Monday: Fresh Bacon, Seven-Hour Chuck Roast & A Fridge Full of Grilled Chicken

Got up this morning and made a fresh batch of bacon. It just seems to be what we do around here.

Some of my kids really like bacon in the morning, and they need the calories and fat to get up, get moving and be ready to work. I’m happy to make something I know they’re going to eat.

So we did bacon, some of the Costco bagels I keep sliced in the freezer, and then got straight to work on school.

The Consequences of My Own Decisions

I made a choice last night.

I did not clean the kitchen.

At the time, this seemed fine.

This morning? Less fine.

So I put Daphne on my back because she was feeling particularly clingy, got the older kids started on math and dealt with the kitchen.

Questionable choices were made, and morning-me had to pay for them.

Once the kitchen was back in working order, I sat down with the kids and we got through a good amount of schoolwork.

Three Minutes of Work for Tonight’s Chuck Roast

Around 10:30, I also wanted to get the chuck roast I bought at Costco yesterday into the oven.

And this is one of those things that sounds like I’m doing some major cooking project when the actual hands-on work takes me maybe three minutes.

I put the chuck roast in my extra-deep half-sheet pan and season it simply with:

• Kosher salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder

That’s it.

Then I put parchment paper directly over the top and cover the entire pan tightly with a big sheet of heavy-duty foil.

Into a 275°F oven it went.

I specifically went with 275 today because I knew I had plenty of time and wanted to let it cook low and slow basically all day.

Then I walked away.

No searing. No standing over the stove. No checking it every 20 minutes.

Taco Meat Saves Lunch Again

For lunch, I pushed the easy button and pulled out the taco meat I made yesterday.

Some kids made taco bowls. Some wanted nachos.

I truly do not care.

Same protein, same basic components, eat it in whatever configuration makes you happy.

And this is exactly why I made six pounds of taco meat yesterday. Today’s lunch required almost no thought.

Then I had to take one of my kiddos back to the orthodontist—the exact same kid I took last week.

We’re apparently frequent flyers now.

We’re having some issues with orthodontic things actually staying attached to teeth, which feels like a fairly important part of orthodontics, but here we are.

A Big Batch of Grilled Chicken

Once I got home, I dealt with the chicken thighs I bought at Costco yesterday.

And I have to say, I really feel like the quality of the Costco boneless, skinless chicken thighs has declined.

I even bought the organic ones this time, and I still found two pieces of bone, plus quite a bit of gristle and fat that I wanted to remove.

That’s especially frustrating when I’m feeding this to kids because I feel like I need to carefully check every single piece.

It probably took me about 10 minutes just to clean up all the chicken.

Once that was done, I used my standard Dijon chicken marinade:

Dijon Chicken Marinade

• A hearty amount of Dijon mustard
• Olive oil
• Kosher salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Plenty of smoked paprika
• Italian seasoning
• A splash of red wine vinegar

I don’t really measure this one. I want enough of everything to thoroughly coat all the chicken.

I let that sit for about an hour and then grilled all of it.

And now I have a TON of grilled chicken in my refrigerator.

Exactly where I want to be at the beginning of a busy week.

Easy, Adaptable Monday Dinner

Since I was already cooking two big batches of protein today, I kept the actual dinner really simple.

We had the grilled chicken, corn on the cob and some leftover cooked pasta from the other night.

I also cut up tomatoes and made a quick vinaigrette with olive oil, vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.

If you wanted the whole culinary experience, you could toss the pasta and tomatoes with the vinaigrette and add the grilled chicken.

If you’re one of my kids who would prefer that no foods ever touch one another, you could have chicken here, pasta there, corn over there and some fruit on the side.

Same dinner.

Everyone ate.

Done.

And Seven Hours Later…

Then it was time to check on that chuck roast I’d almost forgotten about.

It had been in the 275°F oven for a solid seven hours, and it was completely fall-apart tender.

This is why I love cooking chuck roast this way.

I don’t have to babysit it. I don’t have to sear it first. I don’t have to keep checking on it. And somehow, even though it’s covered for most of the cooking time, I still get these beautiful browned edges on the meat.

It just works.

Once it had cooled enough to handle, I pulled away any of the larger pieces of gristle and fat and transferred the meat to the refrigerator.

And very importantly, I saved all those juices from the pan.

Do not throw those away.

So now I have a big batch of beautifully tender chuck roast in the fridge along with a pile of freshly grilled chicken and plenty of taco meat.

My rolling three-day protein situation is looking very good.

I’m thinking that chuck roast is becoming barbacoa beef on Wednesday night.

Stay tuned.