Variety is the spice of life, after all
Needless neighborly nosiness
Our next-door neighbor is a lady who lives by herself. Her daughter is in college locally and stops by quite a bit, and the daughter’s boyfriend mows the lawn for her. The neighbor lady herself seems quite friendly, and although I can’t remember her name I have chatted with her on more than one occasion. All this to say, she seems nice and normal. A perfectly ordinary situation. Except for the fact that this lady has had two large chairs blocking her front door for the better part of a month now.
I am beyond puzzled by this. I didn’t notice at first, and as we were backing out of our driveway one day several weeks ago N commented that Neighbor Lady must have gotten some new outdoor chairs. I assumed he meant that she had a little sitting area set up on her front porch so I didn’t bother to look. No. When I took the time (several days later) to see for myself I realized that she in fact has two large chairs from an outdoor patio set taking up the entire width of the path to her front door, one in front of the other. Clearly she isn’t expecting any visitors. Weird.
Pictures for your viewing pleasure
As promised, a picture of Miss T pushing her shopping cart around:
(Notice – and please ignore – all of the baby-related detritus clogging up our living room. We have given up and now embrace the mess.) And just for fun, here is a bonus shot of her playing on her brother’s computer. It wasn’t turned on, she just thought it was fun to bang on the keyboard and push the mouse off the table:
That picture just makes me laugh and laugh. Hee! Although you can tell she didn’t feel very good, her little eyes are all puffy and red. Poor baby. She’s better now.
Help wanted
I hate cooking. There, I said it. I HATE IT. I hate trying to come up with something to cook for dinner each night, I hate perusing recipe books and the internet for new ideas, I hate grocery shopping for the necessary ingredients, I hate actually cooking the meal, I hate putting away leftovers, I hate the cleanup involved. I hate the whole damn process. Have I said HATE enough to get my point across? Haaaaaaaaaaaate. ANYWAY. I think my actual point is that I am looking for some quick and easy meal ideas. The operative word being EASY. Because above all else I am lazy. If you have suggestions, please lay ‘em on me. A few items of note:
- N doesn’t like seafood all that much.
- AE doesn’t really like pasta (or vegetables, but he is a kid so that goes without saying).
- I don’t eat beef at all (consequently, neither does anyone else).
- I get home from work about 4:45ish and Miss T is usually ready for her bath by 6:30 or so, which doesn’t leave a lot of time to cook, eat, and clean up.
Am I being totally unreasonable here? Is my family doomed to eat the same few mutually acceptable meals over and over again until we all die of boredom? Can anyone help me? Anyone? Bueller?
August 27th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Fast and Easy ideas for meals (these were a little hard for me considering that I like beef and eat beef 75% of the time):
Pita Pizzas – everyone gets their own pita, to use as pizza crust and creates their own. Put in oven 350-400 ish until cheese is pretty.
Chicken Fajitas – buy some southwest seasoning (ours is from Sam’s), sprinkle on chicken breasts, pan fry until cooked. Serve with fajita like stuff.
Pesto chicken – either make or buy pesto. Smear on chicken (also may want to pepper chicken). Pan fry. (I hope you know by pan fry I mean, tiny bit of olive oil and cook in pan, right?) (as another option in the sauce packet area of the grocery store near maybe near the pasta they have a creamy pesto sauce. Pan fry the chicken with just salt and pepper and using that as a dipping sauce is delicious.)
If you have a Mexican meat market in the area, don’t be afraid, go in and buy some of their pre-seasoned chicken parts, you can either bake or pan fry these as well – I would get the boneless kinds if they have them – I’d also recommend thier castillo beef short ribs…even my babysitter who says she doesn’t like beef loves them, but they do also come in pork.
Teryaki chicken – buy the sauce, soak the chicken overnight, either pan fry, grill or bake.
Buffalo Chicken Sanwiches – melt equal parts butter and Franks Red hot Sauce in a pan (say 1/3 cup each.) pan fry chicken, dip in sauce, put on bun with lettuce and/or tomato etc. (I make this less spicy by only drneching one side of the chicken if need be)
Hot dogs
Beanie weenie burritos. Cut up hot dogs into pork and beans. Serve in tortilla (Clint also puts cheese on his)
I have some other chicken and ham recipes, but they require some preparation and I’m not sure how much of that you’re really up for.
August 27th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
You said you don’t like beef, but I’m assuming there’s such a thing as turkey meatballs. Anyway, Jason made this last week:
Toss some frozen meatballs in a Ziploc and put in the fridge to thaw. When ready to make dinner, throw meatballs into a saucepan with a can of Campbell’s tomato soup. Heat until hot and throw on some hot dog buns with some mozzarella cheese. Voila! Super-fast meatball subs. (You can also just use spaghetti sauce, but Jason hates spaghetti sauce with a passion.) Quick, easy and YUMMY.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Buy milk. Buy cereal. Pour cereal in bowl. Add milk to desired height in bowl. Consume. (Use of spoon suggested.)
August 28th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I just made a yummy dish last night that went over well with everyone and it was soooo simple. The only problem is that it is pasta. I’ll still tell you anyway because I believe in cooking whatever I like and my kids just have to deal with it. Either they eat it or they go hungry. Is that mean? Probably, but there is no way I’m buying/cooking two meals.
Ok, so here is the easy chicken meal:
Angel Hair pasta (I used the Barilla plus whole wheat to be healthier)
Five Brothers Mushroom Alfredo (surprisingly low in calories and no preservatives)
Chicken Breast (sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and italian seasoning and grill–I put it on the Foreman)
Salad
Prepare pasta, warm up sauce, grill chicken and toss a salad. Simple, fast and really good.
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