GETTING MY GROOVE BACK IN THE KITCHEN

Dana in her happy place…

Do you ever have one of those days or should I say weeks as a triwife?  Well, I did, and I’m here to share…

I do love being a triwife, but there are many times I get frustrated and the recent past has been one of those times.  Plus, to make matters worse, it was over one of my favorite things – FOOD!   See, I was sick of making the same breakfast; packing the same AM snack, lunch, and PM snack; and then trying to get creative with dinner!  I was bored!  I mean my triathlete seemed happy, but I was not!

While it is not MY responsibility to fuel David, I do love it!  I love food!  I love creating recipes!  I come from a foodie family, with my mother being a chef.  But, when we started with a new nutritionist and a new nutrition plan, I became bored and had not created recipes the way I used to.  Food was no longer fun for me.  I wanted that fun back and I wanted all the good stuff that comes with it to be a part of our lives again.  I had to do this for me, but the end result would be both a properly fueled David AND a happy me.

I scheduled a call with the nutritionist, who we do love by the way.  We talked about real food and what I was going through; not about the items on the plan, but what each food and the amounts meant to the plan of fueling my triathlete.  Armed with a little bit of new knowledge, I found a way to get my groove back…

So, what happened?  How did I get myself back in my food “happy place”?   Here are the nine things I’ve done so far…

1. I ordered some new cookbooks.  Most of the cookbooks feature real food and I will post a picture of them when they come in.  When I get a new cookbook, I ready it like a book, put it with my collection, and pull it out for inspiration from time to time.  I always have a pile of rotating cookbooks on my kitchen counter.
   

   Cookbooks in current rotation on my counter…

2. I made a decision about the weekend.  From Friday dinner to Sunday dinner, I am only cooking 1-2 times.  The rest of the time we’re eating out!
3. I made a date with some of my blogger friends to talk about blogging and FOOD!  Not fueling a triathlete, not snacks and recovery drinks, but about FOOD.  Thank you Omaha Blogger Network friends!  For three hours, we sat and had a wonderful breakfast with homemade biscuits and honey!
   

   Homemade biscuits at The Diner…

4. I spent a few days surfing my favorite two blogs for and about food and triathletes:   Cotter Crunch from my friend, Lindsay Cotter, and the Wassner Twins  and their Athlete Food, which a friend recently told me about and I now adore!
5. I started baking, and baking, and baking – an activity that lifts my spirits and makes the house smell so delicious…
6. I ordered Plated to check out what it was all about; the thought being that having one or two of these on hand a week would give me a break.  More to come on this…
   

   Plated…

7. I made a commitment to myself to create three new recipes a week.
8. I ordered a new pot and two new sauté pans (pictures once they are delivered).
9. And, I restarted an old tradition.  Ever since the twins were little, when we went to the market, we would pick a new food or something we hadn’t had in a long time and find a fun, new way to make it.  This week we got Jerusalem Artichokes.  Not an attractive food, but one we find quite tasty…
   

   My new food of the week – Jerusalem Artichokes.

So, this triwife is going to get her groove back in the kitchen and rekindle her love affair with FOOD!  More to come…

 – DANA

Sherry Wernicke

Sherry is one of the TriWivesClub and LifeDoneWell co-founders and contributes to multiple blogs. She is a former co-owner of the California Apparel News and had a career in the healthcare industry. Her passions include traveling, real food, the environment, and animal rescue/welfare. She lives a healthy lifestyle and has been a vegetarian since 1987. She and her husband are parents to two rescue pups and reside in Connecticut.