The plan had been that I would be babysitting my nephew from 8:00am to 2:00pm so I dutifully rose from my bed at 7:30am on this fine Saturday morning and prepared for the day. I cleaned the coffee table ready for the Lego playing to commence and organised the day's selection of cartoons. Unbeknownst to me the plan had changed.
1. I could have slept in and
2. I needn't have rushed home last night to go to bed.
It did however have some unexpected upsides.
By 11:00am I had cleaned up the coffee table, got a stack of cartoons ready for my nephew to watch, done my 40 minutes on the cross-trainer, showered and dressed, eaten a tamarillo for breakfast and started sorting my laundry. This is a lot more than I usually accomplish by that time on a Saturday. In fact, I got quite a lot done today.
After my nephew arrived I set him up watching the newly purchase How To Train A Dragon DVD and playing with the Lego and then went off into the back half of the house to continue with the day's tasks. I finished sorting my laundry and put on a load then as that was running I cleared the kitchen bench and started my cooking prep.
I decided to make my nephew puffy dogs for lunch and also make some chicken wellingtons in advance for my dinners during the week when I don't feel like cooking. Out came a 5 sheet pack of puff pastry to defrost on the bench and away I went. The three little puffy dogs went into the oven first, they are just a cocktail frankfurt rolled up in puff pastry with a little sprinkle of shredded tasty cheese. And with the leftover puff pastry from that sheet I made three cheese puffs too.
My nephew ate one puffy dog and I ate two and all three of the cheese puffs. I'm glad I was restrained at the shops and only bought the three cocktail frankfurts. I remembered what a small eater he can be and I knew I was likely to want to eat the leftovers. That certainly wasn't my healthiest lunch for the week but it was by no means unforgivable.
The chicken wellingtons were next. Each contained most of a sheet of puff pastry the centre spread with thin-ish layer of chicken liver and black pepper paté topped with a half a chicken breast (halved along the length) and some mushrooms pre-fried in a dessertspoonful of olive oil. Oh, and the pastry was topped with an egg wash for that nice golden glaze. I ate one of them for dinner and the other three have gone into the fridge for later in the week.
I also had a Kiwi fruit with skin on for an afternoon snack and 20g of Lindt 85% Cocoa dark chocolate after dinner. But that was it for the day. All that puff pastry at lunch wasn't the greatest choice but I did not eat more than needed to sate my appetite, and chicken wellington I expect will turn out to be too high in fat but I did do the lowest fat version of it that I could.
Bert arrived to collect her son somewhere in the cooking process so while she was there I hung out my washing and got the chicken wellingtons into the oven. She arrived with flowers to say sorry for the stuff-up about my nephews drop off time which was a very nice touch and then gave me a relaxing pedicure to say thank you! My sister may occasionally be forgetful but she is also grateful when people help her out and she's one of the most loving people I know, so it's impossible to ever stay mad at her.
I now have pumpkin slow-roasting in the oven in order to make tomorrow's pumpkin soup for lunch. I've even made some little pumpkin stars for garnish! It's been fun in a way, getting into the kitchen and spending a day being productive. If I'm to succeed in this, I suspect getting up early on the weekends and being productive in the kitchen is not such a bad idea. That said, ain't no way I'm getting up early tomorrow!
Jess
No comments:
Post a Comment