Cooking Change-Up

The longer I've been living in my own apartment, the more I've been making my food from scratch. I used to buy all sorts of prepared food...frozen dinners, boxed pasta dishes, etc. But a combination of limited freezer space and realizing that it's actually cheaper to make things from scratch helped me to modify my grocery shopping habits. The thing is, I've still been making the fastest and easiest things I have in my pantry, so my meals have gotten pretty...boring. I've been wanting to try new recipes, but they always have random ingredients that I'm never able to use in another dish. Eventually those randoms end up sitting in your fridge, wasting away, and before you know it you're throwing out all those extra dollars you spent. When you're working on a tight budget like me, hearing those wasted tasty morsels hit the bottom of the trash can sounds more like your wallet screaming in agony. Ouch.

The thing is, when you spend your time NOT trying new recipes and sticking to the basic ingredients that you know are quick and easy, you find yourself eating multiple varieties of dull chicken far too often. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my life. I've gotten to the point where it's about time to mix things up literally and figuratively. So I pulled out the cookbooks, opened up Pinterest, and started the search for some new recipes. This time around, though, nothing was going to waste!

I started looking for recipes where I knew I would be able to find other ways to use the ingredients after I used them in the main dish. Even if I didn't usually use the ingredients, I was determined that I would keep an open mind and find a way to work them into multiple dishes so they wouldn't go to waste (including with my crazy schedule, when I normally need to make things quickly or in advance). I was also going to do all this while being healthier at the same time. Hours later, I was still trying to find recipes I was willing to risk budget-wise. I felt like I had wasted my Saturday afternoon, felt like I wasn't healthy at all, and it all just made me completely overwhelmed. GAH. 

Luckily, I eventually realized that I was taking on too much at once, remembered I don't have to change everything up all at the same time, and decided to take baby steps. I finally settled on one recipe, found a few new (but not totally foreign) items that were on sale, made my grocery list, and walked away.

Today, I put it all into action.

I started with the grocery store. I admittedly spent a little bit more than I have been lately (and more than I would have liked), but I think I'll be able to put everything I got to good use (and hopefully not let any of it go to waste!). Then I decided to make the one recipe that I had picked out, a new, hopefully-actually-healthy recipe. Other than my quick and dull dinners (which I don't consider to be "real" cooking), I haven't done a lot of cooking lately, so it was really great to dive into an actual cooking project again. I dove into the kitchen, reconnected with my inner chef, and whipped up some......

Carrot and Quinoa Muffins. 

Carrot and Quinoa?? Who would have thought I would make something like that? Until recently, I never thought I would have. But I did! With everyone talking about quinoa these days, and all sorts of people close to me like roommates and family members cooking it up like wildfire, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and give it a try (plus quinoa stores well and is incredibly versatile, so I know it won't go to waste). These muffins were simple enough to make so that I would totally make them on a regular basis, but also required enough work to make me feel like I was actually cooking. Plus, they turned out to be ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

I have to admit that I was hesitant when I decided to try this recipe; I thought that the muffins would turn out dry or grainy. But they're not at all! They're soft, moist, and delicious. They basically taste like carrot cake, and if I hadn't told you, you would never know there was quinoa in them. New breakfast/morning snack? I think so :)

I'm still working on taking the time to take good photos, but for now you get to enjoy a lovely pic of one of these tasty morsels chillin' on my awesome, fake, covered-to-look-like-granite counter:

If you'd like to try out these muffins for yourself, check out the recipe at the website Good Dinner Mom. You can also find it on my "Culinary Creations" Pinterest board.