Well, last week didn’t go so well in terms of sticking to the plan. The week started by nailing the first three days as planned. Wednesday came and the planned Fried Rice went by the wasteside. I did not think and boy #1 had a early practice on Wednesday night (mistake #1 – poor planning). Anticipating that it would be difficult to get the Fried Rice cooked in time I called an audible in the morning and went with the planned meal for Thursday, 40 Clove Garlic Chicken in the Slow Cooker. This plan seemed to be the right move as I needed to stick around for a while to wait on a contractor anyway.
Not feeling bad for the audible as even the best laid plans have to change from time to time. How often does an offensive coordinator get to run his first twenty plays as planned? The offense is humming along gaining thirty yards on five downs, your at the fifty and then there’s a bad exchange between the center and the QB. 2nd and 10 from the fifty and instead of running off tackle your forced to call for a pass. Slant across the middle on 2nd down andthe receiver drops a catchable pass at the forty two yard line. Now all of a sudden 3rd and 10 from the fifty looks a lot different then 2nd and 4 from the forty six. A bit of stretch I know, but you get the point. The point is, the best made plans are made to change.
2nd and 10. All went well and I had the chicken recipe set in the slow cooker rather quickly. I turned on the slow cooker and set to cook for eight hours. So far, so good. I came home for lunch a few hours later and checked on the slow cooker. Remember how I mentioned we had a contractor at the house?
3rd and 10. Well, the contractor had to turn off some breakers in order to do their work. They shut off the breakers in a blind matter because the breaker’s are unmarked. You know what, I’m going to go off on a tagent here for a moment. Who in their right mind installs an electrical panel without marking the circuits? Someone that is lazy and someone who deserves to the lose their electrical license that’s who.
Anyway, back to the chicken. Dropped pass and now I must punt. I went to check on the chicken dish and expected to be treated to the wonderful smell of cooking chicken, spices, etc. The lid opened, and nothing. The chicken was covered by potatoes so I still did not realize the chicken had not been cooking. I took a spoon and started to mix the ingredients and only then did I realize the slow cooker had been turned off. Yes, that’s right, another slow cooker disaster (I’ll spare you the details of a few other slow cooker disasters). So when the contractor was finding the necessary breaker by trial and error they turned off the breaker to chicken thus turning off the slow cooker. Because the slow cooker is a new fancy wifi mobile phone controlled vessel the slow cooker remained off once the power was killed.
Lesson learned. I need to think through all variables when cooking with a set and walk away device such as a slow cooker. Make sure the slow cooker is plugged in…check. Make sure to turn on the device…check. Set the cooker to the proper temperature for the right time….check. Inform the contractor to be mindful of your recipe in the slow cooker….’doh!
I failed to mention that boy #1 had yet another early practice on Wednesday. Rushing to get him to practice I called the wife to inform her that the planned meal was a disaster and we needed to make an alternate. Prepare some leftover stuffed pepper soup I was to suggest. I could not get through to the wife and proceeded to practice. Somewhere along the way I got lost in a story on the news or in conversation with the son. Having not got a hold of the wife a few minutes earlier I totally blanked and failed to inform her of the situation. Heading home, assuming dinner would be ready I found the wife eagerly waiting on the dinner plan. By now she had already figured out something was an amiss and assumed I had a plan. Well, I didn’t have a plan having already unsuccessfully executing the original back-up plan early in the day.
Knowing it was getting late and that the natives were getting restless we decided to get sandwiches from the Subway just down the street. Not ideal other options could have been worse. Wrong, the sandwiches were terrible! The service was horrible and the sandwiches equally as bad. On the bright side, me and the wife got a good laugh out of the whole ordeal.
So we missed on the fried rice, tripped up on the slow cooker chicken and then along comes Friday. One Skillet Taco Pasta was on the menu for Friday. Instead of a nice peaceful meal at home our planned meal was sidetracked by Chuck E. Cheese. Yes, Chuck E. Cheese. Boy #1’s school was having a fundraiser at Chuck E. Cheese’s on Friday night. Woo hoo, here we come. How about that, Subway on Wednesday and Chuck E. Cheese on Friday. Man, really pulling things tighter in the whole search for providing the family with a tasty and healthy meal. All-in-all the Chuck E. Cheese experience wasn’t as bad as I anticipated and of course both boys had a blast. Another planned meal down the drain was a small price to pay for the joy of the kids.
On the brighter side, two of the missed dishes made it on to this week’s meal plan. Choosing versatile dishes using ingredients that are basically non-perishable and that are generally in one’s pantry has it’s advantage. I’m out of time for the evening however still need to share with you the fantastic meal I made on Saturday. I’ll also be following in short order with a review of this week’s meal plan.
Thanks for reading.