About me....well, my name is Denise (Neise has been my nickname that my mother gave me). My husband is Kurt, he's been voluntold that he's a part of this adventure, and we have one son, Mike. Together, we live in Bellevue, OH with our clan of animals on our own little piece of happiness. 

What am I doing...

Have you ever seen, "Julie and Julia"? I once saw the movie and thought to myself what a great idea it would be to do the same thing but with the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond's recipes. Her recipes just suit my family far more than anything Julia Child made. This was something I never followed through with because frankly, trying new things scares me to death. 

That changed a few months ago when I signed up for EveryPlate meals. Now, if you have the means, I can't say enough good things about EveryPlate, by all means, try them! When I tried them, it was because, as we're all enjoying the benefits of inflation, I was looking for ways to save on groceries. I read that meal plans were a great way to save, convenient and there was less waste. Convenient? Definitely. Less waste? Absolutely. Cheaper? During the trial period. After that a new plan had to be made. That's when I remembered my old idea. 

The most important thing for me with EveryPlate was that I rediscovered that I love cooking. I was in such a rut making the same things all the time that it just ripped the joy out of it. Both my husband and I have high stress jobs and it's nice to have a little joy to look forward to. For both of us, we find joy in food. 

So, I went to the shelf of cookbooks that I hadn't looked at in years and I found the one Pioneer Woman cookbook just hanging out, "Dinnertime". Perfect! The book itself has 11 sections. Four what I would consider primary meals (16-minute Pasta Pronto, Comfort Classics, and New Favorites). Three special meal types (Breakfast, Soup, Salad). Two sides (Veggie and Starchy). Then Quick Desserts and Freezer Meals. Now, I have zero freezer space so automatically, those will have to just come as I have space to accommodate and desserts...there's a reason I prefer cooking to baking. I'm not great with following things exactly. Either I accidentally omit things or misread something. So while I would like to just convince my husband to do a weekly dessert, I may try to tackle it every now and then. 

The basis for the plan is five meals a week. The husband works 24 hour shifts three days a week so that gives me a little break from cooking on those days. We'll choose a meal from each of the four primary categories with a side as needed and then for the fifth meal, one will be chosen from the special categories. I want to chronicle this either or comedy sake or just prosperity so that's where the blog comes in. I also want to do a TikTok channel but that's going to take a minute for me to learn how to do everything with that. 

I'm doing this because with everything negative in the world, and just the stress of everyday life, it can be hard to remember what brings you joy. If you follow along in this adventure, maybe you'll be able to remember something for yourself. At the very least, maybe you'll just get a good laugh at my expense...the options are endless.