Eating Right, At Home

I swear, I have the best intentions.  I wanted to eat at home more often at the beginning of the year, and I did really well for a while.  Then we slowly got back into the habit of eating out, and before you know it, we are eating out almost every day of the week! 
There is good news, though.  Scott has started cooking some really healthy, organic, mostly tasty meals at home.  We had some chicken off the grill one night, and some experimental bacon soup that was really mostly veggies.  When we went camping, we had steak and fruit and salads.  It was nice.
I like eating at home with my family.  I like gathering around the table and sharing a meal.  I love spending time with my kids and fiance, talking about our day.  I do not like cooking, not one little bit.  And I don't like cleaning up.
I envy those folks who love to cook, who view it as therapy.  But I'll be honest here, after I have been working all day, the absolute last thing I want to do is cook.  It's more work.  And the kids complain because it's not McDonald's or Taco Bell, then I have to clean it all up.  Ugh. 
So how on earth do I make cooking and cleaning at least tolerable, if not pleasurable?  Anybody out there have any idea what so ever?

Pantry Update

Well, I've been working on the pantry.  It's nice to see the organized shelves, and it DOES make me want to cook more often for the family.  I've got two shelves done, and three more cleared off.  I'm taking a moment to pause, because I found some "friends" in the two bottom shelves, and I'm waiting for Tori to get out of the shower to take care of them.  I will probably be finished by tomorrow!  Here are some photos:

Cleaned off shelf!

Eeeewwww!  What is that?!

...and that?!

It's a rriinngg, my precious.

All those yuckies, GONE!  The queen of clean!

So pretty!

Organized!  Veggies, fruit, pasta sauce, and soup!

Another one bites the dust.

All this stuff has to go BACK into my pantry?

Baking!  I will bake!

Can you see my new "friends?"

Hooray for organized pantry shelves!  They all look so pretty.  Another update to come soon!

Pantry Reorganization

I want to be organized.  Notice the "I want" at the beginning of the sentence.  By nature, I tend to let things go where they fall, and not really worry about it.  However, I also want to be able to eat at home without thinking about, and be able to look at the shelves in my pantry and know what is in there beyond what I can see at the front.  I also want to be able to shop for the week, or longer, but my shelves are so disorganized right now, I can't fit much in there.  I'm going to take my time with this project, and really try to use the most space, because I want to fill my pantry with healthy foods for me  and my family.  Here are some "BEFORE" pictures.

I'll be posting some "AFTER" pictures soon.  Very organized and neat pictures!  Until then...
Heather