Tuesday: Pizza-in-a-Shell Lunch, Trip-Prep Chicken & Focaccia Pizza

Got up this morning and we had a little bit of everything for breakfast.

We still had bacon from yesterday, plus Costco bagels, cereal, oatmeal—the usual assortment. Daphne made a smoothie:

Eleanor also used her new bowl/plate for some breakfast potatoes/bacon

And then we got straight to work because today needed to be a serious school day.

We’re leaving for St. Louis tomorrow, and some of the kids are still going to co-op on Thursday, so there was a lot to get done before I could mentally switch over into trip mode.

Pizza in a Jumbo Pasta Shell

For lunch, I brought back one of my kids’ favorite lunches that I haven’t made in a while.

Jumbo shell pasta.

The concept is ridiculously simple: basically pizza toppings stuffed into a giant pasta shell.

First, cook a pot of jumbo shells.

And every time I cook these, I remind myself that I really need to stand there and stir them more.

Do I?

No.

So inevitably some stick to the bottom, and by the end I’d say approximately one-fourth of my jumbo shells are no longer jumbo shells.

They’re…pasta pieces.

We do the best we can.

For the ones that survive, I put out all the fillings:

• Pepperoni
• Cooked sausage
• Parmesan
• Olives
• Marinara or pizza sauce

Then the kids take a shell, stuff whatever they want inside and eat it almost like a little pasta taco.

They LOVE this lunch.

I added fruit and vegetables, and everybody was happy.

For myself, I went even easier and turned last night’s burger-bowl leftovers into a salad.

The Teriyaki Summer Sausage Is Ready for St. Louis

This afternoon I cooked the teriyaki summer sausage I made yesterday.

This batch has a specific assignment:

Travel food.

I’m going to slice it up and put it into the cooler so Chris and I have an easy protein snack in the car and at the hotel.

Of course, before I could pack it away, the kids needed to sample it fresh out of the oven.

My 13-year-old especially loves this stuff when it’s still warm.

Apparently homemade summer sausage straight from the oven is now a delicacy around here.

Tonight I Cooked for Friday

Dinner prep tonight was doing several jobs at once.

First, I had a package of Costco chicken breasts that needed to be cooked.

I did my standard Dijon grilled chicken with Dijon, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika and Italian seasoning and grilled the whole batch.

We’re going to use some of that chicken for sandwiches and food for our trip.

Some will help with the kids’ co-op lunches.

And then the rest is going into the back of the refrigerator for Friday night’s dinner.

This is my rolling three-day system at work.

I’m cooking it Tuesday night. When we get home Friday I won’t have to start dinner from scratch after traveling.

I’ll already have cooked chicken waiting for us.

That is exactly the kind of favor I like to do for Future Me.

And Then I Made a Giant Focaccia Pizza

Because apparently grilling an entire package of chicken while getting ready to leave town wasn’t enough, I also made a half-sheet-pan focaccia pizza.

Partly because I wanted to film it.

But also because my kids love it, and it makes a ton of food.

So tonight we had fresh focaccia pizza with side salads.

And people ask me all the time what I eat when I make something like pizza that I can’t eat.

Tonight’s answer was particularly good.

Apple Pecan Chicken Salad

I started with the same basic salad everyone else was eating and added:

Grilled chicken.

Fresh apple.

Some of the candied nuts I made yesterday.

Then I topped the whole thing with my homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

It was basically an apple-pecan chicken salad, and it was delicious.

This is another reason I love having components around instead of thinking every person at the table has to eat exactly the same plate.

The kids got focaccia pizza.

I got a giant salad I genuinely wanted to eat.

Half the Pizza Is Going to Grandma’s

And the focaccia pizza is doing another job too.

There’s still about half a pizza left.

That’s going over to my parents’ house with the kids.

They can reheat pieces for lunch, an afternoon snack, after co-op—whatever they need while we’re gone.

It’s one more thing my parents don’t have to think about while they’re taking care of everyone.

So today’s cooking managed to cover:

Dinner tonight.

My dinner tonight.

Travel sandwiches.

Travel snacks.

Co-op lunches.

Food for the kids at my parents’ house.

And our dinner when we get home Friday.

This is exactly why I don’t mind making big batches when I’m already in the kitchen.

And Now I Have to Pack

The teriyaki summer sausage is cooked.

The grilled chicken is done.

The focaccia pizza is ready to go to my parents’ house.

The kids have food.

Friday’s protein is already cooked.

And tomorrow Chris and I leave for St. Louis for the Fulton Sheen beatification.

Which still feels slightly surreal to say.

But before any of that can happen, I have to actually pack a suitcase.

So that’s where I’m headed.