Some decisions are easy.
Like this morning. When my new-to-us old car wouldn't start. And Adam wasn't here. And I'm a feminist and all but not a mechanic. And it wouldn't even tick over.
Call my Dad? Of course I called my Dad. Who drove over (he can drive over! I LOVE living here!) and jump started it, and graciously said he and Mum hadn't shut their rear door properly before and run the battery flat many times too.
He even followed me to the school (we now know what the late procedure is) and stayed with the car so I didn't have to turn it off. Thanks Dad. Legend.
Another easy decision: send Tilly to preschool today with a shocker cough and dramatic ear infection? Ah, no. Not even if I'm feeling crook myself. Stay home and think up crazy crafts instead. Accompanied by lots of camomile.
Give the baby a dreadful plastic snake to play with? Will it amuse her? Yep.
Will I keep glancing at it out of the corner of my eye and jumping? Yep.
Will I at one point actually shriek when Tilly moves it and leaves it under the clothesline? (Even though it's bright green and fake looking?) Yep.
By late this afternoon camomile wasn't the beverage I was wishing it was.
And I was pretty happy with a little list I'd drawn up last week to take some of the night by night decision making out of dinner. There was a time I loved looking at the the fridge at 6.30pm at night and throwing together imaginative creations. I can barely remember it.
I now have this list:
Mon – salad
Tue – soup
Wed – egg based or bean based
Thu – Pasta or rice based
Fri – Slow-cooked (+ dessert)
Sat – Pizza & movie night
Sun – Roast (+ make stock)
I just get sick of thinking up balanced menu plans and this takes some of the guess work out. Using whatever's fresh and whatever's in the pantry, it just means I can cycle warm & cold salads, our favourite four or so soups, a frittata or quiche or a bean nachos or whatever on a Wednesday, maybe risotto or pasta bake or vegie fried rice on a Thursday.
On Fridays Tilly is at preschool so I can put something on at lunchtime. Saturday night's been homemade pizza at our place for a couple of years now, and the Sunday night roast and making stock straight after worked really well. I used leftover meat in the salad on Monday, and the stock was the base of the pumpkin soup on Tuesday and a vegetable risotto on Thursday.
So it was soup night tonight.
I had a jar of green split peas in the pantry and a few rashers of bacon left over from the weekend. Given my state of mind, I didn't think to soak the peas over night. I'd heard you could simmer them for five minutes then soak for an hour to the same effect. Tried it. Worked.
Green split pea and bacon soup
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups of green split peas (ideally soaked overnight or as above)
2 medium brown onions, sliced
2 carrots, peeled, sliced
3 potatoes, peeled, sliced
3 rashers of bacon, chopped
1.5 litres chicken stock
seasoning
METHOD:
Cook the onion in a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Add a pinch of salt to help it sweat. Throw in the bacon and cook. Add the other vegetables and the soaked peas and cover with the chicken stock. Cook for approx 30 mins or until the peas collapse and are soft and the vegies are cooked well. Blend with a stick blender or in a food processor. Season to taste.
With some bread or not. Wouldn't it be awesome if that was the hardest decision you made today.
Hope your week is going swimmingly, and thanks for stopping by!
xxx