Mini 10 Concludes with Breakfast for Dinner

I took my shiny clean beanpot out of the dishwasher and considered whether or not I wanted to make barbecue chicken for dinner tonight or wait until tomorrow.

This was the last day before the start of homeschooling and we had errands a plenty this morning and afternoon! By the time I got home, I wanted to sit down and not have to get up for a while. My son, on the other hand, was ready for chicken.

But I just did not feel like heating up the oven or eating barbecue chicken to be honest. So we will do it tomorrow. In fact, my son offered to prepare it since it is so simple and I just might let him.

Put in the chicken, pour barbecue sauce over it, turn the oven on and let it sit for a few hours. That's it!

Tonight, instead, we had waffles and cereal. Yes, we did! I was and am tired. But tomorrow, my reluctant cook quest for slow cooking, easy one pot meals far better for dinner than breakfast, resumes with my customary enthusiasm :).

Thanks to all my mini 10 readers for dropping by during the challenge!

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Leftover Mac and Cheese, a Slow Cooking, One Pot Meal

Leftover Meal

After we finished dinner last time, there was still enough left in the beanpot for another meal. So I just put the beanpot in the refrigerator and took it out today for tonight's dinner. It is stoneware, so it's safe for the oven, refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher.

But it is not a good idea to take it from the fridge and put it in the hot oven right away. I let it sit out for a couple of hours so it could return to room temperature.

I warmed it up at about the same temperature (200 degrees), and added some butter to it before I put it in and after I took it out to wake it up a little.

Just As Good

Our meal tonight was almost as yummydelicious as last night's except for missing that elusive fresh-from-the-oven thing that makes it just that much better on the night you cook it.

As I ate, I continued to marvel at how good it was! You know, when I am out at restaurants, I am wary of ordering macaroni and cheese because sometimes, it's not quite right. The cheese is too sharp or too gooey, or there's too much of it, or the texture is just off in some other way.

So it's dawning on me that when you are the one cooking it, if it turns out okay, you can create something that tastes exactly the way you want it! That amazes me!!

The Slow Cooking, Easy One Pot Meals Extravaganza Begins...

My beanpot finally came!! I was so excited to get it out of the box. It’s even prettier than it looks in the picture.

The Extravaganza Begins

So, tomorrow, we start the beanpot slow cooker, one pot meal cooking experiment!!

I did not get the cookbook yet, but I have a couple of recipes I can try anyway. Normally, I will try one or two new recipes a week plus the one my son is learning to make on Fridays. But for these first few days, I might get inspired and make one new recipe each day. Not sure.But what I do know is that tomorrow, I plan to try a macaroni and cheese masterpiece (I mean, recipe).

Today’s Dinner

Today, we finished up the pasta we made last week and I made a cheese sauce to go with it. It tasted good but was thicker than I wanted. I put in extra milk and it still didn’t lighten up. So I couldn’t finish mine because I got full from about half of what was on my plate. My son stepped in to save the day! :)

Three Homeschool Meal Plans

  

This year, I have been letting my son participate as much as possible in planning our homeschooling year.

We decided together which holidays we would incorporate into our homeschooling this year and he told me which ones he had had enough of for now. We decided that Fridays would be our cooking day and he asked to choose one meal a month to learn to cook by himself.

So today, we did a lot of meal planning. We used the beanpot cookbook and two other slow cooker, one pot meals cookbooks...

(1) First, we chose the eight meals he would learn during the school year.

What we're going to do is cook the same thing every Friday for a month with me helping until the last Friday and on that day, if he feels comfortable, he will cook without me. At least half of the eight meals are pasta (we love pasta) but I did coax him to branch out a bit and add some meals that were not pasta-based.

(2) Next, we planned the meals for September. My plan is to try something new on Mondays and Wednesdays, do the meal on Friday that he has chosen, order pizza on Saturdays (for pizza and game night) and have leftovers on the nights in between.

(3) We need to plan our sandwich lunches, too, but we’ll get to that another day this week. I like how quickly you can put lunch together if you make sandwiches, but they must be tasty!

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Homeschool Cooking

My nine-year-old son is quite the budding young chef! We have been baking bread and making cookies and stirring spaghetti sauce together for years now. Late in the afternoon, we wait to hear "Hey, y’all!" and then, settle in to see what Paula Deen is cooking. Occasionally, we try something she’s made, usually a pasta dish.

And he now makes our oatmeal in the morning, except for pouring the boiling hot water on our Kashi apple-cinnamon oatmeal. I do that part!

So he has asked to cook some things all by himself.

What’s a homeschooling mom to do? Obviously, we will make cooking part of our homeschooling this year. Last year, we did it with baking bread using bread mixes. This year, I am planning to teach him to make at least 5 meals (a school week’s worth) by himself.

Though I still don’t have my beanpot, I did get another cookbook in this afternoon. This one has three-ingredient slow cooker, one-pot meal recipes.

I suspect we will pick our five from there. I’ll keep you posted!

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

P.S. I suspect that one of them will be the meal we had for lunch today: baked beans and bacon. Yum!

Living in Limbo

So on Saturday, the Fed-Ex truck comes to the door with a big box and I am sure it's my beanpot! I get all excited, ready to go to the store to get chicken broth (I don't have enough here at home), chicken breasts, broccoli and broccoli soup. Plus, some other things, but mainly, the makings of tonight's dinner.

False Labor

And, indeed, the big box is from Celebrating Home, so I'm sure my beanpot is in there! I struggle to get the thing upstairs and can't wait to try the meal I'm going to make.

And then, I open it.

That's what was in there. Two of those! My lamps and a Christmas gift I got for my partner.

No beanpot! And obviously, there wasn't enough room in the box, but where is my beanpot?

Sigh. It will probably get here Monday and I didn't really expect it until next week. I guess I'm just disappointed.

The Real Reason I'm So Impatient

Whenever I try something new, I worry about whether or not it's going to work. Then, I have trouble with waiting to try it because I want to get it over with so I'll know one way or the other. Haven't we all ordered stuff in the mail that just grew dusty wherever we laid it to rest in our house?

Back to Excitement

But if it does work, I will get to have a lot more yummy meals, and I can completely get rid of that worry I get around the end of the afternoon about whether or not I will have enough energy for dinner. I love the idea of preparing dinner while the day is still somewhat new. Before the reserves are depleted!

So I am really going to give it several chances to work. I'll just have to build in more time during that part of the day and make the meal prep part of our homeschooling each day.

Stay tuned! :)

Jeanine