i cook

Before I left my pharma job, I probably ate out 95% of meals. Even when I'd get home on Thursday nights, I was too tired to cook and I certainly didn't want to go to the grocery for just 3 days a week, so we did take out most of the time.

But, now that I've been home more, I've really enjoyed cooking. I had even forgot how good it made me feel to eat something I created. Earlier this week, Stephen and Hannah (our friends + Stephen is SC's graphic designer) and Scarlet and the kids came over for paninis. I had a choice of 3:

• Turkey Artichoke: Turkey, Havarti, Spin/Art topping, red onion, tomato on Asiago Foccacia (from Panera)
• Turkey Guacamole: Turkey, Havarti, Guacamole, Red onion, on regular foccacia
• Chicken Bacon Dijon: Chicken, Muenster, Dijon Mustard, Bacon (fresh from Greg's butcher at a local shop) on foccacia

To cook the paninis, I used a panini press and put mayonnaise on the outside of the bread. If you don't like mayo, don't panic. I don't either, but I had tried it with evoo, and didn't really like the outcome. Then, I read somewhere to try mayo and loved the result.

We've also been eating a lot of this salad:

• Spring Mix
• Gorgonzola crumbles
• Red Onion
• Grape Tomatoes (yes, I have to cut mine in half before putting them on my salad)
• Fresh Bacon
• Balsamic Vinaigrette (I like T. Marzetti's, or you could make your own)

I even have Greg hooked on this healthy salad minus the gorgonzola.

The rest of this week's menu has included roast + all the fixings last Sunday, quesadillas (with fresh guacamole, cilantro, etc), left-over paninis, and spinach-artichoke dip. We had pizza one night, but that was the only night I didn't cook.

On Saturday, Noah and Nadiya came over and played for a while. Noah, especially loved my quesadillas! We made sugar cookies, plus Greg taught them how to do this with dominoes.

Today was spent cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning. Now, I'm thoroughly enjoying my clean house :) It looks and smells so good. I've had candles burning all day and I'm loving it.

Tomorrow, Scarlet and I will be finishing shipping Dec's kit, so it will be a busy day. Wish us luck!