Chasing Grace

Having allowed myself to develop bad eating habits to the point of becoming uncomfortably out of shape, lethargic and mildly depressed I have determined it is time for me to stop being lazy and take responsibility for my health.

I have started cooking again. It’s not that I don’t enjoy cooking, I really do. It has just been easier to eat lots of pre-packaged food, fast food, junk food and cookies. Lots of cookies. Enough already.

When we went grocery shopping this past weekend, I was determined to make a list of things I would need to start preparing real meals again, and found I was having trouble remember just exactly what those things were. So I ended up just wandering the aisles and re-discovering key ingredients. I also ended up forgetting a few things. However I was able to concoct a fairly decent beef stew for my lunches this week. I was unable to find a satisfactory recipe on the web, most of the recipes are family-size and I only need to make this for myself, Paul does not like stew. So after reading through several of them, I just went into the kitchen and made it up as I went along. I mean, the ingredients are fairly standard, the preparation is usually pretty simple. I like simple when it comes to cooking.

It turned out okay yesterday, but it was even better today after spending the night in the refrigerator. Some things do seem to benefit from steeping in the fridge, and this certainly did. I’m looking forward to enjoying more tomorrow.

One of the benefits, aside from improved health, of cooking things from scratch like this is saving money. It’s one of those win-win things.

Not that we won’t be dining out anymore. I can’t imagine giving up that luxury. But it’ll be less often. And so will the cookies.