Are you ready for my newest recipe recommendations? Here you go!
Hot dogs... Nathan's Hot dogs are the best if you can spare the change; we had Bryan's today- they were fine. Corn syrup was third in the ingredient list, doesn't that sound amazing? If you have hot dog buns, great- we didn't. Ketchup is a nice topping. Homemade not necessary.
Macaroni and Cheese... we've discovered that "Best Value" written in Spanish on the box is the cheapest and tastes the same. I'm not fooled by Kraft's "real cheese" claim, are you?
Green beans... frozen and generic, defrost, warm, and serve. No flavor needed.
I realized today that I don't want my blog to only be about the good ole times at our abode. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed the dinner (well, Justin couldn't stomach the beans, but he loved the rest, especially the ketchup which is made from tomatoes, don't forget!). But I feel the need to include here the reality of our family life. That sometimes the best choices in one area sacrifice the best choices in other areas.
When I get into hyper-cooking-planning-ahead mode, I can stock the freezer with 4 loaves of zucchini bread, 2 spinach mushroom quiches, and 8 marinated chicken breasts in 2 days. Oftentimes, that's what my Mondays and Tuesdays look like as I prepare food for much of the rest of the week. But today I can't think ahead. My mind is a bit fried after flying solo for several days. So we'll probably have a frozen pizza tomorrow.
And that's okay, I'm reminding myself. I love to serve my family yummy, healthy food. And I love to save us money by planning meals well. But my dear husband reminds me he'd rather have me enjoy my days, enjoy him, and be well rested than to feel like I have to "produce" a lot during a day. And I'm just now starting to believe him and agree with him. He's usually right about these kinds of things.
So today we loved on an emotionally needy older son and kept inappropriate toys from our younger son. We did about 5 different art projects with Justin and rescued Nathan from the hardwood floors- which seems to often jump up and hit his head. I worked for a few hours on the front porch as Daddy kept the kids inside. When I was working, I wanted to be with them, and when I was with them, some of the time I wanted to be working. We all took naps and basically spent lots of time sitting on our bums.
Was it a great day? I wouldn't say it was great. But it wasn't a bad day either. It was a day. And that's how most days really are. And I'm thankful for this day too. These are the character-building days, I remind myself in hope. I'm thankful I'm not the One in charge of that!
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3 comments:
Simply put:
You.
Rock.
Can't wait for our phone date!
At our house, it's hot dogs, mac & cheese, and peas. I used to feel bad about it until I read this book at a friend's house:
http://www.amazon.com/Macaroni-Cheese-Hot-Dogs-Peas/dp/0570070449/ref=sr_1_1/104-9717778-6393523?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187095986&sr=1-1
It's all about how God made these foods. He created wheat and cows and pigs and peas, farmers and bakers and people to deliver our food. It's a great, silly book that reminds me to be thankful that I have food, even if it is highly processed and not packed with "superfoods." A lot of people in the world would be happy to have the conveniences we have to get a meal like that on the table in 15 minutes instead of spending half the day preparing it.
I have got to say that Aldi's Mac and Cheese dinner (shells and cheese) rocks Kraft's face off, hands down.
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