I love to cook. There is no way around it. When I first started out on my own, even though a lot of it was boxed, canned, or 75% prepped already for me, I found I enjoyed cooking. As time passed, I got damn good at cooking from recipe books and making my own recipes.

The suckiest thing ever about pregnancy? I still love to cook, I just have lost my ambition for it. I have gone from cooking dinner on average of five or six times a week to maybe one or two and most times it’s something quick and thrown together. We’ve eaten a lot of chicken burgers. And meatloaf. And bar-b-qued bake chicken.

The crockpot has become even more my best friend than ever. Throw a hodge podge in there, and even if I’m not feeling food come dinner time (a foodie’s worst nightmare), at least my husband will be fed.

The stack of “to trys” from Bon Appetit magazine has grown to be rather daunting. Some of the easier prep and short on cooking time ones I’ve been lucky enough to get my mojo going enough to try, the rest are just going to have to wait.

It’s a shame really, seeing actual dust gather around the utensils that I, just a few months ago, used regularly.

When I can get the gumption up to cook, it’s still my tried and true favorite: One Dish Meals. Sure, I like to make sides, extras, etc. to go along with chicken a la whatever, steak seasoned with that, ground this and so on, but one dish is where it’s at. It also makes packing up left overs and eating those left overs easy as hell.

The problem is, as I’ve learned to cook without recipes, throwing my own creations together… I kinda stopped measuring along the way. Everything just gets chopped, sliced, or tossed in. I call it: Hail Mary Cooking.

Which makes it hard to pass on recipes.

Like tonight. I knew I wanted shiitake mushrooms, my little person in my belly was nudging me towards meatballs, my taste buds were saying grape tomatoes and capers.

Out of my craving, this was born.

What’s in it:

Chicken Tomato Basil meatballs
Capers
Shiitake mushrooms
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 chopped red bell pepper
Grape tomatoes (sliced)
Garlic
Italian marinade/dressing
Orzo
Mozzarella (as a topping, and just a sprinkle!)

And how did it taste? Delicious. I haven’t lost my touch at all. And I know once baby comes in a few weeks, time will not be on my side. But I can only hope that I can get back my “juice” to get cooking. I’ve got a lot of ideas kicking around my head to try for dinner, and I have a lot, and I do mean a lot of recipes from magazines and cookbooks that I’m itching to cook.