The past two days I've cooked. I consider myself someone who enjoys cooking and baking. Though I go through long periods of time where opening a box of mac-n-cheese is too time consuming to be bothered with. But when I do cook, I enjoy it.
Yesterday I made a simple casserole that my mother used to make all the time. It's broccoli and cauliflower in a cheesy sauce with Bisquick crumbles on top. For the longest time it was the only way my mom could get my brother and I to eat those two vegetables.
Today I'm making butternut squash and apples. It's another recipe that I grew up with, that we usually had at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's a slow cooker recipe — so you get to smell the butter and sugar cooking down with the sweet apples and squash for a good six hours. Yum.
Well, Trader Joe's has changed my life, in well, so many ways, but especially when it comes to these two recipes. You see, I purchased their little baggies of pre-chopped up veggies for both of these recipes. The broccoli and cauliflower was simple enough as it is, using pre-chopped veggies just seemed silly. But the butternut squash? I'm just not sure that I believe it will taste the same if you haven't fought with four pounds of sticky squash for over an hour first. It was so easy and quick.
The frugal New Englander in me cringes at the thought of paying for someone to chop my veggies for me. I don't need to pay more for that — I can do it myself. But the truth of the matter is that while I could do it myself, more and more likely is that I won't. And is a few extra cents worth me actually eating something that resembles a balanced meal? You betcha.
