Monday: Beating the Heat (and Letting the Air Fryer Do the Work)
Today was one of those really hot summer days where the goal was simple: don’t turn on the oven unless absolutely necessary.
Breakfast
The kids finished off the last of the bacon from the weekend.
My 11-year-old is still completely committed to her current favorite breakfast: leftover pasta, bacon, and cooked pork breakfast sausage. Honestly, I can’t complain. It’s protein, carbs, and fat, and she happily makes it herself.
My 13-year-old has been on a mini bagel kick lately, so he finished off the last of the Walmart mini bagels.
And of course, Daphne and I made our morning smoothie together.
She’s currently in a phase where every smoothie absolutely must have sprinkles on top. The funny part is she loves the idea of sprinkles much more than actually eating them. She always leaves the top inch of the smoothie because she decides she doesn’t like the crunch. Toddler logic.
Before it got too hot outside, Daphne and I also picked raspberries from the garden. Every morning now she insists on checking the raspberry bushes. Most of the berries make it straight into her mouth, although a few actually make it inside for the rest of us.
While we were out there, I watered everything because we’re headed into a stretch of temperatures in the upper 90s.
Morning
We had a lighter homeschool morning because several of the kids also had piano lessons.
Lunch
This week the air fryer officially earned permanent counter space.
With temperatures climbing, I’ve been trying really hard not to turn on the oven during the middle of the day. Lunch was the perfect example.
I cooked one package of the Teton Waters Ranch Polish sausage in the air fryer at 375°F for about 7 minutes until everything was heated through.
Once those came out, I tossed in some leftover soft pretzel bites that my parents had sent home yesterday. Those only needed about 3 minutes in the air fryer.
Lunch ended up being:
- Teton Polish sausage
- Warm pretzel bites
- Fresh vegetables
- Fruit
I also made myself a taco platter using the leftover taco meat along with some roasted potatoes that came home from my parents’ house yesterday.
Pool Afternoon
We headed to the pool for the afternoon and kept snacks simple with chips and a few other easy things.
After-Pool Snack
When we got home, I made one of the kids’ favorites.
I simply butter a skillet, add:
- one tortilla
- mozzarella cheese
- pepperoni
- a little more mozzarella
- another tortilla
Butter the outside, cook until golden on both sides, then slice into triangles.
They’re quick, inexpensive, and always disappear.
The kids took them downstairs to eat inside the fort they’d built under the basement stairs. They even dug out our old portable DVD player from years ago and were watching movies on scratched DVDs.
I laughed because the DVDs kept skipping, and I realized my kids were getting a tiny glimpse of what my childhood felt like.
Dinner
Dinner ended up looking very different than I expected.
My husband and my oldest daughter were both gone.
Then two of my kiddos went to my parents’ house to practice their instruments, and my mom offered to keep them for dinner.
So suddenly it was just me, my 13-year-old, and 3 year old.
That made dinner incredibly easy.
I popped frozen chicken nuggets into the air fryer, served them with fresh vegetables, fruit, chips, pretzels, and hummus.
Meanwhile, I made myself a taco salad.
Tomorrow I do plan to do a little prep work for a mom’s night I’m hosting on Wednesday evening. I want to serve some fun treats/snacks and I don’t want to stress about it on Wednesday afternoon.