No Golden Arches for Us This Week

I have officially taken on 2 more roles in my life. Soccer Mom (complete with a mini van, but have already been rocking it since we have 4 kids) and Mom Taxi. Up til now the kids have shown no interest in sports. They were the kids on the team whose parents had to shoo and/or bribe to get them back onto the field. They complained about every aspect of being on the team. So we gave up a couple of years ago thinking it wasn't worth the effort since they didn't seem to be having fun. 

A couple of weeks ago friends of ours asked if the kids liked soccer...that their was a soccer league starting up and suggested that we bring the kids by. It was funny really - we showed up just to get out of the house...but the kids - they were out there practicing with the team for 2 hours straight. I was amazed that they didn't even look up or walk over to us once. 

We were so unprepared for that first night....

The kids didn't bring their soccer balls. 

They didn't have cleats or shin guards.

And I didn't give a thought to dinner until 2 hours later. I had 4 kids that had been basically running for 2 hours, 2 on the field and 2 off the field and it was almost bed time. There was nothing else to do by drive-thru. While sitting under the golden arches my kids kept asking me why we were eating there when I had clearly told them that we eat at home. <--it's what we do. But there was nothing that I could have done. I didn't have anything ready at home and wasn't up to the marathon of cooking, eating, 4 baths and bedtime. 

So this week I made a plan. I would come home from work and get supper ready in the crock pot, make sides and set the table so that we could walk in the door and be ready to eat within 10 minutes. 

Chicken Tacos - Before hand I shredded cheese. When we walked in the door I flipped the oven to 375 to toast taco shells, wrapped soft tortillas in a kitchen towel and heated them for 1 minute in the microwave, shredded chicken and took crock pot straight to the table with shredded lettuce and sour cream. Chip and salsa and dinner was done. 

Lasagna- Before hand I sliced loaf of bread in half length wise and added butter, garlic salt and Mozzarella cheese. Wrapped in foil and stuck in the fridge with a simple salad of romaine and more cheese. When we walked in the door I took crock pot straight to the table. Toasted bread under broiler and dressed the salad. 

I was able to get dinner and my family to the table in under 10 minutes both night with way less calories and money. I will be trying new crock pot recipes each week since this was such a success. 

If you have any tried and true crock pot recipes that you would like to share, please leave a link below. 

Have a great weekend!