Mastering the Art of...

For those of you have read the title and are thinking I about to follow it up with "French Cooking," you are deeply mistaken and clearly don't know me at all. It would be great if I could master the art of any cooking at all- especially, French cooking. (Actually, I'd prefer Tex-Mex but I don't think Julia wrote a book on that!)But alas, I can only cook one dish, one side, chocolate chip cookies, and a wonderful cheese dip with bacon on the top! So no, Julia Childs and the other Julie from NY (for those that have seen the movie) would not be very proud of me. And I am pretty sure I won't be having any food critics down to my basement mini-kitchen anytime soon! But I will tell you what I have recently mastered the art of...

EATING AT HOME!

For those of you who don't know me, you are probably thinking to yourselves "Whoopty-Doo!" For those of you who do know me, you can go ahead and pick your jaws up off the floor. It is true, I, Caroline, have officially mastered the art of eating at home. You would be shocked how many meals I eat here. I have even found that is possible to go an entire day without spending any money on food! Shocker, I know!

**Note: I still have not found it is possible to go a whole day without spending money on diet coke! Oh, well..maybe one day!

For those of you who are wondering how I did it, or any of you who are chronic eat-outers, I would like to share with you some things that I have learned. So here it is...

Ten Tips to Mastering the Art of Eating at Home:

10. Always have a jar of peanut butter ready! I am now sooo organic and go for the all natural one. You have to stir up the oils in there but it is well worth the work!

9. When tired of the boring sandwich, get yo-self some tortillas to make a wrap!

8. Always have a lil something sweet on hand for dessert! (I recommend the Skinny Cows!!)

7. Condiments are a must! Preferably honey mustard, hummus, and guac! (Those are condiments right?)

6. If you cannot cook, the microwave will become your new best friend! I have now named mine Molly Micro- we have great chats each evening around dinner time!

5. Baked lays go with anything!

4. Cereal for dinner is sensational and lower calorie than most dinners! For a fancy cereal treat- go ahead, get crazy, and combine 2 or 3 kinds!

3. It is possible to create a sandwich pretty close to what you like at your fave place! (Now all I need is one of those grills from PD's and I am set!)

2. Unfortunately, frozen dinners never taste as good as the picture on the box tells you it will. But you get over that pretty fast!

1. Eating at home causes you to spend less cash money and consume less calories! Um, yes please!

So there you have it!

Alright, off to heat up my baked ziti in a box...

... and then finish up my list of restaurants I can't wait to eat at on my visit home to Dallas in October!

Ok, so maybe I haven't totally mastered it :)

Bon Appetit!!