My favorite way to cook is to make something I’ve made before because I’m familiar with the flavors and I don’t have to measure anything. I can confidently alter and replace ingredients without being nervous about how it might turn out and end up wasting food and, in turn, wasting money. However, I don’t cook this way the majority of the time.

My second-fave way of cooking is when I almost have nothing to cook with. This may sound odd, but when I’m, essentially, forced, to come up with something, I like that my creativity is able to take hold and make it work. The other night, I had a very busy day and hadn’t had time to get to the store. I was out of just about everything! I knew I had tortillas, but no meat. I sorted through my canned goods and found a can of spanish rice, so I grabbed that, because I knew there was a half of can of refried beans in the fridge, along with half an onion. I started whipping through my condiments and found a some pickled jalapenos and, with my huge array of spices, I was able to create something worthy of putting in a tortilla and the girls loved them! Success! Something out of nothing…how fun is that?

I’m NOT a comfort foody. Well, let me explain. I love comfort foods, but I refuse to make them weekly and only indulge in them once in awhile. I do this because I don’t want to get in a weekly routine of eating certain foods. I know that  a lot of mothers do that, but I feel that I would be limiting my family’s “food horizons” by doing that. I like to bring diversity to my table, so I’m huge on new recipes and I enjoy bringing the kids in to “alter” a recipe with me. Sometimes, we choose to omit certain things or replace it with something we like better. We don’t care if we’re breaking the rules; in fact, I recommend it! It’s way more fun.

Last night, I made my first-ever batch of French Onion Soup (that’s the photo of it at the top), using a recipe from Jamie Oliver (love him!). Now, again, I didn’t follow the rules, but the flavors turned out marvelous, although I quickly realized that I had created enough soup to feed 14 instead of 4. It’s ok…I can use leftover onions and broth for like a million things….mexican pork roast, blue cheese burgers, stroganoff, soup stocks, etc. No problem!

Soooo…what’s for dinner?