Yikes!

So I have been thinking for a while what "special" think I can do with the son. I am home pretty much all day with baby, I am M's brownie group leader, what what about P?

What interest do we have in common?

I invited him to come run with me at the gym. When I asked him, there was a long pause. . . . . "uhm, ok, I guess, but try to think of something better." M overheard - "Mom! I want to run with you!" and sure enough she came with me sat AND sun! P went with Leo on sun afternoon.

Back to the drawing board.

What would work for us, for our situation, specifically our lack of transportation, living in the center, kids getting home from school late, sort of situation.

Then it dawned on me - I am a genius - a GENIUS I TELL YOU!

Dinner!

I put P in charge of Sunday Dinner! phew!

He liked the idea.

I told him - he had to pick a healthy, balanced dinner, with available ingredients, and NO REPEATS! (otherwise we would have pizza every night!).

He ran and picked up my America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (picked that one because, as he noticed, it said "foolproof recipes") :-)

He poured over different options.

Finally decided on Pineapple Chicken Bake with Coconut Rice and Carrot and Cucumber Slices.

He was excited about it!

Previously, our Sunday Dinners pretty much consisted of frozen dumplings. I know - there are some good ones out there, but I was getting tired of them, and frankly I always feel somewhat guilty preparing a frozen dinner. But Sundays I hated cooking. We usually spent the day walking around, or cleaning the house, trying to get ready for the week, and I just despised having to deal with dinner on that particular day.

Problem solved.

Put P in charge!

He picks the meal, he has to make the shopping list and plan the timing (like if beans need to soak or something), he reads the recipe and does most of the work - I supervise and take care of any tricky work.

I told you, I am a genius!

Part of the plan was to also have him blog about it, I was going to have him add it here, but instead started a food blog.

For a while I was thinking "gee, someone should write a blog with recipes, and grocery shopping vocab/help/tips, local restaurant reviews, etc - why doesnt someone do that?"

well, be the change, right.

So I started one.

Here it is, hope you like it:

http://eatmoscow.blogspot.com/

with a special Sunday installment written by my own Chef Peanut Butter.