Hooray for a Home-Cooked Meal

My home ebbs and flows from complete disorder to tidiness and harmony. My linens do not come out of the laundry crisp. And my bed does not get made every day (though I am working on this habit). As Leo pointed out to me last night, however, I am pretty good at meal planning and preparation, or "throwing a meal together" in his words. It occurred to me tonight that this is something not all people are either good at or good about doing on a regular basis.

While Leo has done the bulk of the actual cooking lately via our new grill, I do prepare most of the meal ingredients by peeling, slicing, dicing, marinating, seasoning, etc. And perhaps most importantly, I shop for the ingredients.

I am becoming more and more fascinated with nutrition and our ever-expanding food choices, and I like to think that I purchase healthy foods for the most part. I have not bought packaged meals such as Hamburger Helper since we were first married. I check ingredients on products religiously, and if there is an artificial anything or an eight-syllable word, I put the item back 99.9% of the time.

Now that it's summertime, I am a devotee of my local farm stand. I was thrilled to find one just a couple miles down the road from us, and even more ecstatic when I saw the quality of their produce. The stuff is beautiful. And tasty.

I also have a share in a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. I will explain this more in a future post, as I think it is an interesting idea that has had its ups and downs for me. For now, suffice it to say that I can count on getting nutritious produce from my CSA, and I have had fun trying varieties of fruits and vegetables that were previously unknown to me.

Tonight I'm giving myself a pat on the back, because nine dinners out of ten lately, we've had a balanced, home-cooked meal. I consider this no small feat with our hectic schedules and a baby in our midst, and I only hope that Daphne becomes as appreciative of my throwing a meal together as her daddy is.