It’s already the middle January. Our home has slowly got back into the groove of school days after a well needed break over the Christmas season. We also had our first real cold snap of the season, where temperatures reached 40 below zero. We hunkered down with piles of blankets, warm cozy fires and two large dogs that just wanted to snuggle those first few days of the new year. A trip to the library to pick up a few books for homeschool and to the peruse the periodicals lead me to the first disappointment of 2019.
There on the shelf was a solemn black cover set in contrast with a chocolate cake adorned fresh berries and the words “The Farewell Issue” in bold, white lettering hovering directly above. It was the December issue of Cooking Light and I had somehow missed picking up a copy during the month of December in the grocery store check out line. I was in complete disbelief. The wind was knocked out of me. My go-to kitchen essential periodical of new fresh recipes was now gone. I had lost “The Chew” not even 4 months prior and now another staple in my cooking repertoire had slipped away from me. I also stopped to reflect on the fact that the last few months, that the magazine had felt like it was full of 2-3 page spreads for medications like Corlazambalta and other made up sounding names; who’s side effects filled up the pages with teeny tiny print warning of stroke, loss of appetite or chronic bouts of diarrhea and the occasional dry eye requiring another medication advertised on page 23.
I began to wonder how to fill the gaps in my menu planning and to stretch that almighty dollar at the grocery store. Then while scrolling through the endless newsfeed that fills everyone’s electronic devices, I spotted a new to me blog showing a grocery haul from Aldi’s. Now there’s no Aldi anywhere near me and it was one of my favorite places to shop when we lived in Upstate NY. So, I watched this video and noticed how this lady wasn’t buying hardly any junk food. 5 kiddos and no junk food, that really impressed me. After watching a few more of her videos on her YouTube channel and the blog, Farmhouse on Boone, I was inspired. Now this particular page had showed up on my newsfeed a few days after the Cooking Light let down in the library. And let me tell ya, this is exactly the kind of inspiration I had been looking for.
As another homeschooling mom providing healthy, wholesome meals to her family, she really spoke to me. Healthy, wholesome food is one of my main focuses as a mom and I want to instill good eating habits in my children’s lives before their grown and out on their own. I was feeling motivated to get back into the kitchen with a renewed spirit. I had tidied up my laundry room and decluttered my kitchen countertops. I made a sourdough starter that we’ve named Ishmael, since it fermented in close proximity to a copy of Moby Dick. Ishmael, in fact, has already provided us with several loaves of rustic sourdough bread, a delicious sourdough chocolate cake and sourdough English muffins for this week’s breakfasts.
Feeling like my cooking groove was ready to return, I rewatched a video for a few meal ideas and the main takeaway from it was how she doesn’t meal plan. Say what?!?! She. Doesn’t. Meal. Plan. Impossible, I thought, surely there’s Pinterest worthy meals that need to be replicated and shared on social media or that’s what they’re telling us. However, the more time the idea of not planning weekly menus marinated in my head, it began to make sense. It’s time to stop keeping up with Joneses of the social media world and get back to making healthy, simple and delicious meals. I really want 2019 to be a year of returning to simplicity and also a year of joy. So, why not, not meal plan? That’s as simple as it gets for me.
Hold on to your hats, because we’re heading into uncharted territory.
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