Menu Mailer Liberation!

Before you scroll down to read my post, Cooking Traditional Foods is having a giveaway! Click here to enter. There are 9 different ways to enter for a chance at winning the Back to Basics E-book.

Last summer I posted about my new cook book and raved about how much I loved it, but never named it. It is a book called "Nourishing Traditions" and can be found on Amazon. I had been looking for a cook book that would allow me to feed my family with quality food in a way that was close to how I already cooked. This was it. It was similar to how my mother cooked for us when I was young and it seemed easy enough. I cut out store bought mayo, packaged oatmeal, and cold cereal. I upgraded our butter to the best I could find (which wasn't the most expensive, suprisingly) and gave myself a pat on the back for always refusing to feed my family margarine! I loved it because I didn't have to change a lot; I already cooked with fresh ingredients and made everything from scratch. And then I found a blog devoted to cooking in the same fashion! I thought I was set!

But like any cook, I get tired. I order in, or eat out, or resort to the occasional frozen meal and I feel SO much guilt each time that I do! How was I supposed to keep up with cooking 3 meals a day, 1 or 2 snacks, chores, homeschool and 4 kids? Everyone slips up, right? I find it even harder to prepare meals in the evening, when I am tired or the kitchen is a mess, especially now in the last 6 weeks of my 5th pregnancy!

While I was filling out my entries for this e-book giveaway, I was asked to answer the question "what your biggest hurdle is to getting traditional foods into your family on a consistent basis?" And I thought I had a few good answers (*cough* excuses) like time, energy, money.... but really, if healthy, filling, nourishing food is so important to me, would those things hold me back? What did it really come down to? One ugly word: stubbornness!

This e-book giveaway is a collection of menu mailers! You know, weekly menu's mailed to you, complete with recipes and shopping lists. Why am I not already using these fantastic mailers?! Because somewhere in my process of learning to cook (which came from Gourmet magazine and the Joy of Cooking), and training myself to reject fast food or mainstream diets, I decided that I didn't need advice from anyone! I had been down the road of going vegetarian, back to meat and processed foods, to vegan, to gourmet, then to allergy and weight loss diets and finally (thanks to my husband) settled in a place where I was allowed to eat what I wanted, as long as it was all natural. I had so many ideas pushed at me that taking any of them became a sign of weakness and I wasn't about to let anyone tell me what to eat ever again, because I was far more informed than anyone! This means that the possibility of following a menu mailer was so beneath me that I couldn't even consider it! I browse the recipes that come to my inbox and move on.

But here I am: to tired to cook or go out to eat, hungry, and I loathe shopping or making lists to GO shopping. I need help! I can't afford to keep eating out, physically or financially! And feeding my family meals from the freezer isn't bad if I'm the one that made them and put them in there! I give up - I am submitting! If you are in any way like me (at least, the to tired to make dinner part) I encourage you to give it a try for a month! Just a month, that's all I am committing to right now. And I'm not waiting to win the book to start.

One last thing before I go.... I want to know: How did you learn to cook? And what is your biggest challenge when it comes to feeding your family healthy, nutritious foods?

Update: I have switched dish unloading/loading time from after lunch, to after breakfast. It seems to be helping a great deal, leaving the dishwasher available for dirty dishes all day long, and keeping my kitchen clean! Its much easier to cook dinner when I don't have to do dishes first. Now, we all load our plates after dinner and I turn it on and things are ready to be put away in the morning! A small change with a huge impact!