Snow Days and Food Production

Another snow day today. This is the 2nd year in a row that we’ve had a whole string of weeks in the dead of winter when we just cannot catch a break to get into a rhythm and groove. To state the obvious: this is absolutely so, so, so strenuous for a dual-career family!

Snow days around here mean not just being stuck at home, and having our calendars go haywire. In addition, snow days around here mean feeding Owen.

Owen can EAT. I’ve posted about this so many times over the years. I know it is random (because I haven’t been posting consistently), but for whatever reason I just feel compelled to chronicle this. Someday, when I’m old and gray, I know I’ll look back fondly on these days. But right now, these days feel like a LOT OF WORK.

Here’s what I posted to Facebook at about 10am this morning–

Another “snow” day. (Actually, Ice Day.) No school for Owen = a day of food production for me. Breakfast is finally complete. He had 6 fried eggs and 1/2 gallon of orange juice. For reals people. For reals. He is 10 years old, and that is half a dozen eggs. There is no rest for the weary.

And then, a little while later–

UPDATE: It is 11:20am. Owen just asked, “When are we going to eat lunch?”

I told him we’d eat lunch soon, but at about 11:45am I found him foraging in the kitchen pantry. He said he was “sooooo hungry!” I said he could have a banana. Which was gone in a nanosecond. So I let him eat a Nutrigrain cereal bar. Then some cashews.

Shortly after that, it was lunchtime. We made “baby pizzas” (english muffin pizzas). The bambinos have always loved these. If you aren’t making these, you should try them–  english muffins (I use Bay’s brand multi-grain english muffins; they are the BEST!), tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, and whatever you want on top (today we did some plain cheese, and some with turkey-pepperoni), bake at 350 until melted and bubbly.

Braydon, Kyle, Meera, and I each ate two of these. Owen ate 4.

Luckily, I had a helper today. Meera made a fruit plate with apples and blueberries…  Owen ate at least 2/3 of this little platter (which had on it 3 apples and a pint of blueberries).

Don’t let the photo below fool you. The honest truth is that the bambinos spent much of the day lodged on the couch watching a shameful number of Netflix videos (while I frantically tried to stay above the fray with work at my desk). But there were periods of loveliness when they made me feel like I wasn’t the worst mother on the planet. Moments like this one:

Later in the afternoon they had a snack. Ginger cookies (thank you for sending those MorMor!), and milk. Kyle and Meera had 3 cookies each, and a glass each of 1% milk. Owen had 6 cookies and a large glass of whole milk. Like I said, this boy can put it away.

Dinner was a highly unusual one for us. I actually roasted a chicken (something I haven’t done in at least 3 years). Ina Garten has the best roasted chicken recipe in the original Barefoot Contessa cookbook (my favorite cookbook on the planet) — it is stuffed with lemon and garlic and is so, so, so delicious! We had roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and steamed carrots. This is my own childhood snow-day-type “comfort food.” Braydon made a loaf of whole-grain bread (one of the bambinos’ favorite treats). Owen ate a full quarter of the chicken and a ton of all the rest too (and this boy can layer the butter onto the bread, let me tell you). He then proceeded to eat 2 chocolate-covered ice-cream-on-a-stick.

I cannot wait for him to get to school tomorrow so that I can get a break from cooking.