How to Do a Two-fer

Wow, that was awesome!

Thanks for the outpouring of support on yesterday's blog. One friend wrote that it made her feel like a "bad mom" until she got to the end, where I advocate flinging an apple and some peanut butter into a bag and shoving it at the child rushing out the door. Mind you, this woman is an amazing artist, but I am willing to bet that, because she is a real artist who takes chances, she may have created one or two things that made her go, "Wait, what was I thinking?" It's all part of the learning curve and the exploration process, although in the case of art, no one has to actually eat your failures or try to explain them to fellow diners. In cooking as in art (and mothering), the best way to learn is to do it. So as a follow-up to yesterday's post, here is one way to make lunch and dinner simultaneously:

Say you decide to make chicken with boiled potatoes, corn and green salad for dinner. Here is your Lunch Thought Bubble:

"Potatoes make good salad, and hey, there's one limp carrot and a stump of celery in the fridge. Perfect! For two kids, I'll cook a couple extra potatoes and that golden beet that's been in the crisper drawer. I could also pack an ear of boiled corn; potato salad plus corn would be a pretty filling lunch. Hmm, what for a vegetable? We're having green salad; kids won't want that. I know, I'll put a piece of broccoli in with the potatoes at the last minute to steam. Protein? If only my kids liked cold chicken...Oh well, I can just boil a couple eggs."

That whole thought process took about one minute, plus rummaging the fridge for the limp carrot and the celery stump. If your brain is tired, you can boil the eggs while dinner is cooking and then do lunch after dinner is over. Sometimes I get the kids to empty the dishwasher and wipe all the surfaces while I make lunches, then I do the wash-up afterwards. It would take 15 or 20 minutes for a tired me to make potato salad, deviled eggs and steamed broccoli.

On the other hand, you might just want to shoot the moon and do it all at once. Ready? Go!

Presumably your chicken is already roasting away in the oven. Put a couple eggs into the pot for the corn; while the corn water comes to a boil, chop up the carrot and celery and put them in a bowl for the potato salad. If you have something green like minced chives or parsley, that would be nice, too. (If you want lunch to be super pretty, instead of sending boiled corn, you could cut the kernels off the raw cob and put them into the potato salad. With the orange carrot and the green chives, it would look like confetti. If that's your choice, do it now.)

About 15 minutes before the chicken is done, put the small red potatoes into the pressure cooker; bring it up to pressure and cook them for 5 minutes. In the meantime, your corn water boiled and the eggs cooked 7 minutes; fish them out and add the corn. While the corn cooks and the potatoes finish, peel the eggs and devil them. Put them into whatever bento you are using. When the potatoes are done and the pressure is released, put the cut-up broccoli into the turned off pan on top of the spuds, put the lid back on and let it steam for three to five minutes in the residual heat. Pull the chicken out to rest and make the green salad. Dinner is ready.

While your family is making their way to the table, put the broccoli and the lunch corn in the bentos with the eggs to cool, and hide the lunch potatoes and the golden beet--not in the fridge, though, because the salad will come out better if the potato is somewhat warm. Enjoy your dinner knowing that lunch is all prepped.

While your family clears the table and the counters, cube the lunch potatoes and beet, mix with the chopped carrot, celery and chives, and season with mayo, salt and just a drip of vinegar, or whatever dressing your family likes. Bottled ranch might be good, or Italian dressing. Take the corn out of the bento boxes and pack the potato salad, the deviled eggs and the broccoli together. It should be nice and snug; if there's wiggle room, add a few cherry tomatoes or grapes or carrot sticks--you get the idea. Wrap the corn in plastic or put it in a small rectangular container; cut it in half, if necessary. A large ear might be enough for two lunches. Put the lids on the bentos and put everything away. That took about 10 minutes, and now lunch is done.

In the morning, put a bento, a corn, a container of cookies and a container of jello into each lunch box. Put the cereal and milk on the table. Hey, there's time to do your makeup and calmly sign all the pieces of paper your kids are bringing to you. No problem, honey. How nice is this?

Lest you think every morning is so blissful, tomorrow I will post a picture of what my kids walked out the door with this morning; not apples and peanut butter (we're out of apples), but definitely a second-string lunch. I was too tired to make lunch last night, so I ended up rushing around in the morning and growling at kids shoving papers under my nose while I was trying to make lunch. Why didn't you show me this last night??? But at least they got a lunch, right? You do what you can and enjoy the relaxing moments when they come.