Friday, September 17, 2010

Hallelujah we have a working oven!

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Thanks to my grandma getting a new oven, we finally now have a working one.  I am beyond grateful. Since Tuesday night we've had these dinners:

-chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, green beans, walnut chocolate chip cookies
-DiGiornio pizza & bread sticks (supreme), broccoli, peaches
-pork loins, roasted carrots & potatoes, cinnamon apples

Yum.
Having all your kitchen appliances in working order makes it so easy to get dinner on the table.  Yes, I could have (and did) prepared meals without an oven, but it's nice to not have to stress over weather you can prepare the diner or not.  I mean, it's hard enough deciding what to eat in the first place!  Trying to eat healthfully, affordably, and excitingly (eventually Subway gets very very old) is extremely difficult to accomplish every night.  There is peace of mind that you are doing the right thing when you cook meals for your family and eat with them.  The kids can feel special when they help prep food (and the teaching opportunities are endless), you know exactly what is in your food (it is so hard to have an actual balanced healthy meal when you get take-out all the time).  Even at sandwich joints, which is where we ate from most of the time (enter kid meals that come with a choice of chips or a cookie.  I'm talking about you Quiznos).  It's also great to teach manners.....like cleaning off a dish and thanking the person who cooked you food instead of just throwing trash away.  Veggies becoming a dinner staple again (not just a random pickle in a sandwich), have become a great bargaining chip too.  Yeah you can have a peach.  After you eat all your broccoli.  Breakfast was pretty simple to do without an oven.  We did have a range top that worked.  :)  But it is fun to know that we can now have things like quiche, and muffins.  So yes, I am beyond thrilled.  And just in time for my favorite season!  What are you all cooking up?

1 comment:

Cyndi loves to stitch said...

woohoo for grandma getting a new stove and giving hers to you!! what a great collection of cookbooks you have too. If nothing else but for the covers!!!! nice photo of cookbooks! We were in the same boat as you a long time ago I remember going for a year and a half with only the stove top (and only half of that too), and how nice it was having an oven and 2 big burners again. think about all those warm baked goodies, breads, roasts, etc in your near future yum! glad to hear you can bake again.