Cookin' up a storm...

Holy Toledo.

OK, evidently there's some domesticity virus that I caught.

I was online last night, looking at RecipeZaar, which is a resource I haven't accessed in awhile. One of our neighbors had come by and offered up a plethora of reeeeallly ripe fruit- grapes, plums, red pears, and some peaches. So I needed to find something to do with them.

Bring on Nectarine and Plum Crisp, Pear Smoothies, and Peachy Chicken.

That settled, I started window shopping among the recipes, and I am suddenly in the middle of a cooking binge. This is an event that rarely happens, and of course, there are complications: My oven is dead. We've found a new one that we like, but with the weird configuration of our counters, it's is going to mean a lot of carpentry work and probably new counters and flooring. However, with the approaching holiday season, I am wanting to bake stuff. So maybe that will light a fire under us.

Because we have a non-functioning oven, I took the Nectarine Crisp to my buddy's to cook, on the proviso that she got a piece. Ad yes, I had some too! I was pretty good though, the rest went to hubby and the neighbors. I know my limitations.

Anyway, while browsing, I started to run into the acronym "OMAC". For the uninitiated, this stands for "Once a Month Cooking". How can this exist?! You guys know, I had to try it. You have a two-day cooking orgy, and then just freeze everything in Ziploc'd portions and thaw it as needed. Only one huge mess to clean up once a month. How did I never think of this? Hell, where do I sign up?!

So....guess what I've been doing today and will be doing continuing through tomorrow? And yes, oh BOY do I miss my oven! I have been trying to convert some of the recipes requiring an oven to stove top, with OK results (as far as I can tell).

Here's the menu so far:

Peach "Dump" Chicken It's a whole lot yummier than it sounds!
Chicken & Barley Stew
Banana Chocolate Chip Bread (Shut up- it's for hubby! I think it'd be delicious with PB...mmmmmmm)
Herbed Chicken w/ Grapes
A-1 Steak
Thai Peanut Chicken
Crock Pot Roast This is in the Crockpot right now, and it smells heavenly......
Cauliflower w/ Bacon
Lentil & Apricot Soup Sounds a trifle odd, but sooo yummy!
Split Pea Soup with Ham (Instead of Ham, I used Turkey bacon)
Italian Spinach
Crockpot Black Bean Salsa Chicken
Crockpot Family Chili
Spaghetti Sauce

So, a whole lot of new stuff, along with some old standards. I have tweaked stuff where it doesn't fit with SBD, so I will actually be eating healthy all month, as long as I eat at home.

OK, gotta go- the stove beckons!