Month of Dinners Cooking Challenge

I love cooking good food and trying out new recipes, but lately I've become really lazy about cooking dinner.  I used to cook dinner every night and enjoyed developing my recipes.  However, we've been living with my parents to save some money and my cooking has kind of gone to the wayside.  My mom gets home from work and gets started on dinner before I even have time to think about what I would cook.  I'm not complaining.  I get to spend more time with my daughter and don't have to worry about getting to the store and planning a meal.  It's been pretty nice!  But, we won't be living with my parents forever.  At some point, I'm going to have to start cooking full-time again.  (My husband loves to cook, too, but since he works overnights, he is asleep until about 6pm.)

So, I thought that I could start a Dinner Cooking Challenge for myself.  I am challenging myself to cook dinner every night for the next month, until the end of October.  This means that I am going to have to be vigilant about meal planning and grocery shopping.  I'll have to make sure that when dinner time rolls around that I am prepared, organized, and ready to cook.  Most importantly, I'm going to have to find ways to keep my daughter occupied by herself while I cook.  I can see our gated-off living room directly for the kitchen, so that's not a problem, but Olive usually hates it when I'm in the kitchen and she's not.  She'll stand at the gate and scream at me until I come out.  So, I'll have to figure out a way for her to stay happy.

This face and the crying that comes with it is not fun.  Must figure out a way to keep her happy while I cook!

I'm a little nervous about this challenge, but I think it will be good for me in the end.  I'll be posting what I make each day as proof that I met my goal for the day.  Wish me luck - I'm starting tomorrow!