Keep it Simple While Cooking

Note to Self - Keep it Simple While Cooking

I try to prepare a healthy meal from scratch most nights of the week.  Sometimes that is no easy task especially when I have to make modifications for my kids.  My rule of thumb is that we all eat the same meal every night but I do make a few exceptions; for instance, I do not make my kids eat fish or tofu. 

What I have learned this week is that not every part of the meal needs to be elaborate.  My example: Last night I decided to make Baked Orange Roughy (I will post the recipe later).  So because I was making fish I also had to make something else for the kids – they got baked chicken.  

Then I decided we needed some roasted potatoes.  I washed and sliced 4 small potatoes into fours, brushed them with a little olive oil, garlic, and some herbs.

Next I decided we needed to try some new vegetables.  So I washed and chopped up kale along with carrots, and broccoli. I also cooked some lentils which I was going to arrange the fish on before serving.
It all sounds pretty good right?  Well for a normal Tuesday night where the actual eating of the dinner takes less than 15 minutes before we are off to homework and American Idol, it was a lot of work that in turn included a lot of clean up.

So I went back to a rule that an art teacher I had in the 5th grade taught me - Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS).  I'm not saying that I am not going to prepare nice healthy meals from scratch anymore.  What I am saying is that on most occasions, only one part of the meal should take the extra effort.  What I should have done is as follows:

Main course – Baked  Fish and Chicken as planned
Sides, boil in bag brown rice and steamed broccoli and carrots.

By the way - no on liked the kale.