Confessions of a Mad Fat Pastor’s Wife – Food.
I have a confession to make. Yep. Another one.
I’ve just finished Jen Hatmaker’s newest book, Of Mess and Moxie. (This is not the confession. You need to go get it and read it.)
Anyway, one of her chapters entitled “Potato and Knife” just got me in the feels. All of them do, but this certain chapter just keeps reverberating about in my brain. It celebrates really loving food. The simplicity of cooking real food with real flavors. Cooking as a manner of self care for you and the ones you love. Cooking it, and eating it, and praising Jesus for all of it. And I’m listening to this chapter and my heart is just so in tune with the whole message. Jen loves all the food, and so do I, dangit.
But.. sometimes I pretend that I don’t like food. Pretend is not even the right word… more like, I just keep it hidden. Or.. I shouldn’t like it because I’m fluffy. Because if you’ve met me in real life, you know that I’m fluffy. And I’ve been fluffy my whole life. Growing up, food was always always always the enemy. Weight Watchers and Gwen Shamblin and the McDougall diet ruled my formative teen years. So, I confess, I still live in fear when it comes to food. Fear of me. Fear of you. Fear of all of it.
I am scared to post too many recipes, or exclaim that I love a certain food item for fear someone will tell me it has too much sugar, fat, carbs, gluten, AIR. These days, someone always has an opinion about everything, amiright?
Insert Grimace Emojii here. 😉
As it turns out, I really love good food. (I also love cheap trashy food.. BAJA CHICKEN CHALUPA, I MISS YOU! Curse upon your head, food allergies.) I love perusing beautiful cookbooks, or blogs, or magazines and finding new ways to cook new things. I love finding a brand new, silky paged cookbook at Barnes and Noble and skimming it for minutes at a time. Or remembering my favorite recipe bloggers and all of their brilliant concoctions.
Why don’t I do this more? What is stopping me? Fear.
Here’s the actual deal.. Food is not the bad thing. You know what the bad thing is? Too much of it. Or too little of it. Both are obsessive.
So.. I won’t be obsessing over food. But I won’t be hiding my love of it either. I’m 41. I’m too old to live in fear of someone’s opinion of me. I don’t have time for that ish.
I’m a great cook. And I’m good at feeding my people. And I am going to celebrate that with relish.
(Sidenote: I don’t actually like relish. Maybe I should find a recipe I do like).
But hey, I want to do the things I’m good at. You should too! You don’t have to be good at this particular skill.. if you aren’t, come over and I will feed you.
With that said.. here are 10 glorious recipes I’m itching to try, and try them, I will!
- 3 ingredient Mac N Cheese. I will be using gluten free noodles because wheat pasta KILLS ME DEAD, so I’ll let you know if it turns out.
- Buttermilk Roast Chicken from Smitten Kitchen.
- Fried Egg Salad. What the what? Making this asap!
- Spinach and Smashed Egg Toast Obvs, I’m real into eggs lately.
- Bacon, Egg and Leek Risotto. Another egg dish. It’s almost spring, guys.. eggs are IT. Naturally gluten free, and I will let you know if the fam likes it. I already know I will!
- Chocolate Olive Oil Cake from Nigella. I mean. Words aren’t necessary.
- No Churn Salted Caramel Bourbon Ice Cream. Yes.
- Potatoes Au Gratin from Pioneer Woman. My sis made these and I’ve been dreaming about them ever since.
- Thai Lettuce Wraps from Pioneer Woman. Not new by any means, but something I’ve been wanting my family to try.
- Extra Crispy Thin Crust Pizza from the Food Lab (using a tortilla.. GENIUS. I will be using the brown rice ones from Traders)
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