A Cooking Rut

I have been in a major cooking rut the month of September. I can count on one hand the number of meals I actually planned and prepared. I was basically flying by the seat of my pants which I hate. Last Thursday was the last straw. I had no idea what to make and so I told the kids it would be a yoyo dinner, which they love. Conner got a can of ravioli, Sam ate leftovers and Mikey ate cereal. I looked around the table and thought to myself this is probably how the majority of American families eat and it made me so sad and I snapped out of my rut. Friday I planned my meals and Saturday I went grocery shopping for 3 hours and stocked up on a ton of stuff. We are set to eat like kings this week. I stopped getting the paper ($250 for the year) because I haven't been couponing very much the last couple months. Life has just gotten really busy with soccer, church, volunteering at the school, PTA, babysitting, etc. that some things had to go. I'm going to see if my grocery budget is affected much the next couple months and I may start up again. Being as our cereal supply is almost gone I've decided to only eat cereal once a week for breakfast. This morning I made individual baked egg cups and they were delicious and super easy. Last night after making dinner the oven was still on so I cooked my bacon a little so it was not crispy but still pliable and then put one strip around the edge of each muffin cup. I went ahead and scrambled my eggs with milk and salt and pepper and put in the fridge. In the morning I just poured the eggs in the bacon cups added some cheese and green onions and baked for 20 minutes @ 350 F. They were so yummy served with toast, bananas and yogurt. Sam ate 3. I'm going to make some more and add sausage and cheese and only fill the muffin cup half full and then put on an English Muffin. So easy. Last night for dinner I made chicken pillows. I use this recipe. I make my own bread dough and use a rotisserie chicken. Once again so easy and yummy. I realized I didn't have bread crumbs so I made my own with this recipe increasing the spice amounts and adding parmesan cheese and once again so good. I'll never buy bread crumbs again. I don't make the gravy for the pillows, we like them plain. Conner wanted to take them for lunch today. I also made a Boston cream pie (really cake) from scratch with homemade vanilla pudding, ganache and all for dessert. Conner said it was the best cake he'd ever had. I love Conner. He loves good food and always raves about it and makes me feel so good. Tonight I'm making my favorite soup from Olive Garden, Zuppa Toscana with some foccacia bread, salad and pineapple. I am so excited. I have been so giddy since I started cooking again. I love it. It's all about the plan for me. I love food. I told Neil it's too hard to lose weight when I just love food so much. Never the less I got up at 5:30 and exercised today!