It's all in the prep or if you wanna go French, mise en place

T has been giving me these great 2.5 hour or 3 hour long naps. It gets me too comfortable. When he goes down, I clean up, have lunch and then have too much freedom on my hands. After I shrug off the initial feeling of strangeness, I start projects at about the 1 hour mark, it could be cleaning the closet, washing the floor, reading a book, watching TV (most likely result) or doing actual money earning work (forgive my language), anyway, I get engrossed in whatever it is that I am doing and I forget to prepare for 'the awakening.' In the middle of translating 'low muscle tone with high degree of pronation' I hear a small volumed 'Mommy!' and I think, CRAP! I'm not ready! There's no food for my usually starving toddler. I don't want to give him a snack when this is the time where he'll sit and eat a meal. Yogurt just feels like I'm not trying. Fruit will only hold him so long. But there are times when a Past Wendy thinks of Future Wendy and does things to help her along in moments just like I had mentioned. As a veteran of sorts from restaurant work, Past Wendy knows it's all in the prep. If you've done what you're supposed to, service will never feel too hectic or out of control. Moms, if you find yourselves in similar situations, here are some prepping ideas for your fridge:

Chicken- portion meat into sandwich sized plastic bags (I separate each of these in one bag, 1 leg/2 wings/1breast)

Use for:

1. Chicken Fingers- heat pan with a little oil, dip chicken into egg then your choice of bread crumbs (when I make this for adults, I dip into egg then flour then egg then bread crumbs but no reason for extra work here), pan fry

2. Chicken Soup- cut meat into small pieces, stir fry a little in quart pan, toss in some vegetables (onions, celery, carrots, potatoes, etc.), pour in Chicken or Vegetable stock, can add pasta/rice or toast some bread

3. Chicken Sandwich- pound breast meat thin, cut into desired portion, grill in fry pan. Serve in mini-pita pockets with cucumbers and cream cheese.

Quick accompaniments to keep on hand:

Vegetables- Carrot sticks, Cucumber rounds

Dips- Pesto with cream cheese, Marinara Sauce

Stock or Soups- Chicken soup, Vegetable stock

Pasta/Rice- cook extra pasta/rice when you are making it for a meal and keep in storage container for super quick future meals

This may seem like a lot of work. But I just did the chicken fingers today. It was 10 minutes from 'how I met your mother' marathon to 'Mommy!' to BAM ... food on table. I also stock frozen waffles and that's what kept T busy while I spent the rest of my 8 minutes finishing the chicken fingers.

Bon appetit!