Just Do What I Tell You . . .

My horoscope on Yahoo says, "You will be fiery and full of energy today. Explore something new." Who, ME?! Nope, no fire and energy here, so I don't know what they're talking about. "Explore something new"? Hard to do when I'm at work, doing the same things I always do. I would love to explore something new, but who would pay the bills?

According to Yahoo and most astrological charts, I am a Leo--the leader. Blogger has me as a Cancer, though--the homebody. Yes, I'm right on the cusp, which means that I generally stay at home and boss the cats around. I try to tell my husband what to do, but here it is, 26 years into our marriage, and I don't think it's really working. Of course, he either doesn't hear what I say or forgets. Testosterone strikes again, thwarting me in my quest to develop those leadership abilities my birthdate demands. Darn! Even the children have escaped.

Yesterday, I mentioned my chicken Caesar salad recipe, which I did, in fact, fix for dinner last night. (Photo above.) This is usually a Friday night meal, when I don't feel like doing a whole lot. I think this is just too good to keep to myself, so I thought I'd share my fast food fixing secret with you. It works perfectly for my husband and I--if you're feeding more and want to have a go anyway, you'll need to recalculate for your family.

Most of the time when I go to the grocery store, I buy one of those already roasted whole chickens. Costco has the best, but I'll settle for whatever--most are pretty decent unless they've been under the heat lamps for 12 hours. The first night, I make a couple side dishes and serve my husband a leg/thigh piece and I have a breast. That's one meal. The next day, my husband takes the other leg/thigh piece to work for his lunch. Two meals. The second breast goes into the salad. Three meals. Then I make soup with the carcass and whatever meat's left on it. Another meal or two, usually for my husband's lunches. Cool, huh? Meanwhile, much quilting can be accomplished!

The Caesar salad is especially excellent. Back when I'm at the grocery store, picking up that chicken, I also pick up a bag o'salad--the kind with dressing and everything packaged together. My favorite is Caesar Supreme. When I know I'm going to fix the salads, I'll cook up some pasta that morning--bowties are the best but penne is okay two--and let it cool in the fridge. Then all I do is mix up the salad bag contents, about a cup of cooked pasta, and the cubed up chicken--that's enough for two main dish salads. I always forget how really good it tastes until that first bite, and there's very little effort involved. If I have extra "stuff" in the fridge, I can toss that in the salad too. I usually serve it with some toast, English muffins, or bake up one of those Pillsbury french bread loaves.

So, if you'll all just do what this Leo tells you, you'll be well fed, happy, and have more time for quilting! Really! Just do what I say and no one will get hurt--except a couple chickens! LOL!

Do you have any great time saving schemes? Post them on your blog and let me know so I can check them out--I love anything that saves time and all that fire and energy I seem to have misplaced!