Cooking Consciously

This is not a very attractive picture...not at all cute like blog pictures are supposed to be. I'm using it as a reminder to myself of why I don't cook very often, or at least to pay more attention when I do cook. Don't misunderstand, I can cook. In fact, I can cook pretty well when I make the effort. Unfortunately, my best efforts lie in the direction of the not so good for us Southern cooking that I grew up with, though I can do a more than passable job on heart-healthy if I try. I spent many years cooking every day, but pretty much gave it up about the time Joanna was 15 or 16 and didn't often show up at home for a meal, or had just eaten Taco Bell.

Lately I have been making an effort to take my lunch to work instead of buying lunch every day (the economy and all), but I am pretty tired of the few things I usually have on hand to take. So, today I decided to go to the grocery store (ugh) and do some cooking for lunches, and maybe even a couple of dinners this week. I bought what I needed to make chicken noodle soup, a chicken casserole and chicken salad and came home feeling pretty smug and proud of myself.

The picture tells the story. The knife, the onion and my thumb ended up on a collision course. The cut is not as bad as the bandage makes it look, but it was bleeding a lot and I still had cooking to do. I made it through the chicken noodle soup, and the chicken casserole. The chicken salad will have to wait for another day.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure I spent more at the grocery store than I would spend buying lunch every day and a couple of dinners, and I've looked at so much chicken I'm not sure I really want to actually eat chicken any time soon.