go to dinner

"Honey, where would you like to go to dinner?" HELLOOOO - Wake up chickie, you have THREE kids, there is no going out to dinner anymore.  Special occasions only.  What I'm talking about is....your "go to" dinner.  That meal you make when time is short and you need to throw something together for above said THREE kids.  And it's nice if me and the hubs can eat too.  In the past I've relied on good 'ole Chef or  Kid Cuisine, but then I have to fix something different for me, the big man....then the little man came along with his food allergies and extreme pickiness, so I was fixing something different for everyone and that's a PAIN, and quick and easy turns out to be long, drawn-out, pain-in-the-derriere.

So, these are still occasional go to meals - but when I want to fix a fast, fairly easy, family meal I usually go to BREAKFAST!  I love breakfast food, so this is always a good option for me.  Luckily, my kids like breakfast food too.  Now, if you're idea of breakfast looks anything like this:

then, you probably need to schedule an appt to see your doctor and have your cholesterol and blood pressure checked.  Now, I'm not knockin' bacon and sausage - I'm from the South, and we'll eat damn near anything and everything off a pig!  You know what I'm sayin'...you check out a grocery store round here and we've got hamhocks, pig ears, pig feet, shitlin's, oops, I mean chitlin's (I have no idea how to spell that, it's not even in spell check! It's pig intestine if your inclined to wonder), smoked ham, baked ham, salt-cured aka "country ham"(YEAH BABY), and anyway - you get the picture.  I love me some bacon and sausage, but unless I want to have an a*s of a PIG - I try to limit it.  But, I'm all about substitutions.  Turkey bacon and turkey sausage are actually very good.  They really are.  My experience with turkey bacon is that if you have an electric griddle, it turns out nice and crispy.  After you eat it a few times, you'll forget how awesome regular bacon is. Not really, but you'll be glad you are not cramming all that fat down you and your kids throats. Of course, I'm sure some people can sit down and eat ONE SLICE of regular bacon every once in a while, but what's the fun in that.  So anyway, as I ramble on and on - about our breakfast dinner - we had turkey bacon (Butterball makes a turkey bacon called 'Everyday Turkey Bacon' and it's the one with lowest fat content in our grocery store)

and we had pancakes with light syrup ( I used sugar-free).  I make pancakes with Bisquick Heart Smart/Heart Healthy (something like that, I'm too lazy to go find the box) mix, b/c I can make them egg-free and they are low fat ( I add cinnamon to mine ) and we had some good 'ole GRITS!!  I used instant, b/c, one, that's all I had, and two, in a hurry.  Spent all day at the hospital, get home to a very messy kitchen and limited food supplies.  So, instant it is.  Since I was using my trusty electric griddle to make my crispy turkey bacon, I cooked my pancakes at the same time, and nuked the grits - so everything was ready pretty quickly.  Normally, we would have had some fresh fruit to go with this....but payday ain't till Friday! Not gourmet I realize - but fast, easy and my kids will eat it!!!  We did have some Diet Ocean Spray Blueberry Juice (it was new, I had to try it), so that sort of counts as a fruit.  Maybe.  Sometimes we'll have Egg Beaters scrambled eggs for everyone but the youngest, but I generally let my husband fix those, b/c for some reason I can't make scrambled eggs that are any good.  Egg Beaters are another one of those things you have to get used to, but are pretty good and no fat and cholesterol!  My other go to is pizza, but that will have to wait for another day.  So anyway, I wonder if other people have "go to" meals?