Stuff Even My Husband Can Cook- meal #9

I am very proud of my hubby for putting up with me over the last several weeks. I've basically been a bum who has contributed little to nothing to our household. But he's borne it with as much grace as I suppose one man can, and I am grateful.

This is one more meal made easily by a novice cook. Spread shredded cheese on half a tortilla, fold in half, and broil for a minute or two on each side, and voila! Easy cheesy quesadillas. Served with some sour cream, salsa, quacamole, or any other Hispanic condiment, and you have an even tastier meal. You could also add chicken or beef, as I have done in the past (Chicken and Beef), if you need a little more substance.

This was a great solution to needing an easy meal.

Stuff Even My Husband Can Cook- meal #8

It has been raining here. A lot. Like, there's flooding going on.

It makes me sleepy. As if I needed another reason to be sleepy. Haha.

So my wonderful hubby once again made dinner. Wonderful, wonderful man. :) And what better food to eat during an extended bout of rain than soup. Tomato soup, to be exact, with a grilled cheese sandwich. Yum.

Dh seriously made this whole meal himself. I gently coached him on a few of the finer points of grilled cheese sandwiches, but he managed the execution pretty well. :) He heated up the soup WHILE making the sandwiches, too, so he was multi-tasking and was still successful. I was impressed. Not gonna lie.

The end result was yummy in my tummy, with no effort on my behalf. I mean, what could be better than that? Go hubby! :)

Stuff Even My Husband Can Cook- meal #7

I think pasta is one of the easiest things in the world to cook, once you get the hang of it. My poor hubby thinks pasta is hard, because he tends to either overcook or undercook it. He just needs practice. :)

I "supervised" the pasta cooking operation to make sure all went well, and it did. Hubby's a quick study. Haha. This pasta meal was made even easier by the fact that it didn't have a sauce to go with it. You heard me (or saw me, I guess?) correctly, folks. This pasta was tossed in melted garlic butter, then sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese. Amazingly simple, but very tasty (in my opinion), and something hubby could manage.

As a quick aside/anecdote-as a kid, I was even pickier than I am now. I know, shocking. Anyway, as a kid, I hated tomato spaghetti sauce. I think it was the acidity, although at 10 years old I didn't know what that was yet. Haha. So when my mom would make spaghetti for dinner, she would always melt some butter for me to put over plain spaghetti, and I would sprinkle grated parmesan over it. So this is a shout out to my mom, who put up with my picky nature all those years, and made pasta in butter with cheese on it a possibility for me. Haha. Yum!

Stuff Even My Husband Can Cook- meal #6

Tacos!

This is probably another one of those meals I could probably make in my sleep. Which means that my wonderful husband can probably manage it too. Haha.

They sell little taco kits these days, with a seasoning packet for the meat, the shells and directions to heat them up/make them crispy, and following the directions will pretty much get you an edible result. With just a little "supervision" from me, all went well. End result-tacos for dinner!

We were also able to make these mild enough not to upset my delicate pregnancy sensibilities, so that was good too. Haha. So glad they turned out well. Yay!

Stuff Even My Husband Can Cook- meal #5

Have I mentioned that frozen food is my (and my husband's) savior right now? Pulling something out of the freezer and having a full dinner ready in very little time is just wonderful.

And since my husband has trouble with pretty much anything culinary (he'll tell you this himself if you ask him), having fool-proof, step by step instructions on how to reheat a frozen dinner means less stress for him. And for me. I don't want my kitchen to go up in flames. Haha.

There are a lot of great frozen pasta options out there these days. I guess they're just easier to freeze and reheat. But regardless, this one was pretty good. It was a chicken-pasta-and-spinach-in-parmesan-cream-sauce concoction (sounds like something I would make, huh?). For being a frozen dinner, it was actually pretty good, and it just had to be heated up in a skillet. Done in about 10 minutes. Pretty stinkin' incredible. Beats the drive-thru, in any case. Haha. More brownie points for the hubby, too. Well done. :)

Stuff Even My Husband Can Cook- meal #4

It is amazing to me how much frozen food you can get now-a-days. And the best part is that a lot of it actually tastes decent; as in, not like cardboard. Haha. It's also amazing the contraptions these food companies think up to help cook that frozen food in a microwave. Insanity. Little browning trays and pedestals and all kinds of craziness.

To try to help my hubby out, I bought some frozen Chicken Pot Pies that he could just throw in the microwave. I was a little worried that the crust would be soggy or the middle of the filling would be lukewarm or downright cold, but I was pleasantly surprised. Those crazy frozen food fiends did it again, making some paper carton that doubles as a nice little oven toaster thinger for the microwave. The crust was browned and crispy, and the filling was hot all the way through. And it was something my wonderful hubby could manage. All around victory, I say. :)

Don't get me wrong...I like freshly made food whenever possible, but in some instances...this is just necessary. Haha. Some days, we all just need a break.

Stuff even my husband can cook- meal #3

Frozen pizza is a God send. I make it relatively frequently because Friday is pizza night in the Picnic house, and a lot of times, I want the day off from cooking. So this is a great option for those people who might not have a lot of culinary experience but need something for dinner.

My husband can make frozen pizza, but he doesn't think he's very good at it. Haha. He once told me that even if he follows the directions to a tee, it still seems like his pizza comes out weird, but every time I make it, it comes out perfect. I don't know what he thinks is so different, but I'm glad that I can even impress with a frozen pizza. Haha. Anyway...another hubby success!

Stuff even my husband can cook- meal #2

Have I mentioned how much I love my husband recently? Oh, I have? Ok. Just in case, though- I love my husband. Just saying. :)

This meal was a joint effort. I had some russet potatoes leftover from another meal, so I just wrapped them in foil and baked them for an hour at 400 degrees F in one of my rare bouts of energy.

Then there's this amazing thing at the grocery store called the deli/ready made meal section. In it you will find all kinds of wonderful things, like already made BBQ pulled pork. Pop it in the microwave according to the package directions, and top a baked potato with it, and voila! Instant dinner. I actually did this once before (see BBQ Stuffed Baked potatoes), so it's not really new and exciting, but it was easy and yummy. If you don't feel like BBQ, topping the potato with steamed broccoli and cheese sauce or just butter, cheese, and sour cream are great options.

East meal, very little effort, very tasty. Success!

Stuff even my husband can cook-meal #1

I in no way mean to demean my wonderful husband. He is incredibly thoughtful and does a lot for me, especially right now while I'm battling pregnancy fatigue. The fact that he actually asked if he could help me cook until I start feeling more chipper should prove that.

Having said that...my husband's prowess in the kitchen is not...well...as developed as it is in most other areas of his life. So to help him out, I bought some "easy" meals that he would have no trouble putting together or heating up. Haha.

The first meal- frozen lasagna. It's easy, it just takes a little while in the oven. Once it's in the oven, however, you can pretty much just set the timer and walk away...as long as you're within hearing distance to hear the beep when the timer goes off. This was a successful meal, because it was hot all the way through, wasn't burnt anywhere, and was satisfyingly filling. Hooray for my hubby! :)