Want to stop by and have some chips and queso?

I'm from Texas. I mean, I was born and raised here and except for the short stint we spent in very Eastern New Mexico, I've lived here all my life. Even though we are in the southern part of the US, it's not really the "south". We don't generally eat grits, I have no idea what butterbeans are, and we aren't known for our sweet tea. I live in the land of Tex-Mex. Pretty much, you know it is Tex-Mex if it ends in an "o" (ie: nacho, burrito, taco, taquito, (my personal favorite) Abuelo's) and if it is smothered in cheddar/jack cheese and/or queso. Here the main ingredient in chili is beans not a chili pepper, and you could never talk a true Texan into telling you the ingredients in that award-winning bar-b-que sauce. In short, we like us some grease down here, y'all.

I mentioned recently my lack of motivation to accomplish ANYTHING around here lately. (Although I seem to be getting quite a bit of blogging done.) I have decided what I need to get me going is a plan. And I'm starting in the kitchen. I am going to attempt to plan the menu. For an entire week. In advance. Friends, I have never done this before. But I hear it's the cool thing to do right now. There is even a blog carnival dedicated to it.

Now, at this time, I do not plan to join this particular blog carnival, although I do enjoy a good one. But I just don't trust myself to actually follow through with this, and I don't really want the whole world wide web to have access to my lack of following through.

I do have a plan though. I've ordered a computer program. (Yes, I believe that the secret to getting me motivated to cook for my family is another excuse to spend time at the computer.)This computer program promises to resolve all of my cooking woes. I really want to try new recipes, but what stops me from actually cooking one that sounds good is the fact that I rarely have all the ingredients on hand. Lately I have only been keeping the items needed to whip up a quick stop at Taco Bell or Rosa's or any number of the kid friendly, tex-mex restaurants here in town. This computer program is supposed to be awesome. I wanted a program that would allow me to file all of my recipes, give me some new ideas (preferably ones with less grease than our normal fare), and most importantly allow me to choose a menu and based on the recipes chosen, print me a shopping list. Wouldn't that be heaven?! A fast, easy way to make a list of all these new exciting ingredients that I would never think to buy, so I can cook a fun, tasty meal for the family. I especially need this because my grocery cart hits automatic pilot towards flour tortillas and Rotel tomatoes every time I enter the grocery part of Wal-Mart.

So, as soon as my computer program gets here, I will enter the recipes I plan to cook for an entire week, print off a shopping list, run to the store to pick up the items needed, and get busy cookin'. I'll let you know if I like it or not. Until then, I'm off to...you know...order pizza for supper.