Veritable Versatility

Welcome back!

This guest post is by Marlynn Jayme Schotland, from the Maternity To Madness Blog.

Sometimes you’re stuck…

… stuck in a cooking rut or stuck in a snow and ice storm. This week, both are predicted for our household! A snow and ice storm hit our area and two more storms are expected to hit over the next five days, one more powerful than the last. This means me, my husband, our two kids (ages 4 and 1) and dog are homebound for about a week. That’s a recipe for madness, madness I tell you! My family tends to gather around the kitchen, and during times like these the kitchen holds even more meaning. Yet being stuck at home can also easily lead to a cooking rut, which could then help perpetuate more madness.

Preparation & the Pantry.

You’ve heard that the key to successful meal planning is a well-stocked pantry. Never has this been more true when you know you are going to be stuck indoors for a week. For the next 5 days, I have the following homemade meals planned, all staples in our meal rotation:

Veggie Pizza

Mediterranean Chickpea Soup

Teriyaki Orange Chicken

Tri-Pepper Turkey Pasta

Jerk Pork Cutlets.

Meal Planning? Uh….

Here’s the thing you should know about me: I despise meal planning with a deep passion. My husband and I are not keen on sticking to meal plans, so I’ve learned that the key for us is to stock our pantry and fridge with versatile ingredients that cater to our fickle appetites and allow for variations of our favorites.

For instance, Mediterranean Chickpea Soup is one of my husband’s favorite main dishes; it is not, however, one of mine. So if I decide I’m not in the mood for the soup the same day he’s in the mood for it (the soup, that is; mind out of gutters, people), I’ll make myself a Mediterranean Chickpea Pasta or Salad dish instead. All call for ingredients that can be stocked for months safely in the pantry: olive oil, canned chickpeas, canned tomatoes, chicken stock, and spices, along with one of our refrigerator staples: onions.

Mediterranean Chickpea Soup: To make the soup into a pasta dish, simply prepare the onions, spices, chickpeas and tomatoes minus the chicken stock and water in a skillet and add cooked pasta once ready. The same ingredients minus the liquids can be used for a salad.

Requiring the same type of versatility for all of our weekday staples truly helps for times when you’re stuck in a cooking rut, stuck indoors due to the weather, or both!

About the Author:

Marlynn Jayme Schotland is a serial mamapreneur, blogging & social media addict, and a happily imperfect mother with a very loud, happy house. She owns Mamapreneurs Inc. com, a resource, support & networking organization, as well as Urban Bliss, a design, PR and gifts studio. She is also editor of Mama Lit, a book review site for moms, and a freelance writer. She is married to her college sweetheart and they live in Portland, OR with their two young kids.

Where you can find Marlynn:
Twitter: @designmama
www.mamapreneursinc.com
www.urbanblissdesign.com