This May Be Crazy

Wait- I know it's crazy! I'm not trying to be Julia & Julia or some crazed Rachel Ray fan...I'm just sick of thinking about dinner. I want to be on auto pilot...I work better that way. So I'm going to cook all 366 (there's an extra one for leap year) recipes from Rachel Rays 365: No Repeats cookbook. I've had the cookbook for several years, and fiddled with some recipes, but I've never really gotten into it until now.

Here are my rules. 

1) This will take longer than a year because... 

      a) I have my own recipes that I like to cook

      b) We have Burgerfest and Hotdogfest every once in a while

      c) We will have to eat leftovers

      d) Sometimes I need a break from the kitchen...so T cooks or we go out

      e) I love Trader Joe's Pot Stickers

      f) I don't want to gain weight on this little journey  

      i) We may really like some recipes that we want to do over and over!

2) I will use a Random Number Generator on my iPhone to pick 2 weeks of recipes at a time. But if too many of the ingredients don't cross over- I'll redo! I don't want a lot of waste. 

3) We don't eat/like fish...so fishy recipes will not be used, unless I can modify them to use pork, chicken, or beef. 

4) I will substitute/add/delete as necessary. For instance, I can't find arugula anywhere. So...I'll change as necessary. But remember, part of this is that I don't want to think about it...so I won't be doing too much of this. 

5) I will try to post pictures of the food...but that may or may not happen.

6) I will give my opinion of the recipe. I'm not a cook, but I did teach Sociology at a cooking school- does that count? I didn't think so! Well- I don't have a sophisticated palate, but my husband does! But I like good food...and I like a variety of things...so I will be telling you my honest opinion. 

7) I'm not affiliated with Rachel Ray at all. She has no idea I'm doing this...actually, neither does my husband...but ANYWHO. I'm not being paid to do this, I haven't been approached by her people...nothing. I just don't want to think about dinner anymore! I love too cook-I just lose creativity by the end of the day to come up with menus!

8) Because I'm not affiliated with Rachel Ray- I won't be posting the recipes. They aren't mine- they are hers! So if my comments sound intriguing...buy her book!