Confessions of a Non-Cooker

I would love to be one of those women. You know, the women who think baking is therapeutic, who can stray away from exact measurements and a recipe, who were taught by their grandmother and mother to cook from scratch. Yes, that was not me. Sometimes I feel like I missed something. Like I missed the "cooking" gene that is ingrained in many women and wives. I wondered if it would just magically sprout when I got married, but alas I still dread that question "so what's for dinner?".

Ryan and I will both admit that even before we got married, we ate out a lot. And unfortunately, if we're being honest here, that habit has carried on over into our marriage. So here we are 6 months into marriage, with a significant portion of our budget going towards food...more specifically restaurants and we're about to buy a house that has some serious money-saving implications. Something's gotta give.

Several factors have prevented me from being able to whip up meals like it's nothing:

• It seriously stresses me out. Typically, after I get back from work the last thing I want to do is spend an hour slaving over a stove for a meal we won't be able to finish. 
• I had very little go-to recipes. I haven't been cooking long enough to have a good number of tried and true recipes.
• My husband is the pickiest eater I know. Which makes narrowing down recipes even harder. So I may love mushrooms but choosing a meal that's got mushrooms even in the sauce isn't worth it because he won't eat it. 
• I never have everything I need on-hand. I usually go to the grocery store once a week but if I haven't thought ahead of time what I'm making, I likely won't have everything on-hand and I end up going back to the grocery store for 2-3 items.

So all that to say, I got desperate. I asked around to a couple of friends who have used meal planning services to get their recommendations and settled on one that I thought met our needs. So yes, I'm paying for a service to send me an email every week telling me what to cook. Granted, I change out almost every suggested meal due to my picky eater, it's still been a great motivator (so far) to actually plan a week's worth of meals. Six O'Clock Scramble explains recipes in beginner language and also gives you different ways to cook the recipes. We love slow cooking so for some of the recipes, we opt for the slow cooking option. It also tells you the things you can chop/cook/portion ahead of time. Now, I haven't been using this for that long at all, so I can't say that I've found my love for cooking. But for those who need the kick in the pants, meal planning is a great option. There's a Groupon for the Scramble too, which I definitely used! 

So here's to a week of NO eating out! This is a big deal to us! And to honing in on my inner cook...I'm still not convinced it exists. Tonight, I'm slowcooking beef and broccoli teriyaki!