When I was growing up my mother had a (let’s be frank) boring menu.  Monday was meatloaf, Tuesday was pork chops, Wednesday -fried chicken, Thursday spaghetti and Friday was either hot dogs or Red Baron Pizza.  Dad cooked on the weekends so it was usually BBQ or KFC.

The result is I cook and unfortunately I deplore having the same foods frequently. Which kind of puts me in a bind when it comes to cooking. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I make some great meals, but by Wednesday I’m tired and we’re frequenting the local restaurant scene.

Then I made the best mistake ever.  On Monday I cooked 5 pounds of potatoes.  I don’t know what I was thinking at the time, but cook away I did. I baked some and boiled the rest.  This is what the menu looked like Monday-steak and baked Potatoes,  Tuesday-burgers, hot dogs and fries, Wednesday a steak hash, Thursday sandwiches and macaroni salad and by Friday a potato soup. I have a tooth extraction scheduled, but that’s an entirely different blog.

The point being my creativity was undermining my creativity. What? Yes!  The prep for all those interesting meals is what makes it so hard. After working long days with kids who has the mental energy to work long days in the kitchen. Apparently not I said Patricia Ann.

So now on Sunday/Monday I precook a lot of  a side item.  This week it was potatoes, next week it’ll be pasta and the week after that rice.  See the pattern.  Then it won’t take blood sweat and tears to delicious and different meals for my family.

You know someone out there in the real world is saying something to the effect of , “of course I knew this all along.”  All’s I have to say is it took me 20 years to figure out this one, and it wasn’t a day too late either.