One step, one dinner at a time!

April 30, 2021

How do you reach any goal? First you visualize it, then you break it down into steps, and then you complete each step.

If this concept scares you may I remind you that you already do this every day. Think of what you do for dinner each night. What steps do you take to ensure you get something to eat? First, the thought of dinner crosses your mind, hopefully earlier rather than later in the day. You likely reflect on your energy levels and then, perhaps, look to see what fresh food you have that needs to be used up. Then you likely decide on the strategies you will use to get dinner on the table. If you are feeling down or have little energy you may consider  these three options:

–        get something out of the freezer that is simpler to make than a full home cooked meal

–        make something that requires little preparation and creates few dishes to wash (toasted tomato and avocado sandwiches are a favourite of mine in this category)

–        order something from a local restaurant if you live near one (which I don’t).

If you have more energy you likely look at your fresh food to see what needs to be eaten before it goes bad.

Then comes the fun – if you choose to have fun, which I always do.

What should you make with these ingredients?

I still have recipe books, but more often than not nowadays I choose adventure and use the internet. I have 8 sweet peppers to use in the next couple of days so yesterday I searched for “recipes with sweet peppers”. One of my top results was, “45 of our favourite sweet pepper recipes”, I love results like that. I scrolled through those ideas and found 8 delicious recipes for my family, 2 of which are on the menu for tonight – roasted red pepper triangles and roasted pepper potato soup w lemon and cilantro. Tomorrow we will have black beans, bell peppers and rice with eggs and cheese. My mouth is watering already. After lunch we will be getting our ingredients ready so that at 4pm we just need to put them together and cook them.

Once you have chosen the recipes you are interested in you can substitute for ingredients you either don’t like or don’t have. The Roasted Red Pepper Triangles recipe uses crescent dough, which I don’t have, but I do have some puff pastry and phyllo pastry in the freezer that both need to be used so I will use one of them.

I like to cook with my family because it has become our bonding time. We all prepare a different dish or work together on a one dish meal, and start washing dishes as we work so we have fewer to do after dinner. This family meal preparation habit took time to develop so the earlier you start it with your children the easier it is to keep doing as they get older. It is a positive time for all of us. We have a small kitchen so we have learned to work well in confined spaces and help each other out. When I am cooking alone I play great music and sing and dance as I prepare our meal.

At the end of our meal we give our menu items a thumbs up or thumbs down so we know whether or not we want to make it again. Then we clean up.

This is our dinner routine and yours is likely similar. You go through this process every day and you have managed to keep yourself alive, proof that you have at least a basic proficiency in working towards a goal.

Next week I will share with you how your dinner process can be applied to working towards one of your dream goals, and that my dear, will make all the difference in the world to your life!

You can do this!

With all my love,

Velvet

Living with More Joy, one step and one dinner at a time.