Prepping the stew

Speaking of putting things off, I planned to make Sunday Night Stew on Sunday.  But then I didn't.  So I planned to make Sunday Night Stew on Monday.  But I didn't.  And then I planned to make Sunday Night Stew on Tuesday.  And I still didn't.  This is what I was referring to when I mentioned menu plan breakdown the other day.

See, the problem was the prep work.  Sunday Night Stew has ingredients that must be diced, and chopped, and minced.  In addition, Sunday Night Stew takes about three hours to cook.  That's after the dicing, chopping, and mincing has occurred.  So I would be going about my business, and all of a sudden it would be 3:30 p.m., which normally would be plenty early to start supper, but was not plenty early to start Sunday Night Stew.

On Wednesday I decided enough was enough, so I took a page out of the mama-to-infants-and-toddlers playbook: Prep supper while the baby is sleeping. 

Well, I didn't have a sleeping baby, so I prepped supper while the baby was sitting around waiting for it to be time to get ready to go out for the bus.

And I still almost didn't make it on Wednesday!  Once again, all of a sudden it was after 3 p.m., and I hadn't started the stew yet.

I'm telling y'all: there is some kind of afternoon time warp in my house.  I am not losing track of time because I spend hours staring at chickens.  It is definitely a time warp.  Not chickens.

But I made it work.  I reduced the amount of time the stew had available to stew, and it was ready in time for all of the household members to come together briefly for a meal before we scattered again for our evening activities.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, if you're prone to (possibly) chicken-induced time passage awareness issues, set an alarm to remind yourself to start supper.

Now.  Let's see if I can get that shepherd's pie done today.