Cooking inspirations

I started this post quite a while ago hoping that it would inspire me to get back in gear and really WANT to cook every night. I'm not sure why I'm feeling completely uninspired when it comes time to decide what to have for dinner, but lately I have been making the decision in the afternoon when I ask BK what he wants for dinner. He has a go-to of about five things that he is willing to have over and over on any given night, so that makes it somewhat easy.

Also, since we've returned from the US I seem to be out of the habit of baking. I don't know if it's because of all of the overindulgence during the holidays or trying to cooking for Baby K or what, but I just haven't been baking at all. Nor have I had the urge to bake either. Weird. I think some of it has to do with the fact that I made the rookie mistake of forgetting some crucial baking ingredients while in the US: brown sugar and vanilla extract. My mom comes to visit soon, so this will be remedied.

All that said, I went through a couple of weeks when I was pretty impressed by myself and happy with all of the stuff I had been cooking. I went about two weeks and didn't have one repeat meal. This even included trying some new stuff too.

Here's what I've been making lately, in case you're interested or need some ideas!

• Parmesan-crusted sole (I pan-fry instead of bake) with sautéed spinach and spaetzle;
• Seared scallops with sautéed spinach; 
  
• Chicken, pepper and onion quesadillas and salad with greens, pears, pomegranate seeds, walnuts and feta;
• Grilled pesto chicken with mozzarella and roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli;
• Chili;
• Pecan-crusted chicken with sautéed spinach and mashed potatoes;
  
• Garlic asian noodles with spicy shrimp and veggies;

I've been doing a little bit better this week. So far I've made tomato basil soup with homemade croutons and salad; seared scallops; and then tonight made chicken tostadas. They don't really do tostadas in Switzerland, so I found some corn tortillas and made some crispy baked tostadas and tortilla chips. It was pretty good and got good reviews from BK too!

Hopefully this will help me get back in the swing of things and work on trying new stuff. Friday we're doing steaks with some friends, so now the only question is...what's for dinner tomorrow?