I used to hate food now I’m a rookie ‘chef’

I use the term ‘Chef’ very lightly because God knows I’m lying, but dang it anyway I am a pretty good cook.

When I was a child I hated food. No, this isn’t my sarcasm coming out again, truly, I wasn’t a fan of much food at all. If it was a fresh cucumber from the garden, corn on the cob, dill pickle chips or Mountain Dew, oh man I’d eat it like I was never going to see it again. Random, yes, that was me!

And I was tiny. Never hit 100 pounds until right before I graduated high school.

Oh the glory days.

Ha! What in the world are glory days anyway? Can someone tell me?

Oh hey there glory days Angel…

I’m in pink if you didn’t recognize me…

Glory days or beef days? I choose beef. If you learn anything from this young girls – STRONG is where it’s at. #micdrop

Anyway…

I then went to college and gained a liking for food. I was always running around working 30-40 hours a week and going to class so I never really thought about what I was eating, I just ate quickly so I could move onto the next thing. Though I wasn’t always eating the healthiest, I did manage to squeeze in time for a workout.

Physical fitness has always been a passion of mine. I was even working toward an Athletic Training degree at one point, so it wasn’t ever too hard to stay in shape.

About 8 years ago I started to realize I needed to expand my knowledge about food if I wanted to be as healthy as possible and I started to embrace cooking more. We now plan our weekly menu and grocery shop every weekend for the coming week. Which I sometimes find funny as I always flew by the seat of my pants, rarely planning anything…ask my sister or my mom. It’s still a running joke. Well, that just was not going to work for my newfound love of healthy food and our productive lifestyle. (I hate the word busy…that’s a topic for another day).

I would say 90% of our menu meals are made in 30 minutes or less. We both work full time jobs, our kids go to daycare and they are both in bed by 7:30 every night. That does not leave a lot of time in the evenings so we like our meal prep to be quick so we can enjoy it together and talk about our “favorite part of the day”.

If you are new to cooking or trying to expand your knowledge, my first recommendation is to learn as much as you can about herbs and then jump into growing your own. You will not regret this. Absolutely nothing beats fresh herbs thrown into anything.

Tonight I made one of our favorites, garlic salmon and sauteed veggies.

You’ll notice, that’s not sautéed veggies. Nor a blog worthy photo. Well…

I got home from work, played in the yard with my favorite people for 15 minutes and then went inside to prep supper. I prepped the salmon and chopped the veggies and started the coconut oil, garlic and some herbs on the stove. I dumped the veggies in and covered them.

I then asked:

“Hey babe, will you please put the salmon in when the oven dings and keep an eye on it?”

“I sure will” he says.

Nova and I make our way downstairs to work out. She has her fake rattle weight and I have my Jillian Michaels app to get a quick 26 minute workout in. Yes. 26 minutes. Check out her app. It’s one of my favorite things ever. http://Jillianmichaels.com/app

We finish our workout and I smell something is burning…uh oh.

I open the basement door and see that the veggies haven’t been stirred.

Fantastic. Communication fail. No veggies for us.

At least the salmon survived. #winning

Salmon:

1. Place one piece of salmon on a piece of tin foil and wrap the edges up.
2. Pour olive oil or coconut oil on the top – typically about 2-4 tbsps depending on how large your fillet is.
3. Sprinkle garlic salt, fresh oregano, cumin, chili powder on the top
4. Roll the tin foil closed and cook in 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until flakey

Couscous:

I have tweaked this recipe quite a bit but this is the incredible one I built from. Nova has devoured this since she was 9 months old and Knox begs for more. I LOVE mint and oregano so I always add more of that.

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/couscous-with-spiced-zucchini-232631

I hope you love this as much as we do!