I sat down and devised my own offering, which received no complaints when I asked her to review it. I suggested no screens until all her chores are done, limited TV & computer to two hours a day (not each, which was her plan) allowing an hour or two for her tablet as well, with exceptions for long drives, and extra time available to be earned. The tricky part now will be for me to monitor her time. But she has a bike and a swim pass and a library card. There is no need to stare at a box all day.
In any case summer will be full. She has swimming lessons and camp, and will be spending a couple of weeks with her grandparents. Our cooking lessons could become a lot more hit and miss as the summer wears on. She has learned to light the barbecue, and Peter has taught her to build a fire, reliving his scout master days teaching her survivalist type stuff. She loves it, mostly because she loves having his undivided attention.
She starts grade 6 in the fall, Junior High as it is measured now. Seems like just the other day I was worrying about how she'd navigate kindergarten, since she was stuck to me like glue, having a melt down every time I left her anywhere. Where, oh where, has my baby gone? But I no sooner wonder that when I see my two year old having a melt down now disguised as pre-pubescent angst. It's going to be a bumpy ride I think.
A couple of months ago this particular recipe was floating around on Facebook. Emily thought it looked good, so I made it one evening when I was babysitting for a friend. It was not too bad, easy, and kid friendly, so I kept the recipe on hand. Sunday night when I asked Emily what she was making for supper she saw it still stuck to the fridge and decided she wanted to make Cowboy Lasagne again. Monday was supposed to be cooler, so I agreed, knowing if there were too many leftovers I could always deliver lunch to my friend who runs a day home. Busy moms rarely argue about someone taking one chore off the list, and feeding hungry, fussy kids can be daunting.
Monday afternoon I asked Emily how long her chosen recipe was going to take to make. She glanced at the page and told me "35 minutes." I knew that was merely baking time, so explained she needed to calculate actual cooking time. She looked again and informed me she thought about 10 minutes. For a seasoned cook, with prepped ingredients that may have been an accurate guess. I told her the meat was not completely thawed and she had best allow 30 minutes.
It wasn't long before she appeared in the living room, snuffling that she needed me to chop the onion. We'll have to work on that. I put the still partly frozen ground bison in a large skillet with a tablespoon of water to start browning before mincing a few tablespoons of onion for her. I stowed the rest of the onion in the refrigerator and retuned to my book. She then informed me we had no tomato soup. I buy it by the case and don't use it for much other than casseroles so I was fairly sure we did indeed have some, but came back to the kitchen to check. We did have time for a bicycle trip to the store if needs be. I moved a can of tuna and unearthed several cans of soup. Something else to work on-looking for things in the pantry.
I gave the meat a stir, breaking up some bigger chunks and added the onions by way of efficiency, before she asked me to cut her some parsley and show her where the dry mustard was. I handed her the tin and collected my kitchen shears. Once I chopped the parsley for her she assured me she had things in hand again, so I again retreated.
Next I was informed we had no Tater Tots. Again I assured her we did, I had seen 2 packages while I was digging out the meat earlier in the day, and I led her out the the deep freeze to locate them.
I did help her pour the meat mixture into the casserole, it was going to take forever for her to spoon it into the dish. Once it was in the oven she even decided to wash the dishes-or most of them anyway. She left the frying pan for me!
Dinner was good. Better actually than when I made it. I had had several varieties of cheese in the fridge leftover from a party when I made it, so I used a blend of cheese rather than simple Cheddar, the flavours may have been a little overwhelming for a basic casserole. It may not make my rotation, but all things considered was tasty, and easy to put together. Even fairly quick to make. I think it would freeze well, to bake at a later date. A salad would be all you would need to round out the meal.
Incidentally, this recipe is very much like another casserole I make (and prefer) with egg noodles instead of Tater Tots.
Cowboy Lasagne
1 lb ground beef 1 can corn
4 tablespoons minced onion 3 tablespoons dried ground mustard
1-2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 package Tater Tots (32 oz)
3 tablespoons chopped parsley salt & pepper
1 can tomato soup 4 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese*
Brown meat with onion and seasonings, drain off any fat. Add soup and corn, simmer about 10 minutes. Arrange Tater tots in a greased 9x13" baking dish in a single layer. Cover with 2 cups of cheese. Pour ground beef mixture over, top with remaining cheese and 1 tablespoon chopped parsle.
Bake 30 minutes at 350F. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
* Emily used about 2 cups of Cheddar, instead of Mozzarella, because that is what was on hand, and I suspect she didn't note the actual volume of cheese required. It was not so rich and heavy with less cheese, and it was not missed at all.
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