Tuesday: Chick-fil-A Surprise, Basement Progress, and an Easy Ham Dinner
This morning we finished off the very last of the bacon I had prepped a few days ago. The kids had Costco bagels, and of course Daphne helped me make our morning smoothies and ate some of the frozen Costco chicken sausage.
Before it got too hot outside, everyone wanted to enjoy our newly paved cul-de-sac. The fresh pavement is so smooth that the kids spent some time rollerblading and riding bikes before we came in to start a full morning of school.
Tuesday mornings during the summer are violin lesson mornings for my 11-year-old, and my sweet mom took her today. Even better, she surprised everyone by bringing home Chick-fil-A for lunch.
The kids were thrilled.
Lunch
The kids all enjoyed their Chick-fil-A.
I made myself one of my favorite lunches lately using the grilled chicken from yesterday.
I sliced it up and gently reheated it in a skillet with a little barbecue sauce, then piled it onto a big salad.
Instead of a traditional vinaigrette, I used the dressing I’ve been making all summer:
- Avocado salsa
- Fresh salsa
- Rice wine vinegar
- Garlic powder
- Honey
- Salt and pepper
I honestly think this dressing has completely changed how I make salads.
I used to assume every good salad dressing needed a decent amount of olive oil. I still love olive oil, but sometimes I just want something lighter that’s packed with flavor, and this has become my new favorite. I may need to make a reel about it because it’s just so simple and so good.
Afternoon
This afternoon my 13-year-old and my almost-four-year-old teamed up to make the homemade ice cream for our Chip Wheelies.
We use the vanilla ice cream recipe from Our Best Bites . It’s a classic base made with heavy cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt.
The ice cream comes out of the machine with a soft-serve consistency, so we transferred it to the freezer to firm up before assembling the cookie sandwiches tomorrow.
The rest of the afternoon was spent tackling a much less exciting project…
The basement.
I’ve wanted to organize it for a long time, and honestly, it had just become the place where everything ended up. I know many of you can sympathize…and understand how a basement….especially with kids…is where STUFF just goes to die!
I’d really love to make it into a space the kids actually enjoy using, especially during these hot summer afternoons and throughout the winter.
We still have a long way to go, but we made a lot of progress today, and it feels good to finally get started.
Dinner
Dinner was intentionally simple.
I warmed one of the Costco Carver hams by slicing it and quickly pan-searing it. I get a little fat warm on medium low heat, add the slices of ham, then cover with the lid…it takes about 10 minutes to heat through.
On the side we had:
- Bunny pasta (literally pasta in the shape of cute bunnies!)
- My viral roasted carrots
- Peas
- Garlic bread made from the leftover hamburger buns from the weekend
It came together quickly, everyone ate well, and it was exactly the kind of easy dinner I wanted after a busy day.
Tomorrow we’ll finally put together those homemade Chip Wheelies, and I have a feeling they’re going to disappear pretty quickly.