What's for Dinner?

This week-end my husband took out a frozen pizza to put in the oven for lunch.  I looked at him and said "You realize you're eating one of my meals next week".  I said it in a joking manner but I sorta wasn't...joking that is.

John recently left for India and Israel for 8 days.  SO.  What does that mean for me?  Well, that means it's all Mommy all the time for 8. Entire. Days.  Morning, afternoon, middle of the nights.  Naps, baths, the drama that "good night's" bring.  Playing, entertaining, dealing with tantrums, time outs.  Trying to fill the days so that the week doesn't drag on.  Dishes, vacuuming, cleaning up toys, laundry....breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Meal times.  The very bane of every mother with young ones existence.

When John is home I always cook a nice, healthy dinner.  I love cooking and I like to think I'm pretty good at it.  I'm not a Mom that makes separate meals for the adults and the kids.  That's too much work and in my opinion asking for trouble.  So I cook a delicious dinner and I expect everyone to eat that dinner.   If they don't....well, I'm sorry to say they might go to bed hungry (this doesn't actually happen but there's always the "threat").  Of-course there's only one member in my lovely family that gives us the gears when it comes to eating.  I'm sure you can guess who that curly headed boy is.

So when John is away, do I cook a nice, healthy dinner for everyone????  Uh.  NO.  I am no masochist.

 I struggled with that for a while because I really cannot stand most "convenience" foods.  Adrian didn't even have Kraft Dinner until this summer for the first time.  Of-course he loved it.  And every time we have chicken fingers and french fries Adrian always tells me "I make the best dinners ever".  *eye roll*

What do we eat while John is away you ask?

It's a very diverse selection of chicken fingers and fries (with vegetables of-course! ...  Do olives count as vegetables?  just kidding....maybe), pasta with tomato or cheese "sauce" (we've figured out that using the word "sauce" with my eldest equals "will eat"), frozen pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches with soup and if I'm feeling extra ambitious I will cook up some perogies.  I know perogies sound easy but you have to boil AND fry them plus if you want really delicious perogies you must have bacon with them.  And I have a weird fear of frying bacon.  It might have something to do with the 1000 degree grease that flies at you without warning.  And for the record, those bacon/grease anti spatter things don't work.  You still have to remove it to flip the bacon at which point the grease makes an alarming popping sound and spits at you menacingly thus potentially burning your eyeball.  I don't know why I have this strange anxiety do you?

 Moving forward now.... I never thought I would say this but I am actually sick of carbs, therefore tonight it was roasted chicken (I buy one every week at the grocery store and debone it for sandwiches and wraps), tortillas spread with hummus and folded in half, cheese, avocado, carrots with ranch dip and I also threw in some pickled asparagus.  I suppose I could call it "Antipasto Soden style".  We topped it off with some honey dew melon and strawberries for dessert.  I thought it was a perfectly acceptable dinner. Much healthier than the chicken nuggets we had last night, right?  Of-course my favourite thing about it was minimal clean up and no stove, pots or pans involved!  Plus Adrian pretty much gobbled the whole thing up.  Bonus!

Afterward as I was cleaning up and the boys were playing, Adrian runs into the kitchen and asks....

"Mumma, what are you cooking for dinner?"

"Cooking" clearly being the key word in that sentence.

I gotta admit, there's not much that gets by that son of mine.