Find Your Cooking Mojo

These are my recipe binders. 

Hundreds of recipes collected over the years from relatives, friends, magazines, cookbooks and websites. For a recipe to make it in this binder it needs to be really, really good.  I have a stack of recipes almost as high as these binders that are just waiting to be tried.  If the recipe doesn’t make the cut, it’s tossed in the recycle bin.

When I went back to work I found it difficult to juggle my love of cooking with my new schedule. Home cooked meals became a little bit of a challenge.  I had to rethink my approach.  It’s no secret, after all, that I worship at the altar of Martha and Ina. Two women with fabulous recipes and aides to help them make it. Sigh, I wish.

Here’s something else you should know.  I hate eating out. Not because I don’t like being catered to, but because it always kills me to shell out good money for bad food. Nothing beats a home cooked meal. Nothing.

So, this is how the week breaks down for us. On Sundays I do a meal plan for the week. I try to cover as many meals in there as possible.  That way I account for leftovers used for lunch and ensure healthy breakfasts. It also keeps my groceries in check so I don’t waste.  We also spend Sundays cooking and baking as much as we can for the week.  This relieves a little bit of the pressure from Monday to Friday, chaotic days for all families.

When I was asked to write a blog for VH Sauces I got pretty excited.  Did I mention I like to cook? Also I had fond memories of this Asian Meatball recipe my mom used to make using VH Sauces. But as the deadline drew nearer I had sort of lost my cooking mojo.  This is the next thing you should know about me. When I lose my mojo, all of the above is null and void.  We just finished Christmas and the cooking has been kinda non-stop around here. I felt like being in the kitchen about as much as I wanted a root canal.  Ugh. 

My husband offered to cook the recipe I had decided on and I thought, “Hmmm, why not, nobody has to know I didn’t cook it.” So I let him go to it.  I gave him the jar of Orange Ginger Stir Fry Sauce, told him where the ingredients were and passed him the recipe for Cashew Chicken.  My work here was done.  Thirty minutes later I was called to the kitchen and was presented with this.

Hello beautiful. Cooking mojo…..found. It looked so good I couldn’t believe it and did he really do this in just thirty minutes? It didn’t just look delicious, it tasted delicious too. No kidding. So, so, delicious.  I was suddenly inspired to test more VH recipes although I only had to do one. My deadline was looming but I managed to try two more.

First, I made Crunchy Asian Slaw using VH Orange Ginger Stir Fry Sauce and by enlisting the help of my six year old.

I sent this to school with them today for lunch and was thrilled when their containers came back empty.  Just so you know what a success this was, they also asked if there was any leftover for supper tonight. There was. It’s gone. 

Then I made Honey Garlic Shrimp & Green Bean Stir Fry using VH Honey Garlic Cooking Sauce. 

You guessed it. Also delicious.

So, I found my cooking mojo, I have three new recipes for my binder. I have many more at my fingertips at vhsauces.com that I can’t wait to try.  I have three meals I can whip up in under 30 minutes that will save me time through the week.  (As I said to my husband while we were enjoying our Cashew Chicken, “It would have taken us longer to get take out”.  ) I also fed my family three fresh delicious meals loaded with vegetables and they loved it.

To the kind people at VH Sauces, I’m always available for more testing. It’s hard work, I know, but somebody has to do it.

Check out more easy ways to express your cooking creativity with a little Asian flair!