I’m slowly getting back to cooking basics after taking a week off from cooking from scratch. The go-around this time, however has been a bit different. Instead of cooking every.single.night. I’ve been making big batches of food and eating a small amount every day. For example, I made a huge lasagna but ate a piece of it for the next three days for both lunch and dinner. When the lasagna was gone I made another big batch of cooking, such as stuffed peppers or baked breaded pork chops with a side of home-made apple sauce or a big pot of chicken and rice soup (loaded with veggies and kale).

The system seems to be working as I didn’t want more from anything PLUS I wasn’t in the kitchen cooking, cooking, cooking. I even baked a double batch of chocolate chip cookies as a snack! I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to daily cooking BUT hubby starts his new job and will be working 5 days a week. I’ll be forced to cook up some really healthy and hearty meals during the week because DH is guaranteed to come home hungry. His new job requires a bit of manual labor so he’ll need a good supper when he gets home.

I made a big batch of Asian stir fry chicken and broccoli (with mushrooms & onions) served over brown rice (prepared in my rice cooker). The hit of the week was stuffed peppers (made with chopped turkey and left over white rice) topped with store-bought marinara sauce. I had a few left over apples and turned them into cinnamon apple sauce. I served it as a side to oven-baked breaded pork chops, alongside chicken flavored cous-cous (made with my own chicken broth). I was feeling a bit frisky one evening and made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. Lastly, I made a rather large cheesy lasagna and had a slice of it for the next three days for both lunch and dinner. Delish!

Finally, our pellet stove has been lit and DH and I are learning how to regulate the heat in our home. The unit comes with a programmable timer and we’re figuring out when should the unit come on (4:30 AM) when should it shut down (midnight). We’ve been able to keep the whole house at 70F degrees which is nice and warm! DH ran some numbers and when comparing the pellet stove heat to the propane based heat we had, we’ve gone down from a heating cost of $7.50 a day to $2.50 a day. That’s a huge savings!

Plus we enjoy looking at the flame:

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