Lack of planning

Sometimes I go to the idea cupboard and it is bare. Last night was a good example. With a hungry husband at my elbow, I rooted around and found a few staples in the freezer and pantry and came up with a meal that sated our hunger but would inspire no one. Frozen chicken breasts, frozen baby brussel sprouts and baby yukon gold potatoes. On another day I might have found a new chicken recipe or grilled the chicken, and added some fresh herbs to the potatoes, but on this day, I had little left to give, so I breaded the chicken with my old stand-by, Krusteaz, and threw it in the oven, added a little butter and balsamic and zapped the sprouts, and dropped the potatoes in a pot of boiling water. The outcome certainly wasn't a particularly pretty meal, or one that left us making sounds of pleasure, but the meal was a good example of what happens in many households at the end of a long day. It is likely that different circumstances of the day might have led to a different result, but I had a long, full day working on my thesis, and didn't have much brain power left to come up with something more interesting. There are a few hardy herbs still growing in my backdoor garden, along with a few tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse, so I will attempt to make good use of them over the next few days. My lovely eldest daughter and I were discussing the problem of "meal inspiration" today and agreed that sometimes meals get thrown together in the "5 o'clock" panic! She had the good idea of setting up a meal plan for a week or a month, thereby making life a bit easier when 5 o'clock rolls around, like it just keeps doing. Of course, with a new baby in the house, she has all the more reason to stay organized and on top of things.