Tuesday: Warm Apple Oats, Taco Bowls & a Rare Date Night

Got up this morning and kept breakfast pretty simple.

We had leftover bacon, some of the Costco bagels I’d sliced and stored in the refrigerator, and cereal for whoever wanted that.

Nothing fancy.

But I also decided to make one of my favorite little apple snacks.

And I have to tell you, this is one of those recipes that is so simple but SO good.

My One-Pan Apple Oat Snack

I made my one-pan apple oat snack this morning.

I have the full recipe on my blog, and I’ll link it here because it’s definitely worth trying.

It’s almost like a warm apple granola made right in a skillet.

You start by dicing up apples.

Then you get a sauté pan going with some coconut oil and add the apples, oats, and nuts.

Everything cooks together until the apples soften and the oats develop those delicious toasted, slightly crunchy edges.

It’s warm, a little crispy, and full of apple flavor.

And it’s ridiculously good.

My teenager had some for breakfast, and I had some too.

It’s basically the cozy fall version of granola, but warm.

A Full Morning of Homeschooling

After breakfast, we got right to work on school.

We’ve had a busy start to the week with orthodontist appointments on Monday, so I was happy to have a more normal morning at home.

We worked through our lessons and got as much done as we could before lunch.

And when lunchtime rolled around, I was especially happy about one thing.

I already had taco meat cooked.

Taco Bowls and Taco Salad for Lunch

Remember the six pounds of ground beef I cooked on Sunday?

I seasoned the entire batch with taco seasoning, and we had a big taco platter lunch that day.

But I deliberately made extra because I knew this week would be busy.

And today, that prep paid off.

I pulled out some of the cooked taco meat and warmed it up.

A few of the kids made taco bowls with their favorite toppings.

I made myself a taco salad.

And that was lunch.

No need to cook ground beef from scratch.

Just warm up the protein, pull out the toppings, and let everybody assemble whatever sounds good.

Freezing the Rest of the Taco Meat

I had actually planned to freeze some of the taco meat yesterday.

But Monday got busy, and I never got around to it.

Which is fine.

The meat was cooked Sunday at lunchtime, so it was still less than 48 hours old when I portioned it for the freezer today.

As long as cooked meat has been cooled promptly and stored properly in the refrigerator, it’s generally safe for three to four days before freezing.

So today I finally got that done.

I portioned the remaining taco meat into freezer bags and tucked it away.

And now I have another batch of Dinner Insurance.

And Some Kids Wanted Hot Dogs

Of course, not everybody wanted taco bowls today.

A couple of the kids remembered that we still had hot dogs and buns left from Saturday night’s bonfire cookout.

And they wanted those instead.

Fine with me.

I warmed up the leftover hot dogs, pulled out the buns, and added those to the lunch options.

We rounded everything out with fruit and vegetables.

And everybody was happy.

Tuesday Means Violin and Chick-fil-A

This afternoon, we had our usual Tuesday music routine.

And I didn’t get a picture of this, but my mom took the girls to violin lessons.

She does this regularly, and it’s such a help.

And she also brought Chick-fil-A home for the kids.

Which they were very happy about.

Especially because tonight, Chris and I actually had plans.

Plans outside the house.

Together.

Without the kids.

I know.

Very unusual.

A Rare Tuesday Night Date

Back in June, I bought tickets to hear the author of Being Mortal.

I read the book and loved it.

Chris read it too and really enjoyed it.

So when I saw that Gawande was coming to Cincinnati for a talk organized through the Cincinnati Public Library system, I thought it would be a fun thing for us to do together.

Cava Bowls Before the Talk

On our way to the event, we stopped at Cava.

Which was particularly funny because I’ve been making Cava-inspired bowls at home a lot lately.

Last Thursday, I made those big chicken and rice bowls with hummus, vegetables, and vinaigrette.

Then Chris, my teenager, and I liked them so much that we made them again for lunch Friday.

And now here we were, actually going to Cava.

Apparently we were on a Cava kick this week.

But I wasn’t complaining. My favorite order is a bowl with arugula, lentils, chicken, roasted red pepper hummus, regular hummus, lots of the pickled toppings, and then their greek vinaigrette.

Hearing the Author of Being Mortal

After dinner, we headed to the talk.

If you haven’t read Being Mortal, it’s a book about aging, medicine, and the way we approach serious illness and the end of life.

Gawande is a surgeon, and he writes about how modern medicine is very good at treating diseases but doesn’t always do a good job of helping people think about what matters most to them as they age or face serious illness.

It’s a really thought-provoking book.

And I think it’s one of those books that’s worth reading even if you’re not currently dealing with those issues in your own family.

Because eventually, these are conversations almost everybody has to have.

The talk tonight covered many of the same ideas from the book.

So there weren’t necessarily a lot of big surprises.

It was pretty much what we expected.

But it was still really interesting to hear him speak in person.

And I enjoyed having the opportunity to think about something completely different from our usual daily routine.