Complicating The Simple

Man, have I had a busy week!

The other day, I needed a SIMPLE meal! I needed to make something SIMPLE and QUICK! I have a family that prefers the homemade kind of meals. The healthy kind that are usually more labor intensive. (Before you get too impressed, I wrote that is what they PREFER...then God gave them ME...and they learned that you can't always get what you want...) :) No...actually, I try to comply. But, this week has been extremely busy. I won't bore you with the details...

So...I went to the "Boxed Meals" section of the supermarket and found these "Supper Bakes" boxed meals. You just add chicken. Who knew? They sounded great! One problem - there was roasted chicken with stuffing (Mike doesn't like stuffing) and garlic chicken with noodles (Mike doesn't like garlic). So, I decided to buy the roasted chicken, not use the stuffing, and buy my own noodles. I would put noodles in the bottom of the casserole dish INSTEAD of the stuffing, like the other box showed. Simple, right? (Yeah, right...already I'm making this complicated...)

Well, the chicken I bought was BEAUTIFUL chicken from my favorite store, but the chickens are from the Flintstones - they are brontosaurus chickens - the breasts are HUGE! So, when I followed the directions on the box, the chicken was still pink. I put it in for twice the baking time, and it was STILL pink. I turned up the heat (not a good idea) - STILL pink! Aaron had to go to karate, so I butterfly filleted the breasts, turned the oven to "broil" (it's a good idea to never do this, by the way) and after most of the outside edges of the pasta was black, made Aaron eat the chicken (which was good) and sent him off.

At dinner, Mike took one bite, and the "CRUNCH, CRUNCH" was so loud - I started laughing - cackling, really - tears were rolling down my cheeks. I had worked so hard on this stupid meal. Harder than any homemade meal would have taken me. He got a little worried about me. He asked, "Should I be worried about you, Honey?" Bridgette started singing, "They're coming to take me away, ho ho..." And I explained "There is nothing in this that is supposed to be crunchy." He started laughing and said, "Well, if it makes you feel any better, the middle of the pasta dish is sort of like pudding." That did it. I was laughing so hard I couldn't eat. (Believe me, it was no sacrifice.)

And that is how I made something that was supposed to make my life simple, very very complicated. I wonder how often I do that in my life. I wonder if that was an illustration God was giving me, because I've often created more work for myself when I try to take shortcuts.

Or maybe that was just another wonderful illustration of my cooking ability. Or inability, I should say. :)