Home Cooked Summer

I might have mentioned that with Nathan home this summer, I had to get creative with my cooking and learn some new recipes.  Before his injury, I only cooked dinner for both of us twice a week, he cooked on Monday nights, and the other four nights a week I got eat whatever junk I wanted.  Suddenly there were two of us at home seven nights a week, and my limited repertoire of recipes got really old, really fast.  I want to share some of the delicious, homemade recipes that we have tried recently.

I am particularly proud of a dinner that I made last week. I found this recipe from for spaghetti with sautéed chicken and grape tomatoes on Pinterest.  Due to lack of ingredients in my house, not caring about the calorie count, and frankly sheer laziness when it comes to cooking, I didn’t follow this recipe very well.  But that is exactly why I am so proud!  I took the general concept, changed it to suit my ingredients and cooking abilities, and it still turned out great!  We both loved it, it was super easy, and super filling – the three keys too a successful meal in my house!

I hate working with raw meat and am way too lazy to sauté chicken like the recipe says, so I used the pre-done frozen grilled chicken strips from Costco.  I also used regular spaghetti, because that is what I have (and also because pigs will fly before I purchase low carb pasta).  I also substituted minced garlic and garlic powder for garlic cloves, regular olive oil for extra virgin, and lemon pepper instead of regular black pepper.  Then I decided to sauté the tomatoes with all the seasonings that were supposed to go on the chicken (basil, oregano, salt, and pepper) in addition to the garlic.

   When everything was cooked, I just had to dump the spaghetti and chicken in with the tomatoes and mix, add some fresh basil, and sprinkle on parmesan cheese.

And I ended up with this beautiful bowl of deliciousness:

Of course, there are plenty of unhealthy dessert type things you can make from scratch as well.  And you can bet we dabbled in that!  Nathan decided to conquer homemade desserts for my birthday, and it was a major success!  First, he made me a homemade Funfetti cake.

I can't tell you how he made it, but I can tell you that it was sugary deliciousness.  So much so that you need a glass of milk to eat it.  But on your birthday, you deserve to indulge. 

The other birthday surprise that he made me was just as yummy and delicious.  Not to mention super duper awesome.

Yes folks, that is butterbeer!  In mugs straight from Hogwarts (Thank you, Erika)!  If you do not know what butterbeer is, you need to brush up on your Harry Potter knowledge.  Suffice to say that it is sugar, cream soda, and more sugar.  Yum, yum, and more yum!

As of today, Nathan is officially in a shoe and back to work, so it’s back to cooking just a few nights a week.  However, I really hope we can keep this pattern up (although maybe more on the healthy side and less on the sugar coma dessert side).  We are both at a place where we need to get back into shape and get rid of a few extra pounds, and I think cooking more meals from scratch is going to help us get there.  So bring on the recipes, Pinterest!