Bread and water

The children at MaryP’s can credit Stephanie, the Crockpot Lady, for their interesting and nutritious meals. Really. A couple of years ago, and for many years prior to that, I’d have told anyone who asked that I didn’t like cooking. It was tedious, it was boring. Necessary, but boring.

And then I stumbled across this blog. No, wait! She came to me! The lovely Mir had shared with Stephanie a recipe I had shared with her, and Stephanie adapted and used it. (And I got 400 extra hits that day!!!)

Crockpotting (is that a verb?) suited me to a tee. I am a morning person. Being able to have dinner prepared before the first child arrived was PERFECT for me, just perfect! I was combing her site every day, trying out new crockpot recipes several times a week. (Because, even though I know Stephanie did it, you really can’t eat crockpot every night of the week.)

But then I needed other things to fill in the non-crockpot nights, too, so I started hunting other recipe sites, dusting off my recipe books. We were trying out a new recipe every night of the week! And I was having fun!

The upshot is that the daycare tots (and my own lovely family) are now eating better than they ever have: quinoa-stuffed squash, chicken jamabalaya, butter chicken, lentil curry… When we have mac and cheese, it’s home-made.

But of course, reality doesn’t always cooperate, and sometimes even the most enthusiastic cook…

We had a busy morning yesterday: a trip to the park followed by a craft which turned out to be more time-consuming than I expected. Then, when I went to the fridge for our lunch — (planned) leftover black bean felafels from my family’s dinner the night before — I discovered that someone had raided the fridge sometime after dinner. No felafels!

What to do? The kids were already sitting at the table and they were HUNGRY! I need something quick and easy to feed the starving hordes. I scan the shelves, see the solution. And wince. I don’t even know why that stuff is in our fridge. I make a compromise with reality.

“Here, guys. Baloney sandwiches. It’s not fancy, but it’s fast!”

Of course, everyone is wildly enthused by such a rare and exotic treat (my word would be ‘toxic’, but oh, well).

“That’s okay, Mary,” Emily assures me. “I like sandwiches! Last night I had butter sandwiches for dinner!”

This interests William. “You ate butter for dinner? Yummy!”

“Uh-huh, and the day before, I had hamburger salami!”

“Oh, I LOVE hamburger salami!!!”

Hamburger salami? No idea what that might be — which puts me in good company: Emily’s mummy had no idea either.

Maybe I’ve found another recipe to search out??