How to Get Out of a Cooking Rut

…or How to Ditch Kitchen Burn out

A few times I year I go through what I like to call: The Cooking Rut. It almost always happens right after Christmas and then again right before summer, when we are finishing up school. I know it’s coming – and it used to bother me. But now I know how to ride it out, so I wanted to share with you three things that help me. 

Before I go any further, let me encourage you to listen to that burn-out/rut feeling. It’s okay to have it. It doesn’t mean you’re a terrible homemaker and you’re failing. It just means you’re human and providing three meals a day can get old day after day after day after day. Give yourself some rest – maybe take a few weeks off from planning/cooking hard core. Two weeks is probably a good length. And then resume, with these tips.

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5 Tips for Dealing with the Blahs

Have you ever had a case of “the blahs”? You know – that sinking, sad, yucky feeling that just drags you down? Worse yet – do you have the blahs now? What in the world can you do about that feeling when you don’t have a say in the weather forecast and Spring is still several weeks away?

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How to Be a Work at Home Mom

I’ve been a work-at-home mom for the past ten years. I remember this because one of my very first posts on the blog was about throwing a bubble-themed birthday party for my oldest daughter. It has been a big learning experience, but I have found working at home suits me (and our family) really well. With the right attitude, the right office setup, and the right resources, working at home is something that may just work for you as well. I’ll share toward the end of this post about my actual workspace, and tell you about the desk and chair I recently received from Autonomous, the sponsor of today’s post. If you prefer to watch a video about this, jump over to my YouTube channel where I just posted a video about it.

With kids, what does working at home look like?

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How to Make Homemade Bread

I keep getting requests for how to make homemade bread and more specifically, for bread machine tutorial videos. I get it #becausebread. I have done these types of tutorials many times on Instagram, but I finally got around to a full three-part series about how I make homemade bread in the bread machine for our YouTube channel.

But that doesn’t mean you should jump over to YouTube just yet. Let’s cover some basics in this article first which will really help you know the tools and method better.

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How to Cook Steak in a Skillet (on the stove)

I’ll be the first to tell you, cooking steak was never my forte in the kitchen. I had never been good at it – and grilling is also a skill that I haven’t acquired because I don’t spend enough time trying to learn the ins and outs of it. But you always should experiment – and so I set out to learn how to cook steak in a skillet on the stove.

I knew it could be done because my friends did it – and I knew that butter HAD to be the answer. I mean, isn’t butter the answer to most of life’s problems?

Dry? Butter. Tasteless? Butter. Old? Butter. Stuck? Butter.

And while we’re on that topic – can we all agree that REAL butter is way better than the cheap garbage that was made in some chemistry lab or factory? Okay…moving on.

So to Google I went – on my quest to research the elusive steak-at-home perfection! Let me just tell ya – there’s about forty trillion tutorials for this on Google. But let me save you a bunch of time so you can just get to the good stuff. Keep reading. 😉

The Steps to an Amazing Steak in the Skillet:

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Homemaking vs. Housekeeping

It seems that over the last 100 years or so, the ART of homemaking has been lost. What used to be something that we coveted as little girls, became somewhat of a burden. We were no longer taught that we should desire to be homemakers – that it was LESS THAN. Instead, we should desire a career only and also wanting to keep a home was beneath us.

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Crock Pot vs. Instant Pot

When the Instant Pot became all the rage, a lot of my friends get rid of their slow cookers because they didn’t think they would ever use them again. It became a Crock Pot vs. Instant Pot “thing” for some reason. But they’re both pretty amazing in their own ways.

Nothing New Under the Sun

Pressure cookers are nothing new – they’ve been around for a long, long time. I had already been using a stove-top pressure cooker for about two years when Instant Pots became popular, and yet I still had my Crock Pots. Why? Because I used (and still use) both.

While the Instant Pot (or other like versions) do offer the slow cooker option, a lot of times (from what I have read), they don’t work as well as a “real” slow cooker and have a tendency to burn food. I know that’s likely not the case for ALL Instant Pots; however, I think it makes sense for me to have both and I’m going to tell you why. 

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Surround Yourself with Words that Matter (Because ALL Words Matter)

Part of making-your-home (homemaking) is the decorating part. I’d be lying if I told you that was my expertise. The truth is, I get all my inspiration from Pinterest and then I just copy it. Ha ha! They say imitation is a form of flattery, right?

If you were to come into my home, you’d be instantly aware that I love words.

There are words EVERYWHERE. 

I have printed words on the wall. There are printed graphics that are framed. We have blocks of wood with words painted on them. I have painted chalkboards in the kitchen with scripture. There are chalkboards in the bathroom. There is a whiteboard in the kitchen. Letterboards galore live here. I have window clings on the mirrors. Jewelry? Yup, words there too. 
Scripture is everywhere. Funny sayings are in abundance. 

But why?

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Why Rebounding is My Exercise of Choice

Do you want a discount code to save on the best rebounder out there?! Keep reading!

Listen up – I hate to exercise. It’s the lowest thing on my GET IT DONE list each day. But regardless, I knock it out every day before my kids wake up. 

Why am I doing this thing that I don’t really like…especially when I’d rather curl up on the couch with a good book, under a blanket, when the house is nice and quiet?!

Well, the short answer is…I just feel better when I do it. But after trying lots of different methods of exercise, I’ve landed on rebounding as my favorite (see what I did there? Ha!). Let’s talk about why jumping on a rebounder is awesome.

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Keeping Christmas Simple

Everywhere we look, it seems like we’re inundated with things to do for Christmas:

  • Beautiful trees
  • Crafts
  • Fancy desserts
  • BIG gifts
  • Trips
  • Parties

Is there anything wrong with any of that? Absolutely not! Those are all wonderful things!!! The problem is, when those things stress us out, and keep us from enjoying our time with family, we don’t really need them.

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