School daze | Hip to be Mom

Simple weekday meals

May 232012

On school days, our meals are pretty simple. I typically don’t like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen when the weather is this hot.

Monday was meatless Monday and the girls’ request was for scalloped potatoes (oops, forgot to take a pic) while I had myself a sweet soup of red beans, green peas and horse beans slow-cooked to yumminess. I couldn’t resist tossing in a few ice cubes.

After a meatless day, we’re like a pack of hungry wolves. For lunch, I cooked salmon shrimp linguine with broccoli, plum tomatoes in creamy red sauce (again forgot to take a pic). So so good we licked the platter clean. For dinner, I made 14 buffalo wings for the 3 of us. Mmm.

Of course there were leftovers. Enough to go nicely with homemade spaghetti marinara with carrots, broccoli and plum tomatoes.

What am I cooking tomorrow? I don’t know, we’ll see.

The eleventh hour

Posted by Clairity 1 Response »

May 162012

This is the typical scenario in our house on the weekend before the exams.

“Mom, I need to go to the bookstore. Got to buy some workbooks.” — “Okay, when are the exams?” — “Next week.”
“I can’t find my Biology book! Has anyone seen it? It has a blue cover.” — “Isn’t it on the table? Thought I saw it there.” — “No, that’s not the one! Can someone help me find it please? My test is tomorrow!”
“Has anyone seen my test timetable? Think I need to text my friend to text it to me!”
“How can you study with those headphones on?” — “Music helps me remember.” — Wokay !

4:00pm with book over head: “Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!” — “Wake up and get studying!” — “I am, Mom… by the process of osmosis!”
20th trip to the fridge: “Where are you going – again!?” — “Hungry, Mom, gotta eat!”
10:00pm: “Going to sleep, Mom, goodnight.”

No grades were harmed in the actual exams.

Table for one

Posted by Clairity 1 Response »

Apr 202012

It feels strange to be eating alone today without my kids. Skye is in school and I’ve just dropped Raine off at college, and am sticking around to wait for her to be done with her one class today. The traffic has been insane this week so instead of driving all the way home and back, I parked myself at a nearby McD’s.

McD’s was often my savior when the kids were younger but we’ve moved on. We haven’t set foot in a McD’s for like 2 or 3 years now. So it feels strange to be sitting there, without the kids, having my second breakfast of the day – a muffin sandwich which isn’t half bad actually and a cup of Arabica coffee which I used to affectionately call dishwater coffee .

I am reminded that I somewhat enjoy eating alone. Sitting backed against the wall and letting my eyes travel the room freely gives me a sense of an undercover detective in a movie. Back when I was working in Corporate Tower, I used to do that. a lot. I would leave for lunch an hour early, sometimes earlier even. Because I could.

There’s no squeezing into crowded elevators, waiting for my food and rushing through my lunch. I like walking into a food place and feeling like I own it. Somehow when a restaurant is busy, it rushes me into wanting to gobble up everything and leave. Today was nice. A quiet bit of me time to sit and watch the world go by. I do enjoy eating alone sometimes, do you?

Five minutes

Posted by Clairity 1 Response »

Apr 182012

So Raine had her first taste of impromptu speeches in her public speaking class. Get a blind topic and the clock starts ticking. She has 5 minutes to prepare for a 5 minute speech. I know it sounds scary but I’ve done it in my college Speech class and I kinda like the adrenalin rush. The trick is to say whatever comes to mind and just keep talking.

Raine does well in the prepared speeches, she has self-confidence and a clear diction. Impromptus are new for her though and something I’m glad she gets to experience. I view public speaking as an important skill to have. In my books, probably more so than ballet or piano . Which my kids know nothing about. Tsk tsk, un-tiger mom!

There was a bit of excitement when it came to deciding what outfit to wear. I lost count of how many tops she paraded around, hers and mine, the day before her speech. Her teacher had set out restrictions on appropriate attire. No reds, only dark colors. Nothing loose that resembles maternity clothes. Then again, with the barely-there dress culture these days, limits have to be set or she might have people showing up in their itty-bitty shorts.

Initial jitters aside, Raine managed to keep right on talking till her 5 minutes was up, without falling into any silent gaps. So proud of her. I still have no idea though how she made her way to the front of the class in those 5-1/2 inch pumps .

2-ingredient Grilled Chicken

Posted by Clairity 2 Responses »

Mar 292012

Roast carrots and potatoes are the staples on the Hip menu. We’re always buying potatoes (usually russet) and we’re always running out of potatoes. Just yesterday, we had grilled chicken to go with those roast carrots and potatoes, and a simple salad.

All you need are:

chicken thighs, skin on
your favorite meat rub

I’m using our favorite Cajun rub for that kick we love. To prep the chicken, I marinate it for a few hours, then pop it into the oven with the grill function on for 35-45 minutes, and that’s it.

You’re probably wondering, where’s the oil and the salt and pepper? I didn’t use any. Times are bad, we gotta cut back . Nah, just kidding. I’m weird like that. If you’re cooking this, you can go right ahead and drizzle some oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

We don’t eat the skin. I only leave it on to keep the meat moist when I’m grilling it. Looks scrumptious, huh? Tastes great too. The meat is juicy and flavorful.

With the weather this hot and humid, I like to keep cooking to a minimum because the house seems to take on the effect of sunrooms as the day wears on. And quite frankly, the quicker I get out of the kitchen, the better .