Adventures in the Kitchen

For Christmas I had asked for new pots to replace my woebegone-$7.99 for three-set from Ikea bought several years ago. I was delighted to receive a full set of new pots, pans, and lids which arrived on my doorstop yesterday morning.

So shiny and new!

I cooked up my usual egg white breakfast in the smallest pan and couldn't believe the difference it made. My pans were actually more recently bought, and not Ikea-made, but I still needed to empty about half a can of Pam onto it to cook my eggs normally. I sprayed the new pan and, while flipping the eggs around, just about threw them across the kitchen because the non-stick coating worked so well!

After cooking breakfast, I happily emptied my stock of pots and lids (non-matching lids, I might add, from my original set my junior year in college) and put them in the cardboard wasteland that was beginning to pile up in my entryway.


After retreating back to my bed for a few more movies and napping, I planned a menu for the week, created a grocery list, and headed out to the store. It was a madhouse. Apparently everyone else was using their day off to catch up on their to-do list as well. There were a few items already sold out, but mostly I'm set for a week of healthy eating (minus those Poptarts that just jumped in my cart when I wasn't looking!).

For dinner I attempted to recreate the absolutely delicious pork chops (yes, pork chops) that my dad made last week while I was home. Now, I'm not a huge fan of the other white meat, but my dad's meal was so incredibly good I even went back for seconds.

He sent me the recipe and, while my concoction turned out ok, it was not the bouquet of flavors that he had created. I think my main problem was that I didn't measure things out and forgot to halve the recipe for some of the steps. Whoops! I also didn't use real paprika, but instead a blend that included paprika, which I think may have made the major difference.

I forgot to take pictures during prep and before I started eating

Given the lack of proper nutrition in my diet, I had also picked up "Veggie Pasta" at Safeway and a new kind of red sauce to add to the meal. They were both terrible. The sauce was sweet and the pasta disgusting (although I brought the leftovers to try again today, sans sauce). So that part of the meal could be greatly improved. I threw in a salad for some greens (yes, I recognize it is pathetic looking) and would have had broccoli, but the store was out.

Overall, it was a decent meal that yielded leftovers for me to bring for lunch. I will try this recipe again, but pay a bit more attention to the instructions and maybe buy the real ingredients :)