Groundhog Day

Do you ever feel like you're living in the movie "Groundhog Day," the one with Bill Murray who just keeps reliving the same thing over and over again?

I sat down with my healthy, packed lunch (yay me!) to do a little lunchtime blogging. The subject at hand is food: boredom with it and lack of it. As I began to formulate the post in my brain, it started sounding familiar. So I did a little searching on my own blog and found this:

How much is my time worth?

Yes. That's what I wanted to say. Except that great 3-week dinner menu I created is gone because I foolishly wrote it on paper and didn't save it electronically anywhere. I had forgotten about the weekly dinner "formula," which would come in super handy right now because it calls for 2-3 meatless nights -- perfect for Annie's continuing vegetarianism.

Oh, and I'm thinking maybe I'll make my own hot chocolate mix. I bought hot chocolate in the little packets at the store last week and they were gone in a matter of a few days. Again, been there, blogged that.

I'm thinking I should make some of my own other things, too. Things the kids (and the grown ups) can snack on. I try to keep apples and bananas in the house. Carrots are another staple. But foods like granola bars and graham crackers, yogurt and pretzels seem to have a shelf-life of about 30 minutes once they cross the threshold of the front door.

Each person has his or her favorites, so there's not one person to blame. Charlie will plow through the fruits and veggies (and almost everything else that's not nailed down). Annie downs the yogurt and the pretzels. Robbie is the milk and cereal man. He would eat cereal (Honey Nut Cheerios, usually) for every meal, guzzling almost a gallon of milk a day, if I let him. And Mike likes to dig into the lunchmeat and bread. Of course, I'm not without guilt. Apples, graham crackers and peanut butter, and tortilla chips and salsa are my go-to snacks.

But the point is, we seem to go through groceries so quickly that what I'm going to is the store or the pizza delivery menu. Too often.

Getting back to the pre-planned menu is one solution. I think that once-a-month cooking might be another one. But what about those snacks? Are there healthy and economical snacks you keep on hand? Do you buy them or make them? Do you lock them up or just give your family the evil eye when the pantry door's been opened one too many times? Help a mom out so we're not both reliving this post in another six months.

Guess it depends on your perspective

Since I started this blog in July, I think I've done a pretty good job of not skewering my husband for the kind of minor transgressions that husbands tend to commit and wives tend to blow out of proportion. Today, however, I am choosing to break my silence.

In mid-August, Mike moved his business to our basement office. With the kids all in school all day, it seemed to make sense to save the rent money he'd been paying and take advantage of the quiet in the house.

I know from having been a freelance writer for several years that one of the perks of working from home is the opportunity to take a few minutes here and there to throw in a load of laundry or get dinner started.

Jennette Fulda, aka, Pasta Queen, recently posted a recipe for Crockpot Applesauce Chicken that sounded easy and yummy. I knew we had all the ingredients for the recipe at home, so yesterday from work I sent Mike this e-mail:

To: Mike M.
From: Amy M.
Subject: Can you do this for dinner? Needs to cook all afternoon.

Crockpot Applesauce Chicken

4 frozen chicken breast halves or thighs (in the freezer)

1 1/2 cups of applesauce (in the fridge)

1 yellow onion, chopped finely (use the leftover onion that's in the fridge)

1 T apple cider vinegar (in the pantry on the shelf w/the blue canisters)

1/4 tsp cinnamon (in the cabinet above the toaster oven)

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced (use garlic powder -- in the cabinet above the toaster oven)

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional) (think we have some of these in the cabinet above the toaster oven)

1. Put the frozen chicken pieces into your crockpot.
2. Add the onion to the crockpot.
3. In a bowl, mix the applesauce, vinegar, garlic, and spices together.
4. Pour on top of the chicken.

Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or on high for 3-4. Serve with rice or quinoa.

Seems easy, right? I mean I even told him exactly where in the kitchen he would find the ingredients. Apparently "easy" means something different to me than it does to my husband.

Now, I don't know if the "needs to cook all day" scared him. Or the "serve with rice or quinoa" (what is quinoa?) was the turn off, but this is the response I got:

To: Amy M.
From: Mike M.
Subject: Re: Can you do this for dinner? Needs to cook all afternoon.

you're joking, right?

A little too labor intensive

This from the man who thinks nothing of spending an hour moving a 37-inch TV, connecting it to three different video game systems and then hooking the whole thing up to the surround sound for optimum gaming experiences.

But taking 10 minutes to throw basically three ingredients into a crockpot and walk away is too labor intensive.

Guess I won't suggest that he sort the laundry today.