Current Protein Status
Used up today:
- Remaining taco meat
- Remaining grilled chicken thighs
Still available:
- Large batch of burgers from Sunday
- Small amount of leftover flank steak
- Breakfast sausage in the freezer/fridge
Chick-fil-A Tuesday
This morning started with a pretty standard breakfast.
We finished off the last of the bacon, made smoothies, and had cereal.
My parents had taken some of the kids to Chick-fil-A, and apparently all the chicken had disappeared from the breakfast biscuits while the biscuits themselves survived. So we warmed up the leftover biscuits and served those alongside breakfast.
Not exactly how Chick-fil-A intended them to be eaten, but they got eaten. One thing you have to know about me…I will ALWAYS take home leftovers and find a way to use them up!
My teen also made herself a batch of oatmeal with some of those white nectarines. I know many people like overnight oats, but we like oatmeal freshly cooked with a bit of crunch still.
Violin Lessons & Surprise Lunch
Today was violin lesson day.
My mom very generously offered to stop at Chick-fil-A on the way home after taking my daughter to her lesson, which made lunch incredibly easy.
The kids were thrilled.
Everyone got Chick-fil-A for lunch, and my teen took her chicken strips and turned them into a wrap by adding:
- shredded cheese
- ranch
- lettuce
- onion
- tortilla
Which is exactly the kind of thing I love seeing teens do—take a basic ingredient and turn it into something even better!
Meanwhile, I made one of my favorite bowl lunches…that NO ONE ELSE likes in my family.
Roasted sweet potatoes, cannellini beans, grilled chicken, purple onions, a little lettuce, carrots, 2 big scoops of avocado salsa, and a little bit of fresh salsa. I LOVE IT, but my husband thinks it’s very odd.
Afternoon Snacks
Yesterday one of my kiddos helped me make Jell-O, so we pulled that out this afternoon.
Snack lineup included:
- Jell-O
- popcorn
And then Daphne informed everyone she was starving.
Naturally, after announcing her starvation, she wandered around happily eating a carrot stick that she referred to as her “Olaf carrot.”
Apparently carrots taste better when they’re shaped like a snowman nose.
Dinner: The Great Refrigerator Clean-Out
Tonight’s dinner was one of those meals that looks slightly chaotic while you’re making it but somehow works beautifully once it’s on the table.
My goal was simple:
Use up the grilled chicken thighs before they got any older.
The problem was that I didn’t have enough chicken thighs left to feed everyone.
So I supplemented.
Protein #1: Chicken Thighs
The remaining grilled chicken thighs from Saturday were sliced thin and reheated in a skillet with a little bacon grease.
One thing I’ve learned:
Chicken thighs are incredibly forgiving.
You can pan-sear them, reheat them, crisp them up, and they stay tender.
Chicken breasts are much less forgiving. Those need moisture.
If you’re reheating chicken breast, I almost always recommend:
- broth
- salsa
- sauce
- or some other liquid
plus a lid.
Otherwise they dry out quickly.
Protein #2: Teton Polish Sausage
I opened one package of the Teton Waters Polish sausage.
Each link got cut into roughly eight pieces and roasted on a parchment-lined sheet pan.
Easy and always popular.
Side Dishes
This dinner was really a collection of refrigerator odds and ends.
Roasted Potatoes
I reheated the leftover potatoes from Sunday dinner at my parents’ house.
Annie’s Mac & Cheese
I realized I didn’t quite have enough potatoes for everyone, so I made a box of Annie’s mac and cheese.
Salads
My husband and I had larger salads topped with chicken.
Some of the kids had smaller side salads.
Produce
We also had:
- cut vegetables
- blueberries from Costco
The blueberries have been especially good lately.
Why Meals Like This Matter
Meals like tonight are a good reminder that dinner doesn’t always have to be a perfectly themed meal.
Sometimes dinner is:
- one leftover protein
- one fresh protein
- one leftover side
- one convenience side
- vegetables
- fruit
And that’s enough.
The goal is feeding people well and using food before it goes bad.
Tonight did both.
Also, I knew we were going to do haircuts after dinner, so I wanted something that was quick to clean up!
Daphne wanted a ‘style’ after her haircut!
Looking Ahead
Proteins currently available:
- Burgers (large quantity)
- Small amount of leftover flank steak
- Breakfast sausage
Tomorrow’s lunch will definitely be burgers. My teens will both eat 2 each. We sometimes make crispy cheesy burger wraps with the leftover burgers..so maybe tomorrow!
For dinner tomorrow night I’ll definitely be pulling some dinner insurance out of the freezer. I’m thinking about a loaf pan chicken that I froze several weeks ago.