Resolutions and recipes...

I'm generally not a New Years' resolution maker. I like having goals and being held accountable for them, but I also don't like the bad feeling that comes with not meeting them. So I just avoid making them. This year, I decided to set a small goal for myself. That goal was simply to cook more. I really just don't enjoy cooking. Maybe if I had a bigger or better kitchen, but the way that ours is all cut off from the rest of the house (it's a galley style kitchen), I just don't enjoy being in there.

Anyway, lots of people laugh at how often we eat out. In fact, Caroline has been know to ask "where are we eating tonight?", as opposed to "what are we eating?". She even asks occasionally "Please, can we just eat at home?" Makes me feel really guilty!

A lot of times, we eat out because of the time convenience. Or maybe we're not all at home to eat together. Or we're just tired and too lazy to cook. Lots of excuses.

So...my goal for this new year is to cook at home at least a couple nights a week. Sunday nights we have the tradition of meeting my in-laws for dinner at Cracker Barrel. Tuesday nights is gymnastics, so we usually pick something up on the way home after that. Fridays are the girls' night at Grammy's, so it's just Darren and me. And, of course, who wants to cook on Saturday night? ;) That leaves Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Most of the time we are home, but Darren occasionally has to work ball games on those nights. But we are still trying to make those our eat-at-home nights. Since we're often pressed for time even when we are at home, I don't want to spend all of my time in the kitchen. We usually don't ALL get home until after 5, and since Maggie goes to bed at 7 and Caroline at 8, we are pretty limited on time. In order for us to all sit down and eat together, take baths and have play time, it's best to eat by 5:30. The crockpot has become a regularly used appliance!

All of this said, I've been searching Pinterest high and low for the best WW-friendly crockpot recipes. I've posted pictures of some of these meals on Facebook and had several people ask for recipes, so I'm going to try to start posting them here. While I get my inspiration for these recipes from Pinterest (and other websites), I usually modify them slightly. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes because I forgot something at the store.

Here are a few of my recent favorites:

 

Crockpot Chicken Stroganoff

(and because I'm lazy, I'm just posting a picture of the recipe from FB ;)

Crockpot Lasagna Soup

There was plenty left over for lunches at work!

Maybe I can combine my goal of cooking at home more with blogging more. ;)

 

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