The good thing about being forced to lay still is - I got to do a lot of reading. I finished a couple books that I was working on. I read several magazines and tried to work on the computer some but sitting up hurt my back.
I took a bath before bed and Cairn put some Deep Blue on my back - that helped for about 20 minutes and then the pain returned.
I went to bed early again with the kids and hope my back feels better tomorrow. I have a lot to do.
Cairn woke up with a sore throat so she stayed in her room relaxing and reading too. I wouldn't let her get in bed with me because it hurt my back whenever the bed moved.
I read Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn a recommendation I found on Pinterest. I am working hard on cleaning up our diet even more. It became quite evident why I need to when we were in NC.
I got it from the library on Friday and finished reading it today. WOW, what a book. I learned so much and I already feel more confident in the kitchen. I did skip a few chapters because we don't eat meat and I don't prepare any meat but I still learned a lot.
I especially liked learning about knives. I always pick the smallest knife in the block. That's not the one I should use.
The most motivating yet most common sense item was buy in smaller portions and use what you have first. Yes, it might be more economical to buy 5 heads of lettuce at one time but if you throw away 3 that have gone bad, you really just threw away money. I try to go grocery shopping only one time a week because the more I take the kids in the store, the more I seem to spend but I also tend to waste a lot of food because I forget something is in the fridge or I run out of steam by the end of the week. You know that feeling, you had the menus planned for the week - a new recipe each night but by Friday you are tired for the week and don't want to cook another big meal. Food goes to waste. So I am going to try to shop more often and buy fewer things at a time. I will just have to work out with Dad to leave the kids at home I go to the store alone. That way I will stick to my list, watch prices and not buy too much.
There were many recipes in the book that made things appear easier then you think. For example, vinaigrette - it seems like a tough recipe but really it is 2 main ingredients - 3 parts oil, and 1 part acid.
I plan to reread the book and take notes of all the things I want to remember. A great book, a quick read and you learn so much about something you have to do everyday.
