Fiasco of the Week

I’m not going to lie. Anyone who knows me will tell you this too. I love to meal plan. I love having everything listed out for the week with all the ingredients sitting at the ready in my refrigerator and pantry. And then there is reality. By the time we get home from all the activities in the evening, I have lost all motivation and don’t want anything to do with cooking. This is the main reason I have employed my crock pots over the years. Yes, pots was plural. I have three of them. I don’t know what I would do without them.

This last week was an unusual week. We were busy as normal. Everyone is busy, so that is easily relatable. The only difference is that I, all of a sudden, had an abundance of chicken to cook. There is a little story behind why I had so much of it. Sit back and enjoy the ride, but don’t laugh too hard. My husband got “the look” when I told him what had happened and he started laughing at me.

Last weekend I made a trip to Costco. I absolutely love Costco. We pretty much live there. It’s so easy to get almost everything you could possibly need. And, since we have five kids to feed, buying in bulk is always a bonus. So, I bought everything we would need for the week. Most of it was pantry type food, but I did get milk and other refrigerated goods along with a massive bag of chicken breast. I got all the food home and put away like normal. I love having a full refrigerator and pantry. It’s a good feeling… for about three seconds, but it’s the best three seconds of the week!

Now, fast forward to last Monday. I took all the kids to Jiu-Jitsu just like every other Monday. On the way home, I stopped at the Dairy Queen across the street from our house to get my husband his birthday cake. He had been asking for an ice cream cake for his birthday for a few weeks. I was more than happy to accommodate that!

We got home, and I went to put the cake in the freezer. I noticed the bucket of ice cream that was in the freezer was melted. It was still cold, but it was melted. I checked the rolls that should have been individual little frozen marbles. They were turning into a mass of squishy play-doh. Awesome. I checked a few other things and then came onto my chicken I had just restocked a few days earlier. I was dreading touching the bag. By this time, I was panicking that all of our food was bad. I thought the fridge had gone out while we were gone that day. I was devastated. I was getting ready to throw a bunch of stuff away and put the rest outside in the snowbank until we could get a new refrigerator.

The moment of truth. I had to check the chicken. Miraculously, it was still super cold! It was not frozen anymore, but it was colder than what it would have been if it was sitting in the refrigerator portion on a good day. I was so excited!! But, then reality hit me. I’m going to have to use all this chicken before it goes bad. Or at least cook it all in order to refreeze it. I was leaning more toward the “using it all before it went bad” side though because I thought the refrigerator itself was toast.

I also got a teensy bit panicked because the fridge part was full of milk and a few other things I had just bought. I tentatively opened the fridge door to see what the damage was in there. The first thing I was greeted by was puddles of water from where the freezer had defrosted and run down into the fridge. Once I contained the torrents of water leaking out onto my kitchen floor, I was able to survey the carnage. I just about cried. In a good way! The milk was all still cold! I only needed to throw out a few things that were in the door and had gotten too warm. Just some peppers and mushrooms and a couple things of salad dressing. And some mayo just to be safe. But who needs those things anyway?! Seriously. Such a waste of space in a fridge. Just don’t tell my husband I said that!! LOL

So, you ask, did we get a new fridge yet?? That answer is no. I found out shortly after I started emptying everything out of the fridge, that my smallest human had turned off the fridge from the inside. The temperature control knob is right in the front of the fridge and he had found it. But, instead of turning the temperature to the coldest setting, he turned it OFF. I wasn’t sure if I should scream, cry, or take a really long walk with no children. Oh. My. Word.

As you can probably guess, we ate a LOT of chicken last week. I used every recipe I could think of to make suppers for the week. I even just sorta dumped things into a crock pot one night because I was completely out of ideas. I will give you that recipe at some point here. If you can even call it a recipe. But it actually tasted really good! Even my kids loved it!

So, what did I learn from all this? Well, a few things I suppose. First, don’t panic. It does absolutely nothing for you. Not a thing. Except elevate your heart rate. It does do that. Second, never trust a two-year old. They are terrible and mean. And they think they are cute while they are being both of those things. Third, always check the temperature knob before buying a new fridge. It could save you a lot of money and embarrassment. And last, if you run out of supper ideas, just get a little creative and throw things in a crock pot. You might surprise yourself and your family. And you may even have a little fun while doing it!

I hope I can start your week off with a little humor at my expense. I don’t think a person can ever have too much laughter in their life. It makes life’s burdens a little lighter to bear and give you laugh lines instead of frown lines. My motto is that, if you have to get wrinkles as you get older, they should be laugh lines instead of frown lines. At least you had fun while getting those wrinkles!

Leave me a comment with some of your best oops moments. You might be surprised by how many other people have had the same issue! Have a great week, everyone!