It's That Simple

Superman is stressin me out. Love him, but between 5 and 7 every night you can find us having the SAME fight over and over again. EAT. YOUR. DINNER. Then the night ends yet again with doors slamming, toys being thrown against the wall, and bed yet again with no dinner and just a banana. I'm mean. To no avail I've tried sticker charts and cookie rewards and clapping and cheering like an idiot.

When I had him, I was only 20. I didn't really know what I was doing and I didn't know many people with kids (ok I'm making excuses for myself... whether you are 20 or 40 that first kid always throws you for a loop). Kids eat kid food right? I spent too many years giving him options and making two meals. I thought to myself, oh I will break this habit when he is 5 and understands me better. Little did I know its a lot easier to break the will of 2 year old then it is a 5 year old (this 5 year old, anyway).

I don't expect him to eat every meal. I'm not going to dumb down the foods that we like every single night just because we have kids. Go ahead and call me selfish but I'm way too much of a food lover for that. A few nights a week I make sure to meet him in the middle with our meals, but If I'm in the mood for spicy Indian, I'm making it. And if two out of three kids will eat it then that's not bad. Batman's been grubbin Indian since before he could walk and he still loves it. If you don't want to try spicy Indian food, Superman, I'll give you that. But when I make LASAGNA or BAKED MAC N CHEESE or CHICKEN for goodness sake, you gotta eat it. It's that simple.

So here's why I'm down with this meal... everyone's eating it. Furthermore, its DELICIOUS. Furthermore, its EASY. Furthermore, its HEALTHY. Furthermore, there were no doors slamming in my face last night. And furthermore it's going to be stretched into two nights of meals!!

Thanks to my longtime friend, running pal, and bride-to-be Ms Jackie Gray for this simple yet fabulous idea!

Crockpot Chicken

1 whole chicken
1 onion (I usually add carrots and potatoes too!)
2 tbl thyme
salt and pepper
2 cups water
(optional, 2 tablespoons flour to thicken the broth after you take out the chicken)


Just put the bird in there and rub some of the seasonings on there. If you're really cool and you feel like it, you can rub it under the skin. I didn't.

Cut some onions - I wanted to try out my new veggie wedger. Its fun.

Throw any veggies in there with the 2 cups of water.

Then cover and let it go on Low for 8 to 9 hours! It's that simple!!

annnnd 8 hours later...

I threw the onions on tpo of the mixed greens. I just sauteed a bag of Southern greens (kale, mustard greens and collard greens) with a splash of veggie broth, a little olive oil and garlic. And if you're wondering, Superman definitely did not even go CLOSE to this. In fact he asked me if I could eat it somewhere else because it smelled bad.

I'm not going to lie I was a little scared about how to go about taking the chicken apart.

It took me like 20 minutes before I realized I had to flip the bird over to get to the breast part.

Yum.

Leftover chicken and homemade stock for tonight's dinner... chicken pot pie! My first ever. I usually let Marie Calendar take care of that for me. I will post it if its any good!

** Update -After pulling apart chicken, I like to whisk in about 2 tablespoons flour to the broth and veggies, and let it sit for about 10 minutes, and then add the pulled apart chicken back in the crock pot.  For the second night’s dinner, I use frozen puff pastry in a pie dish, then add the leftover chicken, carrots, potatoes, onions, and thickened sauce, with a handful of frozen peas throw in there.  Bake in a 350 oven for 40 minutes.