Dinner Swap

I love cooking!

Cooking is something that I enjoy doing. It relaxes me, de-stresses me and lets me be a little creative (since I lack creativity in the artsy, make cool things part of life). Baking is another story, I'm not so good at that, I can make a pretty good banana bread, but other than that, if I need to follow a recipe exactly in order for something to turn out, things tend to not turn out the way they are supposed to!

If I had enough time to make a home cooked meal every night I would, but that just doesn't seem to be able to happen all the time. I used to fit it in, but now I have lots more fun, active, outdoors, exciting things going on and cooking dinner every night seems to slip away. Good thing Down to Earth is right across the street and you can always pick up a healthy, delicious dinner when you're in a pinch. However, if I go a few days without cooking something I get a little antsy and need to get back in the kitchen and cook up something yummy!

Anyways, two other couples in the Kailua area asked Aaron and I if we wanted to take part in a dinner swap that they do when training starts to pick up and time starts getting away from everyone. Of course we said YES!! It's pretty simple: every Sunday we meet and bring a dinner that we have pre-made that can feed 6 people and we swap. BAM! Just like that we have two, well three counting what we contribute, dinners made for the week (usually there's enough so we can have some leftovers for lunches too). What a time saver. So far we've been at it for 6 weeks and this is what it looks like:

Week 1:
Meal 1 - chicken rigatoni
Meal 2 - Swedish meatballs
Meal 3 - buffalo taquitos

Week 2:
Meal 1 - stuffed peppers
Meal 2 - Guinness stew
Meal 3 - eggplant Parmesan

Week 3:
Meal 1- butternut squash & turkey sausage
Meal 2 - chicken tikka masala, Naan Break
Meal 3 - Panaeng curry, rice

Week 4:
Meal 1 - quinoa quiche
Meal 2 - beef rigatoni
Meal 3 - Thai chicken pasta

Week 5:
Meal 1 - chili & bread
Meal 2 - chicken Parmesan
Meal 3 - chicken enchilada casserole

Week 6:
Meal 1 - split pea soup
Meal 2- chicken curry
Meal 3 - beef stroganoff

I love being a part of this little dinner swap group and am glad we got invited! It makes it much easier to fit in all the workouts, stay healthily (is that a word?) fueled and rested and be able to accomplish what I want to everyday!

Next week: Coconut curry chicken soup, Italian Chicken or Minestrone Soup.