Wednesday: Crispy Leftover Steak, Co-op Lunch Prep & Dijon Grilled Chicken

Got up this morning and finished off the last of the bacon, along with bagels and cereal.

My teen made herself one of her smoothie concoctions. She’s always experimenting with whatever we happen to have around, and today she spotted the apple cider we bought at Blooms and Berries over the weekend.

She threw some into her smoothie and declared it the best smoothie she’s made in a long time.

So there’s your fall smoothie tip: add apple cider.

Why not?

Then we got to work on school.

My Weekly Free Steak

For lunch, I had one of my favorite kinds of leftovers: steak from my parents’ house.

I’ve joked before that I basically get free steak every week because my parents often make steak for Sunday dinner and then send the leftovers home with us.

And I am always happy to accept.

My favorite way to reheat already-cooked steak is fast and hot.

I dice the cold steak into relatively small pieces.

Get a pan screaming hot.

Add a little fat—bacon grease or butter is great.

Then toss in the steak and quickly sear it just until the edges get crispy and everything is warmed through.

The steak is already cooked. I’m not trying to cook the middle again. I just want those browned, crispy edges.

Today I put that out with the last little bit of Chick-fil-A fries from yesterday, some leftover homemade pretzels, a little pasta that was still hanging around in the refrigerator, plus fruit and vegetables.

Basically a choose-your-own-adventure lunch platter.

I made myself a salad and added some of the crispy steak.

And we cleared out a whole lot of little leftovers in the process.

When Did Dollar Tree Become $7 Tree?

We went to an appointment right after lunch and on the way home, we stopped at Dollar Tree because next week is Project Day at our co-op and I needed tri-fold presentation boards.

Dollar Tree is usually my go-to for things like poster board, plus we needed some letter stickers and other little project supplies.

Except…

There are $7 things at Dollar Tree now?

Not just one random item, either.

There was a significant amount of stuff well above $1.25.

I apparently have not been paying attention to what is happening at Dollar Tree.

We did get our tri-fold boards and project supplies, but I walked out significantly less convinced that everything there is a bargain.

The Trick to Getting Co-op Lunches Done

Normally I like to assemble Thursday’s co-op lunches while I’m already making Wednesday lunch.

Today, with the appointment, I knew I wasn’t going to have time.

But I could still do part of the job.

While I was cutting fruit and vegetables for lunch, I simply cut extra and put all of it onto a plate in the refrigerator.

That took almost no additional time.

Then when we got home this afternoon, I pulled out everyone’s PlanetBoxes and divided everything up.

Fruit and vegetables: done.

Then I filled in the rest of each lunch.

For my teen, I even pre-built part of her sandwich.

Bread.

Cheese.

Pepperoni.

Then I stopped because the grilled chicken wasn’t cooked yet.

The whole PlanetBox went into the refrigerator, and I’d finish it after dinner.

You don’t always have to complete the entire job at once.

Sometimes doing 70 percent of it when you have five minutes makes the remaining 30 percent incredibly easy later.

And Of Course I Made the Wednesday Pizza

I also made our weekly Costco frozen pizza for tomorrow.

This particular pizza came out of the package looking a little stingy with the cheese, so I added some.

Problem solved.

I baked it, let it cool and cut it into 12 slices.

Then every slice went into its own little bag.

Yes, I know that’s a lot of baggies.

But this system works so well for us that I keep doing it.

Thursday is a long day, and we have a long drive home from co-op. I bring extra fruit, vegetables and bars too, but the cold pizza is the snack my kids consistently want.

I can hand somebody a bagged slice in the afternoon or on the drive home without plates, utensils or reheating anything.

Sometimes Daphne even eats one shortly after we arrive in the morning if she’s hungry again.

Cold pizza at 9 a.m.?

It’s food.

She’s happy.

I’m happy.

I also had a little afternoon snack….ham, mustard, and spring mix roll up…simple and filling!

Dijon Chicken and Crispy Smashed Potatoes

For dinner, I finally got to the chicken breasts we bought at Costco.

I did my usual Dijon marinade with olive oil, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, garlic powder, plenty of smoked paprika and Italian seasoning.

Then I grilled the chicken.

For our starch, I made roasted potatoes.

I cut the potatoes, tossed them with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder and spread them on a sheet pan.

I set my convection oven to 400°F and roasted them for about 15 minutes.

Then I pulled out the pan and smashed each potato with the back of a metal measuring cup.

That’s the important part.

Smashing them creates all those craggy little edges and increases the surface area touching the pan.

Back into the oven they go until those edges are browned and crispy.

So much better than just roasting them and leaving them alone.

If the Oven Is On, Fill It

Since I already had the oven running, I made another sheet pan of vegetables.

Broccoli.

Cauliflower.

Peppers.

Onions.

Olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Into the oven.

And that was dinner: grilled Dijon chicken, crispy smashed potatoes and roasted vegetables.

Nothing complicated, but exactly the kind of dinner everyone likes.

And Tomorrow Is Already Mostly Handled

Before I cleaned up, I packed the same dinner for Chris’s lunch tomorrow.

Then I pulled my teen’s PlanetBox back out of the refrigerator.

Remember that partially assembled sandwich?

Now I added the fresh grilled chicken, mayo and lettuce.

Done.

All the co-op lunches are ready.

The pizza is baked, sliced and individually bagged.

Fruit and vegetables are packed.

Chris’s lunch is packed.

And I even cooked a batch of breakfast sausage today, so that’s restocked too.

The only thing I did not accomplish was bacon.

And I fear my children may consider arriving at co-op without bacon in their stomachs a violation of their basic rights.

So tomorrow morning, after I shower and before everyone gets up, I’ll throw a couple of trays in the oven.

Then tomorrow night?

Maybe leftovers.

Maybe tacos.

We’ll see what everybody—and the refrigerator—looks like after co-op.