Last Minute Meal

Lately, I seem to be running perpetually short on time. I keep finding myself at about 3:30 without a concrete plan for dinner and very little prep work done. Five minutes later my sons get off the bus, the dog needs to run for half an hour and there's a pile of book bags and papers on the kitchen table. Its not the best time for me to ponder what culinary delight I can pull together.

Last night, I checked the freezer/cupboard inventory clip board and made a quick plan. I know this sounds anal but the clip board is a huge time saver. I grabbed a container of split pea soup from the freezer, a quart of canned carrots from the cupboard and an arm load of potatoes from the cabinet. I certainly wasn't in the mood for split pea soup and I was pretty sure no one else would be either so I needed a treat to make it fun, that's where the potatoes came in. I scrubbed the potatoes and cut them into strips to make French fries. The carrots and split pea soup went into a pot, along with some leftover bulgur. No one complained about the soup because they were too busy eating the French fries! We ended the meal with popcorn which, despite its simplicity, everyone loves.