Time To Start Cooking

In the last year or two I have stopped cooking.  We will eat take out at least four times a week.  Sometimes more.  When I do cook I throw things together.  There are several reasons.  My days are long between the commute and work.  I'm tired.  I would rather spend my free time doing anything but cooking.  Even if I want to cook, there are never any groceries to cook. 
I made the decision to buy a new cookbook.  I bought, Slow Cookin' Companion by The Crockin Girls, Nicole Sparks and Jenna Marwitz. The cookbook is nicely done. The recipes are easy. The pictures are beautiful. I bought a second crockpot.  I picked three meals to do this week, made my grocery list and BOUGHT food to cook. It was odd being in the grocery store shopping for real food.  Normally, I am picking up things to heat up.  I have two meals cooking right now.
I started with, Most Amazing Pork Chops and Angel Chicken.  The chicken is an Italian dish, to be mixed with penne pasta.  Tonight we will eat the pork chops.  That will leave the Angel Chicken for my menfolk to heat up tomorrow night.  Later in the week I am going to cook a round steak.  Have not picked the recipe yet.  There are several I am thinking of using.  My plan is to cook two a week.  I will rate how the family like each meal on the recipe page.  I am going to go outside of their comfort zone too.  I have tired of cooking same old thing when I cook.  Things are going to be switched up around here.
I will plan meals on the week-end and make my grocery list.  I will try to cook at least two meals on Sunday.  I will set my goal of three crockpot meals a week.  That might be setting my sights high, but I will see how it goes.  My goal is to eventually leave grocery lists for Hubby to do some shopping.  He does not mind grocery shopping.  I will need to be very specific on my list.
The other thing I have been reading this week-end are recipes for making my own products.  Today I made dishwasher detergent.  I am going to make Hand Scrub and Shaving Gel tonight.  I made a sea salt scrub last month.  People seemed to like it.  Time to move on to more products.  After I test a few items I would like to sell some things in Tru Storie's yoga studio.  Is this how Mary Kay started?