal waiting on me when I get home...which makes me even happier when I walk in to door after a long day! 

Here's to 31 days of happiness {and cooking!}