Cooking at Home

Since I've had the girls, I really have bumped up my cooking skills.  I have always loved to cook, but I never had the time or desire to learn how to cook well.  Now I'm a Food Network junkie and I love trying out new recipes.  Cooking at home is a great way to save money for many reasons.  Obviously, it is way cheaper, but there are other great ways to save.  If you use a slow cooker, you can make inexpensive (sometimes tough) meat very juicy and tender.  The slow cooking process helps tenderize meats.  I also love my slow cooker for days I have a lot to do.  I can throw some food in the crock pot and forget about it for hours.  There are a lot of great recipe websites out there.  One of my favorites is All Recipes , especially their ingredient search.  I use this when I have a lot of random stuff in the cupboard or veggies I need to use up quickly.  If you want some of my favorite slow cooker recipes, let me know!  I use my cooker year round, its great in summertime since it doesn't heat up the kitchen as much.  Plus, I make a great pulled pork in my slow cooker for barbecues. I find some great ideas on another blog, which she did an experiment a year or so ago which she cooked 365 days of slow cooking.  That's dedication!  Check it out here.

Other great websites to check out:

1. Food Network . I like this website to search for recipes for shows I've seen, plus the reviews are very candid and helpful.  I usually wont make a recipe with bad reviews.  
2. Epicurious My favorite part of this website is their Mobile application.  A lot of food websites have mobile apps which let you create shopping lists or search for recipes when you are shopping.  So convenient!

I was thinking about starting a recipe swap with my friends, maybe once a month.  I think themes are best, that way it will vary each month.  I have a lot of great recipes.  Whenever I make something we love, I print it off and put it in my homemade recipe binder.  Its getting so full I can barely close it!  Anyone interested in a recipe swap?

Thats all for now!
xoxo!

Ashleigh