The Liberated Kitchen, redux

My partner, Kelsy, wrote this, not me!

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As Joy and I settled into bed last night at midnight(!), I suddenly jolted awake. We forgot to do the chores! Our poor bunnies were hungry and thirsty and, after losing a chicken to a raccoon last week, we were definitely not leaving the coop open all night. Up we got, me in my bathrobe and Joy in some clothes she picked up off the floor, and trudged our weary bums outside to take care of our animals. Thank goodness the weather has turned mild.

After our nighttime escapades, 6:45 am came waaaay too early. With only 15 minutes left to do housework, I quickly cooked myself a couple of eggs for breakfast and picked some stuff up off the floor before my time was up. After my shower, I automatically opened up the dishwasher to put the dishes away. I quickly shut it and walked away. Joy couldn't find the broccoli to make the kids' breakfast. I found it for her. She said that was cheating and refused to use it. A blanket was on the floor. I really couldn't help it; I had to pick it up. Not doing housework is harder than I thought.

Somehow, Joy managed to make breakfast for the kids, pack their lunches, and unload the dishwasher without me. I had stuck a frozen pot roast in the crockpot last night to start in the morning and had Joy turn it on low on our way out the door at 8:13 am.

I had a little bit of work to do in the outside world, but was home in plenty of time for lunch. We heated up some leftover chicken soup (reheating is allowed) and headed out to buy some lumber for raised beds in Tualatin. Of course, we were starving by the time we got home three hours later and I only had 20 minutes before I had to go pick up the kids from their camp. I threw some cold chicken (leftover from Saturday night!) and ranch dressing on some lettuce and scarfed it before hopping in the car.

The pot roast was done when we got home. All I had to do was roast the cauliflower and get the lettuce out for salad. I made a little honey mustard dressing by mixing equal parts mayonnaise and mustard with a little bit of honey. I started at 4:30 pm and had dinner on the table by 5:15. I was impressed with myself!

Kodiak very sweetly requested Oven Fried Chicken for dinner tomorrow. It's a little more labor intensive than I want to go this week, what with the defrosting and the cutting up the chicken and the grinding almonds, but how can I refuse? Dinner's not going to be happening at 5:15 tomorrow, that's for sure! Oh well, we've got snacks.

Joy and I vowed we'd make it to bed earlier than last night and we're right on track for that. I've got crispy nuts going in the dehydrator and the dishwasher is all loaded for its nighttime run. I'm going super simple for the kids' lunches tomorrow: boiled eggs, carrots, ranch, kale chips, and zucchini bread. No prep needed there. And I'll wait until tomorrow morning to pull the chicken to thaw.

Before we went on GAPS, I used one of the produce drawers in the bottom of our fridge for defrosting meat and the other for produce. Since we don't eat grains, though, we eat a lot more vegetables! So I've rededicated the thawing drawer to produce and am now thawing meat on the counter. In addition to gaining much needed fridge space, it also saves me from the thawing time guessing game. I really hate planning on pork chops for dinner and finding them still frozen in the middle!

Now please don't call the Food Safety Police on me! I know that thawing meat in the fridge is the safest choice, but I don't think the meat I buy is dangerous. The animals I purchase were never fed Open Original Shared Link and never lived in confinement, the two conditions which breed the extra virulent strains of common bacteria like salmonella, e. coli, and staph. I think I'll take my chances thawing meat on the counter in order to have a little more fridge space.