Tuesday: Grilled Chicken, Basement Progress & Looking Ahead
This morning I made a fresh batch of bacon for everyone. One of my kiddos requested her favorite breakfast again—a baked potato with butter, garlic salt, and bacon—while everyone else had toast, bacon, and a solid breakfast before we got started with the day. My son wanted a peanut butter smoothie too (frozen banana, Costco greek yogurt, PBFit, heavy cream, and ice)
We had a busy homeschool morning. One kiddo had a reading lesson, another had violin, and my sweet mom once again made everyone’s day by stopping at Chick-fil-A after the violin lesson and bringing lunch home for the kids.
Definitely the easy button for me.
Lunch
The kids all enjoyed Chick-fil-A, and I made myself a big salad with some of the leftover steak from my parents’ house on Sunday night.
There’s still just a little bit of steak left, so I’ll probably use the rest of that tomorrow for lunch. People often ask how I like to reheat steak. I just get a pan super hot, add a little fat, then briefly sear the sliced steak. It’s great on a salad for lunch.
Basement Progress
I helped my younger kids make some jello popsicles. I’ve been doing this for years…it’s fast, and they don’t get all melty in little hands.
This afternoon we spent another big chunk of time working on the basement.
Right now we’re still very much in the purging phase.
Today I tackled our craft area with my 11-year-old. She absolutely loves creating things, and honestly my philosophy has always been:
“Release the craft supplies!”
Let’s use them instead of saving them forever.
But over time, the supplies had just grown into more than we could realistically use, so we spent some time sorting through what was no longer working.
We also cleaned out part of the toy area and donated or discarded things the kids have clearly outgrown.
For now I’m simply trying to get everything we don’t need out of the basement.
Once we’ve done that, my husband and I can really start thinking through the layout and deciding how we want the space to function for our family.
We’re not there yet—but we’re making progress.
For an afternoon snack the kids did some burgers….kind of a heavy snack, but they were hungry, I have the food, why not eat it! I even had a burger on an almond flour tortilla. To reheat the burgers I just pop them in the microwave for 25 seconds. I add 10 extra seconds if a kid wants cheese on top.
Dinner
Even though it was incredibly hot outside, I really wanted to cook the chicken I bought at Costco, so I fired up the grill.
I’ve recently started doing something a little differently with my chicken marinades that has made a huge difference.
Instead of only using olive oil and seasonings, I’ve started adding an emulsifier—in today’s case, Dijon mustard.
Typically, I’d probably use mayonnaise because it works beautifully for helping marinades cling to meat, but with our egg allergies that isn’t an option for us.
Today’s marinade was:
- Olive oil
- Dijon mustard
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic powder
- Smoked paprika
- Italian seasoning
The Dijon helps everything stick to the chicken instead of sliding off into the bag. I don’t know why I didn’t start doing this years ago.
Another tip I always try to follow is getting the chicken pieces as close to the same thickness as possible. If one end is much thicker, I’ll butterfly it or trim pieces so everything cooks more evenly.
As I grill, I keep a thermometer and a lidded container sitting right next to me. As soon as each piece reaches temperature, I transfer it immediately into the container rather than waiting for every piece to finish.
That keeps the thinner pieces from overcooking while the thicker ones catch up.
Dinner was simple:
- Grilled chicken
- Pasta
- Roasted vegetables
- Barbecue sauce and ranch for dipping
- Fresh peaches
- Watermelon
A really solid summer meal.
My favorite bite is a piece of grilled chicken, fresh sliced peach, and a dip of BBQ sauce:
Looking Ahead
Tomorrow’s dinner is already planned.
I’ll be using the chuck roast I cooked yesterday to make barbacoa beef, along with rice and all the toppings for a big taco-style dinner.
I’ll also finish off the last of the leftover steak for lunch.
And as I look ahead using my Three-Day Rule, I realized something that always feels good:
I don’t need to cook another protein for the next few days.