Zoo Food?

Tonight I'm considering renaming this blog Zoo Food. It's accurate because cooking in this house is like cooking in a zoo of wild animals. Frequently, the oldest and the middle child are screaming, fighting, and hitting each other while the baby is crawling around at my feet fussing. It's insanity at its best. I am a zookeeper trying to throw the steaks out before the lions tear off my arm.

Regardless, here's tonight's offering. Haddock roulades. The stuffing is bread crumbs, Club crackers, Mrs. Dash, garlic powder, lemon juice, and butter. These will be served with steamed broccoli and rice.

Tonight's adventure: Meatloaf and Roasted Potatoes

As usual, I perused the cabinets to gather bits and pieces to be assembled into something that I can call dinner. We were going to have soup and biscuits. But that's in there for emergencies. Sooooo...I kept looking. Ground beef, potatoes...meatloaf and baked potatoes? We've had a lot of baked potatoes lately so I decided to roast the potatoes with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and olive oil instead. (My daughter in particular is not a fan of 'spices' especially onion so I generally use garlic and onion powder instead of the real thing. It's sad but I do want them to eat the food I make.

The meatloaf is ground beef mixed with an egg, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Then I form it into a flat loaf (cooks more quickly). After placing it on the stone, I brush it with some ketchup and worcestershire sauce. I like my meatloaf to have a bit of a glaze on it.

Broccoli or salad would be a great accompaniment but alas we have neither sooo....carrots it is. Such is life in my house. :)

Oh wait...we do have some leftover red leaf romaine so I'll make a simple salad with carrots.

(Picture will come after it's all done cooking.)

Welcome!!!

Hi! I'm April. I am a stay-at-home mom of three busy kids. (Braeden is 7y, Ashlyn is almost 5y, and Finn is 9 months.) I cook because I have to not because I like it. This blog is for moms like me--you know you're out there. Plodding away day after day. Throwing stuff together because your family has to eat.

My repertoire used to be full of processed foods. My husband and I have decided to eat better. Less processed food, more organic food. It required me to dig a little deeper to come up with simple, quick meals.

I often don't plan ahead so cooking for me is often like pulling a rabbit out of the proverbial hat. Tonight's magic trick is chicken lasagna. I went to the freezer and pulled out frozen chicken, started defrosting and 'planning' my meal. I looked through the cupboards and found a partially used package of lasagna noodles and idea started forming. I sauteed the chicken, ground it in the food processor, added some spices, cooked the noodles, and started layering. We didn't have and ricotta so I left that out. It has chicken, lasagna noodles, spices, mozzarella, and parmesan. Off to taste...Mmmm...not bad. Not bad at all. The kids like it too.