Food

I would love for my kids to come home from school everyday and smell this wonderful aroma coming from the kitchen and know that they are going to have an amazing meal for dinner. However, I can honestly say that I am not the world's greatest cook! I have a few staple meals that are fine, but nothing spectacular - this is an area I really want to improve in.

I think of my Mom and my Grandma, who had large families, and I know they did most everything from scratch (though I'm not quite sure when they had time to do it)! Not only is time a challenge for me, but creativity is a challenge too. Putting menus together with great foods that compliment each other is hard for me.

I suppose that's the age we live in, fast food and prepackaged meals have spoiled us - we actually don't have to make anything. But that's not what I want my kids to remember. I want them to actually miss home cooked meals when they're away at college. Don't get me wrong, I do cook, quite often actually, I just want to learn more and put more of an effort into it. My boys aren't picky and they eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, so being that they're pretty good eaters - I'd like to expand our variety at mealtime.

Also, Mike has Celiac Sphrue, which means he's allergic to gluten (wheat, oats, barley, and rye), so this changes most regular cooking habits, seeing that gluten is in almost everything. I can't buy regular pastas, breads, crackers, cookies, flour, etc., we do a lot of shopping at specialty health food stores. I have conquered the gluten-free baking for the most part, we've come across some great mixes for cakes, cookies, pancakes, muffins, breads, etc. It does help that Mike's mom and sister have the same allergy, so we do help each other out. I just haven't gotten as creative in making meals with a wide range of foods. So, if anyone out there is familiar with celiac and can help me, I'd LOVE to hear from you!

I now have a subscription to Taste of Home, a great cooking magazine, and have found some wonderful recipes. However, if any of you have yummy meal ideas (gluten-free or not - I can modify most stuff) please let me know!