Freeze Frame

I can't believe I'm eating a frozen dinner.  I'm such a cliche.
~ Miranda Hobbes, Sex and the City

As much as I'd like to pretend I'm the kind of mom that makes lunch from scratch every day, full of nutritional and organic ingredients, I would be lying if I said my freezer didn't contain a section dedicated to frozen dinners and snacks.  Obviously, with a three year old in the house, we consistently have chicken tenders and pizzas on hand.  But on the days when we don't have leftovers to eat for lunch, and the mere mention of a sandwich results in a meltdown (because of COURSE that means I'm a terrible mother and should be shot on sight), I tend to reach for a frozen dinner for us to share.  If I add something healthy like carrot sticks and fruit to her plate, I can give myself the illusion that I'm not damaging her forever, and I get a break from eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches (not that there's anything wrong with that).

I certainly admit that while frozen dinners are not the peak of culinary genius, I have found a few that warrant freezer space on a regular basis.  The criteria for making the short list is pretty basic - appeal to a 34 year old woman AND a three year old.  Simple in theory, yet oddly elusive in reality.  Now, in no certain order, I present the winners:

Stouffer's Philly-Style Steak & Cheese Toasted Sub

This thing is goooood.  Criminally good.  The crisping tray gives the buttery bread a crunch just like a toasted sub, and it is a large sandwich, perfect for sharing.  I typically add a slice of provolone after it's done cooking, because more cheese makes everything better.  The grilled peppers and onions actually do taste grilled, the steak doesn't have that weird chewy texture so often found in frozen dinners, and it's just a damn yummy sandwich.  Enough said.

Lean Cuisine Sesame Chicken

This is one of the first table foods Merrill ever ate.  I have been eating this for years, and one day she crawled to me with her mouth open like a baby bird as I sat shoveling it in as fast as I could, hoping to finish before she reached the potted plant just within her reach.  On a whim, I spooned some into her mouth, and she kept coming back for more...and more.  I'll often make one of these for her in the mornings she goes to school, chop the chicken and noodles into manageable pieces and put it in her thermos container for lunch.  Her teacher commented one day on the fancy lunch I'd prepared, and I didn't confess.  (Hey, I'll take it where I can get it.)  The chicken is tender while still having some crispness to the batter, the vegetables give me the illusion it's healthier than it probably is, and the noodles draped in the sweet sauce are light yet filling.  I usually have a salad with this, because Merrill inevitably eats 75% of it.

Lean Cuisine Enchiladas Suiza

When we make this, I usually eat the majority of the enchiladas while she commandeers the rice (this kid LOVES rice, and can put grown men to shame with how much she can consume in a sitting).  She finds the enchilada sauce a touch spicy for her taste, but it's pleasant for me to find it's not bland like some others I've tried.  She usually eats applesauce or yogurt with hers (it helps cut the spice), and we share chips and salsa.

These are not gourmet meals, but they are fast (a necessity when a toddler is in charge) and tasty (a necessity when a food-obsessed mom is in charge).

Angry Housewives Eating BonBons: A Review

She didn't realize how tense she usually held her body until it was relaxed, and the sensation always surprised her; she felt like a prison guard who had successfully completed her watch and, at least for the time being, no convict had escaped.
~ Lorna Landvik, Angry Housewives Eating BonBons

I never get rid of books.  I know many people who will only read a book once, and have no desire to maintain precious shelf space with a book never to be opened again.  I am not so discriminating.  I have read many books multiple times.  I have shelves crammed with books I've read and hated, books I've read so many times I have portions memorized, books I haven't gotten to yet. 

One of my guilty pleasures is perusing the book sections at thrift stores.  There is something that appeals to me about looking at all the books that people have decided to donate, to purge from their own shelves and remove from their homes.  I pile them up in my arms and cradle them, prepared to give them a permanent home.  Sometimes they are misses, and they go back to the shelf as a reminder that you can't win 'em all.  And sometimes, just sometimes, they are gems that draw me in and find favor in my heart.

This book.  This book, without a doubt, falls in the latter of those two categories.  It made me laugh and cry, made me experience twinges of fear, sadness, fury, hope, and the utmost joy.  I could associate so closely with the characters and with the story, a story that had elements I've never experienced, but truly and deeply felt like I have due to the way they were portrayed...a story so compelling that I want to force it upon everyone I know.

The most basic tenets of friendship, parenting, marriage, and the ties that bind us together in those relationships were brought forth so simply and yet so meaningfully in their delivery.  There is something so admirable in brilliant character composition that makes you feel like these are people you want to know, would be lucky to know, even as you may not agree with them or, more telling, always like them. 

This book will maintain space in the stack that I will reach for again and again...at least, once it returns from being passed around to everyone I know.

All in a Day

If you observe a really happy man, you will find...that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours each day.

- W. Bernard Wolfe

It is relatively easy to go through the days with a mindless mentality, operating on autopilot (such as when I arrive at a destination with no memory of having driven there) and only remembering that which is monumental and of some considerable importance.  If I were to write down every tiny detail of a typical day, it would look something like this:

4:47am - Wake up desperately needing to pee.  Too lazy to get up.  Try to fall back to sleep.

5:32am - Fall back asleep.  Dream am being drugged by a stranger in a giraffe costume.

5:47am - Wake in cold sweat about said dream.

6:12am - Doze back off.

6:14am - Awaken to the sounds of Merrill calling, asking for breakfast/a cartoon/a drink/socks/a book

6:15am-8:35am - Make breakfast. Pack Merrill's lunch for school.  Shower. Watch news.  Refill Merrill's drink...four times. Make another breakfast for Merrill, as first breakfast was rejected.  Get dressed.  Chase Merrill around the house trying to get her teeth brushed/hair brushed/clothes on/shoes on.  Find the one stuffed animal out of eleventy MILLION that she just HAS to have.  Talk.  A lot. About nothing.

8:36am - Announce it's time to leave for school. 

8:37am - Again.

8:38am - And again.

8:39am - Bang head against wall.

8:41am - Wrangle Mer into her car seat. 

8:42am-8:50am - Answer 482 questions (ex: where do chickens pee? why is that car in front of us? what did the dogs dream about last night? who is the lady that is on the radio?), sing 11 songs.  Hear a story about how Mer goes to China every day to visit her friends and drive the yellow car to the big house with a pink couch and lots of sandwiches.

9:00am - Drop Merrill off at school.  Have to forcibly remove her from her freakishly strong monkey grip on my neck and waist. 

9:00am-10:00am - Gym.  Witness woman walking the track at the gym wearing stilettos, carrying a large purse....and a baby.

10:00am-2:00pm - Errands.  Errands.  Errands.  Stand next to wrong car in the grocery store parking lot, trying to figure out why it won't unlock...for 14 minutes. Lunch.  Almost run over man on bicycle.  Curse.

2:00pm - Pick up Merrill from school.  Find out that she ate both ends of another child's banana.

2:15pm - Enter library, where she proceeds to pick out 6 books...in Spanish. 

2:40pm - Assure her that dad will be home soon.  She isn't convinced.

2:41pm-3:27pm - Assure her again.

3:30pm - Realize I've only been wearing one earring all day.

3:31pm-5:59pm - Puppet show. Coloring books. Walk to mailbox. Swing. Piggyback rides. Read the same book 6 times in a row.  Wonder why children's books are sometimes so utterly ridiculous. Consider whether cereal would be an appropriate dinner for a three year old.  Decide yes.

6:02pm - Dad enters, Mom is forgotten.

6:04pm-8:25pm - Dinner. Play. Bath. Books. Bedtime routine. 

8:26pm - Decide an earlier bedtime is warranted due to severe attitude and seemingly evil presence lurking within Mer.

8:28pm - Kiss, hug, kiss, hug, another kiss, another hug, BIG hug, BIG kiss, hug, hug, squeeze, kiss, kiss, squeeze.

8:40pm-10:30pm - Collapse on couch.  Add wine.  Stare mindlessly at tv.

10:31pm - Crawl into bed.  Realize I've forgotten to pee, and will likely wake up at an ungodly hour needing to go...decide it's more bearable than getting back out of bed right this second.

~ Fin ~