So Julia Child, Martha Stewart and I walk into a bar...

After weeks of hibernation from the kitchen I am finally back to cooking and enjoying it. For the past month or so I couldn't go into or look at the kitchen without wanting to thrown all of my pots and pans into a pile and burning them. Cooking had lost all enjoyment and whimsy which was very bad for my wife and kids. I'm the cook in the family and when I decide to sit on my butt and refuse to boil a couple of eggs... everyone suffers.

I guess what made the magic disappear was the fact that I had been so adamant about healthy eating and sticking to a strict vegetarian/vegan diet. Of course those rules did not apply when we ate out but I felt that as long as I was cooking at home I would make sure we ate healthy food. I would even try to make as much stuff from scratch as I could. In theory a vegan diet is great and even down right admirable for a family of four, but it can also be a drag for the cook.

Trying to find new recipes that had no meat or animal by-products that also tasted good and were quick to make narrowed my dinner selections down substantially. I was able to find some recipes that were winners and would rotate them every week but I soon got tired of cooking (and eating) them. The thought of another pesto pizza with vegetable toppings made my stomach turn. I had to turn up the volume and find something new. But when you limit your choices you begin to find the same things over and over but with slight twists on the same thing. Rather than incorporate lean meats I simply threw in my apron. I went on a cooking strike.

Eating out is usually only reserved for weekends but we started eating out A LOT more. This really didn't bother me since we live so close to a wide variety of restaurants. Tonight could be Jimmy John's then tomorrow could be Olive Garden. No problem! Well we had a problem. I forgot two very important points. 

Point#1: Part of the deal that my wife and I had when we decided that I would stay at home was that I cook dinner. 

I was in direct violation of this deal. While we knew that I wouldn't be able to cook EVERY night I would still cook the majority of the time.

Point #2: My oldest daughter (who brings her lunch to school) no longer had my leftovers from the night before.
Sure there may have been food left over from take-out but there wasn't much. Plus she missed all the different dishes that I came up with so that she could brag to her friends about what tasty food I made.

So I had to put my big girl panties on and stop having a temper tantrum. While holding to a strict diet seemed like a great idea, I needed to give myself some wiggle room. We could still eat healthy and eat meat. So I found some great recipes and got back into the kitchen. Now I don't get upset when I don't make something from scratch or have to make something with cheese.

The lesson I learned here is that not everyone is Martha Stewart, even Martha isn't Martha. Take it easy, have fun and cook with love and everything else will fall into place.