Sometimes I Almost Scare Myself

I do not love to cook.  I think I may have mentioned that a time or two.

Or possibly 30 or 40.

However, I am trying really hard to eat healthier.  Here is what I have discovered -- it is really hard. 

Planning for meals now takes more time and organization.  Shopping now takes more time and costs more money.  Cooking now takes more time and patience to figure out what works and what doesn't. 

Notice the TIME issue?  I already don't have a lot of that, so this has been somewhat interesting.

But I have stumbled across a few things this week that have been major hits in my house.  This is a minor miracle in and of itself, since my oldest child gets a bit nervous when mom tries "another healthy recipe". 

I have no plans to turn this into a healthy food blog. 

       Reason #1 - I have no pictures.  I rarely make anything that is actually picture worthy.
       Reason #2 - Last night we had fish sticks and macaroni and cheese.

I said I was TRYING to eat healthier.  I have by no means arrived.

I leave the food blogs to my trusty food friends.  This is where I steal many of my ideas.  Rachel is amazing.  She and a friend have also started a new blog together that is full of good, healthy stuff.  I let them do the research, and I reap the benefits.  It's a win-win situation.  Well, at least for me.

Ok, on to my week....so successful in the kitchen, it was almost scary.

Here is a bit of what I found:

Chocolate Banana Muffins - Everyone in the house loved these.  No one knows that they are full of pumpkin, flax seed, bananas, organic plain yogurt, and whole wheat flour.  Well.....maybe they caught on to the banana part, but I am keeping the rest a secret.

Homemade Granola Bars - This is not necessarily "diet" food, but is a great way to have granola bars around made with natural ingredients and no preservatives.  They don't stay around long enough to need preservatives.

Whole Wheat Tortillas - This was by far the biggest hit and the biggest shock.  My family loves flour tortillas.  Not so long ago I discovered the ingredient list is a mile long and full of things I cannot even pronounce. 

I may just need to stop reading the ingredient lists.  It's frightening.

I set out to figure out a way to make tortillas at home.  This is the first recipe I tried.  I was shocked to discover that my family loves them straight out of the pan warm and soft like a real tortilla, or cooked crisp like a chip.  They eat them plain, or as a wrap, or crispy dipped in salsa, or sprinkled with a cinnamon and a bit of sugar and baked. 

Rolling them out doubles as a nice workout, or better yet, make your husband do the rolling, and the whole process goes much faster.  (Remember that time issue?)

That's it.  Pretty basic for many people, but worth celebrating in my world.

I'm pretty sure I've reached my domestic quota for the year, so I'm off to write a paper and research educational technology.

Hmmm....cooking is sounding better all the time.