Friday: Leftover Stir-Fry, Costco Sausage & A Unicorn Dinner

Got up this morning and one of my kiddos had already left with my parents to go to Mass and breakfast, so I kept breakfast pretty simple for everyone who was still home.

We reheated some of the bacon I’d made earlier this week and had toast.

My teen made herself a breakfast wrap, plus this toast combination she really likes: toast with a little butter, peanut butter, sliced banana and honey.

And I have to say, it looks really good.

Then we got to work on school.

And Then Second Breakfast Arrived

Eventually my son came home with my parents, and he brought leftover Chick-fil-A breakfast with him.

So naturally everyone had a little mid-morning second breakfast.

A Split-Shift Lunch

Lunch was a little unusual today because I needed to drive my teen to an outdoor low-ropes course activity she was doing with one of her youth groups.

My husband was working from home, so before I left, I went ahead and made lunch for the four younger kids.

They could eat while he worked, I could do the driving, and nobody needed to stop what they were doing to figure out food.

The kids ate some of the very last of the chuck roast I cooked on Monday.

I realize we’re getting into the territory where some of you are going to raise an eyebrow at me, but here’s something I think is important when I’m keeping cooked meat in the refrigerator for several days:

I only reheat what we’re actually going to eat.

When I made the barbacoa on Wednesday, I pulled out the portion of chuck roast I wanted and left the rest cold in the back of my very cold refrigerator.

I’m not heating the entire container, serving some, cooling the rest, heating it again, cooling it again.

Aside from food-safety considerations, I think repeatedly heating and cooling cooked protein also really hurts the texture and quality. So I portion out what I need and leave everything else cold until I’m ready to use it.

When I got back home, I made lunch for myself and Chris, and we took the even easier route:

leftover chicken stir-fry from last night.

And it was still so good.

Pizza Delivery, Courtesy of Grandma

Then my mom texted me because she was heading to Costco.

“Can I drop off a pizza for a snack?”

Um, yes.

So the kids got Costco pizza for their afternoon snack.

Grandmas are great like that.

My mom also dropped off some clothes she found on discount and of course the little girls had to try them on immediately…it’s back to being SUPER hot here, so we’ll be saving these for some cooler temps!

One Costco Sausage Pack, Two Dinners

For dinner tonight, I used the mild Italian sausage I bought at Costco earlier this week.

And I actually dealt with the entire package at once.

I know I’m never going to serve these as whole sausage links, so why freeze them that way?

I sliced every link into about eight pieces.

Half went onto tonight’s sheet pan.

The other half went straight into a freezer bag already sliced and ready to use.

That’s one tiny thing that makes freezer food so much more useful to me. I’m not just freezing an ingredient. Whenever possible, I’m freezing it in the form Future Me is actually going to want.

I’m guessing those sausages will eventually become a sausage-and-kale soup this fall.

Or I’ll make this exact dinner again.

Sheet-Pan Italian Sausage & Peppers

For tonight’s dinner, I put together:

• Mild Italian sausage, sliced
• Bell peppers
• Onion
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Italian seasoning

Toss everything together on a sheet pan and roast until the sausage is cooked and everything gets those delicious browned edges.

At the same time, I had another pan of potatoes roasting in the oven.

I like to let the potatoes roast for a while and then smash them partway through cooking. You’re basically creating more surface area so you get all those crispy little edges.

Toss everything around as needed and let the oven do the work. I also made my ‘end of summer salad formula’…I basically make a homemade vinaigrette (olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, dijon mustard, honey, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning) then toss in any random fresh veggies I have in my fridge. Tonight I used tomatoes, carrots, one ear of corn from the other night, carrots, cucumber, onion, and a little sweet pepper. I forgot to get a pic before everyone took their portion….but here’s what was left….

We added some fresh peaches, and dinner was done.

A Genuine Unicorn Dinner

This is what I call a unicorn dinner.

Everyone in my family likes it.

All seven people.

Do two of my kids object to the fact that the sausage has technically touched the peppers and onions?

Yes.

But here’s my highly sophisticated solution:

I pull the pieces of sausage off the sheet pan and put them on their plates.

They cannot tell the sausage has touched a vegetable.

I give them some fresh carrots on the side.

Problem solved.

Everyone is eating the same sausage, potatoes and fruit. Some of us get the delicious roasted peppers and onions. Some of us get raw carrots.

Nobody needed a second dinner.

And perhaps the best part is that there’s already another batch of sliced sausage sitting in my freezer, waiting for Future Me. At the end of the night I cut up part of a watermelon and it was pretty good! I keep buying them thinking..this will probably be the last one of the season, but then it ends up being a good one so I buy more the following week at Costco.