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What to have for dinner? OK complete transparency here, it’s rough going back after two weeks off of school! Is there anything in the house to take for lunch on Monday morning? Is there a chance that I got up early enough to remember to take something out of the freezer for dinner? Is the laundry done, so I have something to wear? How about the kids are they ready to go, backpacks packed, stuff for lunch, and clothes washed? Ugh!
I saw this quote awhile back and it seems to fit after a long day. “Maybe it’s just time to go down the rabbit hole, smother myself to sleep and wake up to crazy tomorrow!” Oh no that’s right, I have to get dinner after a long day with preschoolers.
A little “squirrel “ moment here to explain. We had to pack up our classroom and start moving everything out before break. We were then given the very last day without students to unpack the new room. On top of it being only a few days before Christmas nothing in my house was decorated or presents wrapped or even most of them bought yet. I planned on 15+ people coming for Christmas brunch at the last minute and I still had a very untidy house!
If you’ve never packed a preschool classroom let me just give you an idea of the magnitude by telling you there were over 75 boxes, 1/3 of a 30 x 30 room stacked with furniture and so much chaos. Well it probably didn’t help that the day the movers were coming we had a gingerbread house party and performed Christmas songs for parents!
So unpacking in only a few hours Friday before Christmas was definitely not even a dent in what we had to do to be ready for the kids to come back after a two week break. So we were given one more day, if we chose to come in after Christmas. It still was definitely not enough. Moving the furniture around deciding where everything goes in a different room and boxes to unpack and sort through.
OK, let me just say I am very blessed to have a new classroom, so don’t get me wrong! I think it’s just the timing that really wore me out. So two days before we’re heading back in January I hurt my back and I am in a lot of pain, going back to our classroom that is still not completely unpacked and organized, not having anything out or prepared for small groups or much of anything! So yes, it was a little stressful getting up today. (* my 11-year-old has had stomach issues, with low abdomen pain, and missed quite a bit of school before break. Which meant doctor visits specialists, lots of tests, and quite a bit of stress on my end as well as hers! So all this is going on while we’re packing to move, while we’re getting a new classroom, and trying to do a performance for parents for Christmas. And then I plan on having a fairly large family get-together on Christmas. That’s new for us since most people usually do their own thing on Christmas. We have just started that tradition this year. I felt I needed to decorate my house, because that’s just the way I am and it looked pretty boring. I wrapped my pictures on the wall, my kitchen cupboards and made two fake fireplaces in my house. Thanks to my mom and sister I got it all done pretty
Now having said all of that, what’s for dinner on the first day back to school? I did have my wits about me before leaving at 6:20am, even though my 11-year-old had not slept all night and was complaining about going to school. I took pork chops out of the freezer and on my way home from work thought it would be a great idea to roast some vegetables. Yum!
If you’ve never tried roasting vegetables you really must give it a try. Each type of vegetable has the ideal roasting time. Once you have that down you just start cutting up vegetables and the vegetable that’s going to take the longest you put in first. It’s best to put it on a dark nonstick pan, or I use a dark nonstick sheet on my copper pans. Sprinkle it with a little oil and some garlic salt. You can and parsley, although my garlic salt has it in already as you can see in the picture. Go ahead and put Italian seasoning and whatever else you like on it and roast at the appropriate time, adding each vegetable to try and have it all finished at about the same time. It sounds more complicated than it is, trust me you’ll get this and you’ll be so glad you did. The first time I roasted vegetables the broccoli was very crispy and the bell peppers were too mushy. But I didn’t give up. Don’t forget before you take it out of the oven to sprinkle it with Parmesan cheese and let it roast another five minutes because it is so worth it! I promise you, it’s a hit!
My research shows the following roasting times:
So what happened to my pork chops? Well I have the best husband in the world because he saw how tired I was and said, “hey let’s grill out the pork chops tomorrow and I’ll go grab something to eat”. Nothing like an Arby’s sandwich with roasted vegetables! He’s awesome! And the roasted vegetables, Yep, yummy!!
Try it and share your result. Did you try some different seasonings? What do you think of the Parmesan?
