bringing dinner back

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by me.” — Douglas Adams (English humorist and science fiction novelist)

I used to say that if I worked more than 15 hours a week, my whole family fell apart. Or maybe it was 20. Or 10. I can’t remember the number but do recall thinking how ridiculous it sounded.

Although our family does run better when I have less work, those days are over. I have more time and we need the money. Journalism hasn’t exactly been lucrative of late. But now I have a new, interesting, and regular freelance gig — plus two huge projects back to back. Good for the bank account. Not so good for the family.

So, menus of the next few weeks will be a bit simpler than those of the past. What that means is no recipes other than those I know in my own head. I’m not sure whether it’s actually faster to cook a memorized recipe, but I know it’s a lot less stressful. We have a refrigerator full of fresh fruit and veggies from Saturday’s co-op pickup, so that will be the basis of this week’s menus.

Oh, we’re also broke until these checks start rolling in. So, with little time and money to spare, here’s this week’s menu plan:

Sunday: We celebrated my nephew’s 15th birthday (wow) with the family in Waxahachie. Didn’t technically eat at the same table — adults ate Dickey’s in the living room, kids in the adjoining kitchen — but did share our fourth meal of the day (leftovers and chocolate mousse) once we got home. Apparently dinner at 4 pm doesn’t count. Fun, free, no cooking for me. Maybe we can make this a daily thing?

Monday: Fairly easy day for me, family-wise. Somebody else is picking up both kids and taking them to their activities this afternoon. Making my favorite Italian soup (aka, “Tracy soup”) for my favorite 9-year-old cancer patient and her family. (OK, she’s the only 9-year-0ld cancer patient I know. But even if I knew others, she’d still likely be my favorite.) We’ll have the same (a veggie version for Noah with no-chicken broth), ciabatta, and a salad. I have some kale that is on its last legs in the refrigerator so will toss that with olive oil, salt and pepper and broil that, too. Clyde will pick up Noah from climbing practice at 7, so we’ll all be home and ready to eat by 7:45 pm.

Tuesday: Another long stretch of work time for me as I don’t have to get the kids until 4:30 pm from school (tutorials for one, chess for the other). We’ll have an easy ham steak with cabbage and potatoes. Potatoes because everyone loves them and, if I add some cool stuff to them, they can be Noah’s main meal. Think I’ll add goat cheese, garlic, and parsley — because it sounds delicious and we have all three.

Wednesday: Kids just have guitar from 5-5:30 pm, so we can eat early (making Sawyer very happy) if we’re on the ball. We have some chicken in the freezer (Clyde can grill that up for us and have some leftovers to freeze for Grandma), sauteed spinach, broccoli (we like both; kids only like the latter), with some brown rice I cooked with wine and no-chicken broth and froze last week. I’ll get some fake chicken for Noah. UPDATE: All prepped and ready for Clyde to throw together while we were at guitar … only for him to find we were out of propane. What’s the No. 1 rule of the family dinner? Flexibility. Off we dashed to our favorite cheap Italian restaurant, Tony’s, for a lovely meal. The kids read the entire time so it was almost like a date. Saved the dinner for an easy quick meal on Friday.

Thursday: I’ll be at rock climbing practice most of the evening with Noah, while Clyde is at a church meeting. Sawyer will be at one or the other, whichever he finds least offensive. So we’ll have a family breakfast and Fend For Yourself Night for dinner. For breakfast, I’m thinking this fruit & oat muesli I meant to try a couple of weeks ago and didn’t. It can be made the night before, is healthy, and will use up a lot of that co-op fruit.

Friday: We may be having our third African feast tonight; still waiting to hear confirmation. If not tonight, we’ll swap around menus with Saturday. Not sure what I’m planning yet, but the high is 41 and we have a lot of sweet potatoes so those factors may come into play. Update to come as the week (and plans) progress. UPDATE: Wednesday’s dinner will become tonight’s dinner once we get the propane.

Saturday: Our third African feast with a friend of Clyde’s, her Nigerian husband, and their daughter. Noah will be gone, unfortunately, so it’ll be a small affair. Menu to come.