Confessions of a Top Ramen lover...

So....yes I put cooking in the same category as jumping out of a plane.... One takes great focus and preparation, is pretty expensive and is over before you know it and when done incorrectly can be fatal, the other is...actually that explains sky diving too... But, the other day I told people at work what I had eaten for dinner and I got a unified "oooh" with sad faces... and a friend at work commented that I sounded like a bachelor at the end of his pay check (ouch). And it was a meal I was proud hadn't been top ramen, which I have come to affectionately just call ramen (with an egg of course I'm not totally incapable). I had MADE tostones (fried plantains) and frozen waffles with peanut butter and syrup mmmmmm it was delicious. But apparently not a "real meal" by definition of someone very close to me....

I first realized I didn't know how to cook in college. My friend Rebecca Ricks invited me over for lunch and since I had just gone shopping I said I could bring everything for the main part (decadent tuna fish sandwiches). She burst out laughing as she opened the door when I stood there in all my 18 year old excited naivety clutching in my left hand a dangling bag of bread and balanced in my right palm a can of tuna (I didn't know you HAD to put the other stuff in). Or the same semester I had my sister Alicia over for dinner (which she kindly offered to help me with). I decided to make spaghetti... you guessed it, Alicia stopped me before I dumped the entire red Western Family sized bag of spaghetti in the still room temperature silver pot of water (1 bag is enough to feed the entire BYU-I campus). Or when trying to impress a guy I really liked my sophomore year I decided to make him my families famous sourdough pancakes. I was first suspicious something was wrong when I hadn't remembered my families batter smelling quite so strong, strong enough to have smelt the batter before I even opened the door twhere we were before us stood my newly batter splattered apartment! (don't the the lid on the full mason jars your using to raise the batter...actually DON'T raise batter in a jar)

But here's the thing....I LOVE FOOD!!! I fully support all forms of food consumption...I support it multiple times a day even! But for the sake of progress (for the sake of my health and anyone who lives with me) and just to become more well rounded and well...less rounded I need to learn to cook. Here's the other thing...I don't really want to! I want to be that person that cooks but it takes too long!!! And shouldn't you be able to put all the ingredients in at the same time? Just in the order they are in the list? That's just logic to me....AND when I decide to cook, I walk up and down the isles at the store eventually grabbing a box of granola bars or some fruit and some fruit snacks. I have bread and turkey and cheese and lettuce right now, but that was the extent of my planning. SO, yes it's just me here and yes I matter enough to eat yummy good for me food (:p) So, I need some help. Most people in my family and most of my friends are exceptional cooks but I am a not so secret Top Ramen lover lover lover!

So for March 2011 I am going to learn to cook!

How I need help:

Recipes (EASY PEASY ones please, and I googled "recipe for one" the other day...small portion recipes please)

Shopping staples (what the heck do I buy???) it would be great if I can use something I buy for a few different recipes.

And some motivation - goal/program ideas/success tips, why do you like to cook etc.

Side note....how do I decorate my blog? Because let's be honest this is waaay too boring...