Sunset Chores With Sweet Silly Helper and a Photobombing Orange Mitten....

Instant Kid Friendly Oatmeal

Recipe:
Each Serving, 1/4 cup of Instant Oatmeal
1 Tablespoon of Sugar Spice

Sugar Spice Chocolate: 
2 cups of raw sugar
1/4 cup instant hot chocolate mix
optional, caramel chips

Sugar Spice Cinnamon:
2 cups of raw sugar
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground lemon peel

Then I make as many little packets with the spice and instant oatmeal as I can. I got the little bags in the craft section of target to hold soup seasoning for our rice and bean mixes. They happen to hold just a little more than the instant oatmeal packets you can buy at the store in the cereal isle and they make a full kid size serving, which the store bought ones fall just short of. The price for a giant bag of the oatmeal was $2.50, the spice and sugar I used cost less than $2 too. I have half a bag left and this made 25 packets and three test servings.

Bonus, the chocolate ones taste like my Dad's Christmas no bake boil/drop cookies. Just like. Really. Holly gobbled it. So did Isaac. Lily was less impressed and says she likes old fashioned oatmeal better. It has yet to pass the Chad test which is....can Chad make it at 4 am before he's had coffee and will it make him sick? I think it will do fine, but I think he will prefer the spice over the chocolate. 

Gratuitous adorable kids eating chocolate oatmeal pictures:

Half Fail, Lessons Learned

 This looks fantastic, right? Mozzarella and feta, eggplant tomato sauce, lamb sausage. Those parts came together like a spicy, cheesy, melty dream.

 The problem was the crust. I bought a mix, a gluten free stir in water mess of a mix. It looked like pancake batter. All was going well though, it smelled pretty good while it was baking, before toppings were added.

Oh, and the entire thing looked like a success! It smelled good, a nibble off the edge gave me false witness to its true nature of.....yuckness.

The crust was soggy and spongy and...... moist. Like a gross thick noodle. Fail. FAIL.

Just about everyone in at the table ate the toppings off and tossed the rest to the dogs.

To make it just perfectly clear how awful it was? Holly quietly came to the kitchen and asked if I could maybe make a peach pie because she was still hungry and please mama because that was NOT pizza. 

Freezer gold, peach pie was on the table an hour later. Ready to eat. I didn't even get any.

Next time I will use my own go to for pizza crust, though it may be harder to make and take a bit more time. Lesson learned.

Tuna Salad- Pantry Style

Today, I had promised the kids tuna melts. We were out of bread. Out of crackers. I had intended to make bread but the morning got away from me. What to do?

Tuna salad. On sliced tomato! Yes!

Recipe:
One package of tuna, in water
Handful of dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 Braeburn or Granny apple chopped
1/2 cup of sour cream
salt to taste- salt is important here

Serve over sliced tomato and top with pretzels for crunch! (or walnuts!)

An easy, really good lunch that we pulled together from what we had. Week 2 of grocery spending strike and we are still going strong.