I'm Really Tired Of Making Dinner. I Remember One Night When I Was Single And Broke, My Evening Meal Consisted Of Parmesan Cheese Melted On A Saltine. I Paired It With A Bottle Of Chardonnay And Some Cute New Shoes. I Had My Priorities After All.

I love to cook, but sometimes the thought of having to whip up another dinner makes me want to chew on tin foil.  Honestly, I can't even allow myself to do the math calculating how many dinners I've made - but suffice it to say, it's a lot.  Lately, I've started to notice the mere thought of making dinner causes me to completely lose my appetite.  This is totally psychosomatic - I have no control over it, but my mind is so bored with dinner that it is shutting down my body's desire to eat.  This could be an excellent turn on behalf of weight loss, but then I remember I have a family.  And they're hungry.

I've tried all sorts of things to jump start my cooking joy, but they really haven't been as effective as I'd hoped.  I bought one of those cookbooks disguised as a magazine at Whole Foods the other day.  It's titled, 'Slow Cooker Favorites' (insert raised eyebrow).  Crock-pot cooking has never been something I've enjoyed.  I like the way the house smells when there's something bubbling away all day, but food from the Crock-pot, to me, always comes out tasting a little off.  I need something crisp or a bit of texture in a dish and after 'five hours on low' there just isn't much to enjoy.  Plus, I thought the key to Crock-pot cooking was simplicity - you just toss a bunch of stuff into it and later in the day you magically have a tasty meal.  However the recipe I tried required almost an hour of dicing, mincing, and sauteeing.  Then everything went in the pot and spent hours on the counter only to be reduced later in the day to a somewhat tasty mush.  It was disappointing.

I think my mealtime malaise could also be a seasonal issue.  By this point in the winter, I can barely stomach another pot of chili, or pasta, or soup.  I'm so over cozy.  I want to sit on the patio and eat a salad.  Preferably made by someone else.  And that's just not in the cards at this point.  So I'm left with an overwhelming feeling of 'meh' when it comes to dinner.  What do you make when you're just not feelin' it?  I think I'm going to try to sell the family on a 'do it yourself' peanut butter and jelly sandwich night tonight.  I'll offer creamy and chunky, an array of different jellies, a couple bread options, and a few kinds of chips to be served alongside or right in the sammy if they've got some real PB&J chops.  I'm getting a bit of an ironic hipster vibe from this idea and I kinda like it.

I'm wearing this:

 I almost forgot I had these snakeskin print pants.  I'm toning down the sassy edginess of them by pairing them with my blue Converse.  I like a subtle print pant like this because they can go from dressy with a strappy heel to super casual with a pair of tennis shoes.  Of course, if you forget you have them all this valuable versatility goes to waste so I think staying on top of what you own is really the key here.

gratitude:  serendipity, the movie '20 Feet From Stardom', a full tank of gas, a promising weather forecast

thanks and love.