Thursday: Co-op Setup Day, PlanetBox Lunches & A Pittsburgh Salad

We got up this morning and finished off the last of the bacon I made earlier this week, so apparently bacon is back on tomorrow’s list.

The kids had toast, cereal and other quick breakfast things because we needed to get out the door.

I, on the other hand, ate the very last burger from Sunday for breakfast.

And you know what? Why not?

It’s protein. It was already cooked. It needed to be eaten. Breakfast does not have to be breakfast food.

A Very Full Co-op Day

Today was our big setup day at our new co-op facility.

All the things we’d unloaded from the POD needed to actually make their way into classrooms and get organized, so we were there for hours getting everything set up.

A couple of my younger kids went to my parents’ house, and the others came along with me.

For the kids who came, I packed lunches in our PlanetBoxes.

And every time I use these things, I remember just how long I’ve had them.

I bought my first PlanetBox when my now-16-year-old was in kindergarten.

So we’re talking at least ten years of use.

They’re stainless steel, they still work, and at this point I couldn’t even tell you which one was the original because they’ve all just become part of our regular rotation.

For a day like today, they’re especially nice because I can put together a complete lunch, close the box, throw it in the cooler and we’re done. No pile of individual bags and containers to keep track of while we’re out.

Home Again

After hours of setup, I made the drive back, picked up the kids from my parents’ house and finally got home.

Then it was unloading lunchboxes, washing PlanetBoxes, dealing with the breakfast dishes I’d left behind and getting the kitchen reset.

I had a late-afternoon snacky sort of lunch because by that point I was hungry, but I knew dinner wasn’t too far away.

And when I started thinking about dinner, I went straight back to my rolling three-day rule.

The Rolling Three-Day Rule

This is basically how I manage cooked protein in our house.

Instead of planning seven completely separate dinners, I’m constantly looking at approximately the next three days.

What protein is already cooked? What’s the oldest? What needs to be eaten next? And what can I cook now that will carry us through the next few days?

Tonight, the answer was grilled chicken.

I’d grilled a big batch two days ago, so that was the protein I wanted to build dinner around.

Then I looked at the produce.

I had a bunch of those artisan romaine hearts from Costco, which immediately made me think: big dinner salads.

But because not everyone in my family wants a giant layered salad, I just set everything out separately.

Same ingredients. Same dinner. Build it however you want.

The Crispy Potatoes That Make the Salad

And then I made what might be my favorite part: crispy shredded potatoes.

I use the frozen shredded potatoes from Costco and spread them onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Then toss with:

• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder

Roast them around 425°F until they’re deeply golden and crispy.

They basically turn into tiny little French fry pieces.

And they are ridiculously good.

So I had lettuce, grilled chicken, all the salad toppings and those crispy potatoes. I also made a package of bacon for the salads (plus we’ll use the leftovers for breakfast bacon tomorrow)

If you wanted the full experience, you piled everything into a bowl and put the crispy potatoes right on top.

After I shared this on Instagram, people informed me that apparently this is a Pittsburgh salad.

I had absolutely no idea.

I just knew that salad + crispy potatoes is an elite combination.

Same Dinner, Different Plates

Only a couple of us actually made the full layered salad.

Some of the kids wanted grilled chicken over here, lettuce over there, potatoes in their own pile and whatever other vegetables they wanted separately.

Fine by me.

I really don’t care whether everyone assembles dinner the same way. If we’re all eating essentially the same components, we’re all eating the same dinner.

The chicken was already cooked. The potatoes came straight from the freezer. The rest was mostly chopping and assembling.

Done.

Going into tomorrow, we’ve worked through that grilled chicken (probably enough left for lunch tomorrow), so I’ll pull some ground beef from the freezer and start the next little three-day protein rotation.