I just realized today that cooking helps me relieve stress, although the previous post should have given me a clue. I know this is true for lots of people (Tiff loves to cook and makes brownies when she's stressed), but I never thought I was one of those people. I like to cook, and I have found the process of chopping vegetables to be therapeutic, something about taking a bunch of ingredients and making something wonderful. I also like being able to make a meal for my family that is really delicious.
A while ago Mandi led me to Our Best Bites,(see button to the left) they have such good recipes. They are all tried, and perfected, easy and so yummy. I have made lots of their recipes, but this week I have been obsessed. It started with making the Asian BBQ chicken, and then taking the leftovers to make pizza on the grill (which btw was easy and so fun). Friday morning Darren worked from home and I got up to look for a yummy breakfast, and made breakfast taquitos -so good! Plus, this summer I have become obsessed with wanting to own a small, counter top ice cream maker. Especially when OBB had a snickerdoodle ice cream recipe (I LOVE cinnamon, and really LOVE snickerdoodles). After searching my local Target, and Walmart for ice cream makers I turned to the internet and good old Amazon came through. My ice cream maker was set to be delivered on Thursday. I planned my whole day around it! I even made sugar cookies (our best bites, of course) to put in the ice cream. When I saw the UPS man leave without delivering my ice cream maker I wanted to eat a bag of M&Ms I was so upset. Lucky for my waist he came back, and ice cream making was back on. I made the custard, which had to cool overnight, put the ice cream freezer in the freezer, and I was set to make snickerdoodle ice cream Friday night. It did not disappoint- so good that when I woke up this morning I grabbed a spoon and headed for the freezer.
What does this have to do with stress relief? I'm getting to that. Since yesterday's ice cream was so good I decided I needed to try another flavor. I was torn between blueberry cheesecake and caramelized banana. I chose the banana because I have some bananas that need to be used.
Today we went shopping to get Shelby (and me) ready for girls camp. We only needed to buy a few things, but it was stressing me out. We still need to get her secret sister stuff. Plus, since I'm going too, and being the planner that I am, I've been trying to figure out: 1)what snacks I need to bring, so that I can eat healthy,2)what is the best way to get my trailer to girls camp, 3)Darren is coming for the first night as priesthood, so what does he need to bring, and 4)what do we do with Sarah while we're all gone. I finally have that all figured out, but when we got home from shopping I was feeling a little fried, so I decided to caramelize the bananas and get my custard for the ice cream chilling so I can make it tomorrow. That did the trick, totally helped me unwind. Who knew? I didn't have to eat a thing, just cook. That is a revelation.
2 comments:
That's awesome, Em! It's always great to find ways to de-stress and it seems you've done it. I don't enjoy cooking very much but the eating I can certainly handle! Argh.
Way to go! Oh, and I guess I'll be seeing you on Thursday at camp!
What is stressing me out is Shelby going to girl's camp. When did that happen? What happened to my little 'purple toes' buddy? I hope you all have a great time.
BTW--the ice cream sounds delicious!
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