Piece Meal

Probably one of the hardest questions I must ask myself daily is what the heck to make for dinner. Some weeks I'm great at meal planning, and I make sure my shopping trip is just what I need, and so on and so forth. Lately...not so much. It's more me making sure I'm stocked up on Aiden's favorites - apples (ah-poh!), bananas (nah-nah), grapes (he doesn't have a word for these yet), eggs, and the like. Plus the items I eat regularly.

I would love to say I make every meal he eats from scratch...but then I'd be lying through my teeth. Yes, he has eaten chicken nuggets, corn dog bites, and cheeseburgers. I know...Gasp! Say it isn't so! I try hard to make them special meals, but it does happen.

Some nights, I totally wing it. A few weeks ago, that's exactly what I did. The day prior, I luckily stopped by Sam's Club and picked up a rotisserie chicken for $5. Those are AMAZING. Plus, I got a whole cooked chicken without heating up my house. Aiden and I can make at 3-4 meals if not more from one chicken. This one had already been part of a dinner for the two of us the night before, and my lunch earlier that day.

Then...what to make WITH the chicken? Luckily, Aiden loves vegetables, so that was easily covered, but he needed something else. I headed to my "pantry," which is now a shelf on a metal rack in my garage, just beside my dryer. There they were - potatoes. Some were Yukon gold, some Idaho...so I gathered a few, washed them up and popped them in to microwave to cook them, and THEN I could brown them in a pan.

I'm most certainly blessed that Aiden likes to know what I'm doing in the kitchen. He likes to see, likes to be picked up, and is curious about every step. Though that means I'm often cooking dinner with one arm while he's in the other. But, he's learning. I see him doing similar steps in his play kitchen, and he's started telling me what play foods are in the bag that he carries around the house, and often hides in my bed. If I'm not holding him while I cook, it's more likely than not that he's underfoot. And so is the dog. 

My "helpers" while I cook. Aiden wants up. Ruby just wants me to spill.

So in the pan is a bit of olive oil, and garlic salt. Nothing fancy - I'm just making home fries. I cooked them until they browned, and then first pulled a few out for the little guy so they could cool, and then served myself. The little guy's plate was much more festive when I added his favorite "sauce" as well - ketchup. Gotta have ketchup with home fries, right?

He ate his peas while I finished up making dinner, which is my sneaky way to get him into his seat so I can finish cooking without a 28 lb. boy in my arms, or underfoot. Plus, he loves peas. Straight from the freezer. No joke. 

Luckily, I think he liked it.