Home Store Dinner

My work schedule has been so crazy lately, between not being home for days on end or now, with having the grandkids in day camp.  The kids have to be at camp at 9:00 and they are done at 3:00.  I can't get in a solid block of work time so I'm working late into the evening.  Hope I don't get called out of town when they are at camp.  On the other hand, I hope I get called out of town and can earn some overtime.  Somehow I have to pay for camp!  (It's nice, camp says to let them come for the four weeks.  If I get overtime to pay for it, great, if not, don't worry about it.  Can't beat that!)

Mrs. Bug-out renter had her surgery last week so she's set up camp in Girl's room while she recovers.  It's a little over an hour from the bug-out place to the hospital in case she has a problem with the recovery so with us she stays.  Girl has decided that she wants to sleep in the living room instead of the top bunk.  Fine by me.  It's summer vacation so you may as well do something different.

Boy and Girl were helping with dinner tonight.  I sat in my library on the computer and directed them on what to do.  Unfortunately Boy messed up and got sent to bed without getting to eat their delightful creation.  Why?  I told them to get out the mandolin slicer so I could slice the carrots.  I had them peel the carrots with their peelers.  Each kid has their own colored peeler so they can both help at the same time.  When I got into the kitchen to slice the carrots on the slicer I noticed that it had an orange tint to it.  Who used the slicer?  Girl said not her.  Boy admitted to it.  Wow, that's a shocker!  Didn't I tell you kids that you are not to use this slicer?  It is a dangerous tool and you aren't old enough.  Boy said he only used it to cut off the top of the carrot.  Isn't cutting off the top of the carrot using it?  No, it's not slicing it's cutting.  As the smoke was coming out my ears I told him, calmly (much to my amazement) that he needed to get his pajamas on.  He was going to have a pb&j sandwich for dinner instead. 

Once he sat down at the table I asked why he was eating that instead of the good dinner.  He said it's because the slicer is dangerous.  No.  It's because I told you not to use it and you did.  It doesn't matter to me if it's dangerous or not.  That's not the point.  The point is I told you NO!  That means NO.  I don't care if it's something stupid or something lifesaving.  You may or may not understand why I am telling you but if I say NO that is to be followed.  So pb&j sandwich and off to bed he went.  He can read until bedtime...

We had a really good dinner.  It came out of the home store and the garden. 
3 cups rice
6 cups water
1 can roast beef
dehydrated peas
fresh carrots, sliced like french fries
fresh onion, chopped
fresh zucchini, sliced like french fries
3 tablespoons beef soup mix (the mix says 1 teaspoon per cup of water so I used 1 1/2 times)
soy sauce
sesame oil
chopped chives

The kids put it all into the rice cooker and in 20 minutes it was ready.  It's a good thing because I really didn't feel like cooking.  There's plenty left since Boy didn't eat any and neither did Mrs. Bug-out renter, who fell asleep right before dinner.  I just left dinner in the rice cooker.  We'll have it for breakfast.