Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Does anyone else hate making dinner on Saturdays?  I’m usually poopered from all of the random projects we tackle on the weekend; for a while there it felt like we were ordering pizza more often than not.  In an effort to rectify the situation, I started to consciously plan crockpot meals on Saturdays.  All of the work happened in the morning when I was working anyway, and then at dinnertime, poof! dinner.  What’s not to love?  And since today is, in fact, Saturday (right? because on Monday holiday weeks I do struggle!), I figured I’d highlight three of the recipes I’ve tried thus far.

Crockpot Cowboy Casserole:  This was heavier than our usual fare, but it worked for me.  I cut the ground beef down to a pound and used pinto beans instead of kidney beans (personal preference); I also heeded the warning in the comments to season the potatoes generously.  I quickly sauteed the onions and garlic in a bit of oil before tossing them in, because they taste so much better that way, and we just topped our individual portions with the cheese.  It’s hearty, it’s filling, and it’s surprisingly tasty.  (It also completely fills a medium-sized slow cooker.)

Cheesy Ranch Chicken and Potatoes:  This was tasty!  I did make a homemade cream of chicken soup mixture, since it’s fairly easy and I prefer the taste, but otherwise I followed the recipe on this one.  Not precisely low-fat, but we enjoyed it.

Crock Pot Italian-Seasoned Chicken with Potatoes:  I really liked this one the day it was made, but the leftovers made the Italian dressing feel a bit strong.  It also could have used more potatoes to feel nicely balanced.  I threw a few baby carrots in, but regular carrot slices would have been tastier, and possibly more of them. (Although be warned–it was already a very full crock pot.)

There you have it–three ideas in one!  And I’m sure this won’t be the last post of its kind.  In the meantime, though, what do you do for dinner on Saturdays?

The reason I spaced last night’s post is actually kind of exciting; between Wednesday night and Thursday night, my hubby and I actually managed to watch an entire movie together.  (I told you it was exciting.  Do you have any idea how long it’s been since we did that?  No?  Neither do I.)  By the time we finished “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” it was late and I was tired and only did the bare minimum before bed.  To make up for it, here are my impressions of “Fantastic Beasts”…

1.  Not quite what I was expecting, but quite a ride.  I liked it.
2. Is it just me, or did Eddie Redmayne play his character as mildly autistic?
3. So Creepy in spots.
4. I want pastries!
5. Colin Farrell is good at upsetting me; between “Fantastic Beasts” and “Saving Mr. Banks,” it’s kind of hard to look at him.  Which, I suppose, means he’s good at his job.

If you haven’t seen it, you should.  Until tomorrow, folks!

I procrastinated reading Like Carrot Juice on a Cupcake for ages.  Not because I didn’t enjoy Julie Sternberg’s other two Eleanor books–because I did–and not because it was incredibly long–because it’s not.  No, I procrastinated because, according to the description, it was one of those plots.  The kind where the new girl comes in between a pair of friends, and the left-out friend does something mean, and oh, the drama!  The good news is, once I made myself get into it, it was a lot like the first several seasons of “Castle”; it resolved a common and frustrating conflict in an unexpectedly positive, not-annoying way.  Hallelujah!

In the first place, the new girl is perfectly nice and friendly to both friends.  Eleanor feels left out because Pearl is assigned to be Ainsley’s buddy, which ends up taking away some of the after-school time the two usually spend together.  What’s more, Eleanor’s mean thing is a spur-of-the-moment, desperate to deflect attention from herself sort of thing, NOT a premeditated act.  As an adult, you know early on that there will be trouble, but everyone involved is just being a regular elementary schooler.  The resolution isn’t aggravatingly drawn out, and it has some laugh-out-loud moments.  What’s not to love?  Carrot Juice is a good example of dealing with everyday elementary school conflict, and a great read for grades 1-3.  If you’ve got a daughter that age, don’t miss the Eleanor books!

I thawed the last of a bag of frozen chicken breasts from Costco the other day, so I went looking for a chicken recipe to make for dinner.  EXCEPT that I already had a loaf of applesauce oatmeal bread planned as the carb (I’ll get to that recipe another day, I promise), so I needed a recipe that didn’t involve potatoes, pasta, or sauce that begged to be served over rice.  (I had NO IDEA how hard that would be, by the way.)  What I came up with–after some searching, I tell you what–was this Bruschetta Chicken.

And it was TASTY.

It’s possible that I loved it a bit more than anyone else in my family did, but oh, it was delightful!  If you love bruschetta–and you have lovely garden tomatoes and a neighbor with fresh basil to share–make this for dinner.  The only changes I made were to sub in flavored bread crumbs for the croutons and to generously season the breasts with garlic pepper seasoning before dipping them in the flour, since several comments noted that the chicken was bland.  That absolutely did the trick, making for a flavorful dinner that screamed fresh summer flavors.

Mmmm, bruschetta…

I actually tried to post yesterday, believe it or not.  I got as far as the title and then my cursor wouldn’t allow me to start the actual post.  My eyes were so miserably itchy, however, that instead of asking my hubby about it I hopped in the shower and finished my book instead.  I did ask him this morning; he had me deactivate the ad blocker (is that two words?) on this site.  (He activated it on my computer a day or two ago because I couldn’t handle the constant Arby’s ads on Goodreads–there’s no way to close them, they bump you down to the comments instead of letting you read the summary you’re looking for, and they play over and over.  If I’d had to hear “WE HAVE THE MEAT!” one more time I might have gone over the edge.)  That solved the problem, and so here I am!  (Sadly, still with the miserably itchy eyes.  Prescription eye drops cost an arm and a leg, and anything that’s not eye-specific is likely to make me sleepier than I already am, which is NOT a good thing.)

Anyway.  I was going to review a recipe yesterday, but since I stayed up later than I should have to finish my book last night, you get that review instead.  Or rather, you get a choice; I can offer you a long review or a short.

Long Review:  Oh, how I loved this book!  Listen, Slowly is by the same author as Inside Out & Back Again, which was an incredibly deserving Newbery Honor book in 2012.  (I’d tell you the author’s name, but now I’m self-conscious about all the diacritical marks necessary in Vietnamese and I have no idea how to properly depict it on this blog.)  I was expecting it to be sort of similar to its predecessor, but not so much.  IO&BA was beautiful and made me cry, whereas Listen was fabulously funny with moments of near-perfect poignancy.  The former is a verse novel with a narrator I related to, while the latter is in prose with a narrator I didn’t always like at first.  (I didn’t necessarily relate to her for any of the book, but I did like her by the end.  Mostly.)  The thing is, I didn’t have to like her.  Her voice is strong and funny and outrageous from the get-go, and her journey is a real one.  I laughed out loud enough times that I stopped counting, and yet Listen has depth to spare.  Mai’s reluctant mission in Vietnam is to help her Grandmother accept that her Grandfather, lost in the war, is truly gone; she wanted to spend the summer on the beach back home in California, working up the courage to talk to her crush.  The outcome, from a general sense, is predictable, and yet the story itself is fresh and unexpected and delightful.  Bottom line?  Everyone from 5th or 6th grade on up ought to read this book.

Short Review:  Listen, Slowly is $3.84 on Amazon, for Pete’s sake.  Go buy the book.  (Unless you’re my sister, because then you’re buying a house and so officially moving again, which means it’s already on its way.)