Frozen Chicken Lives Another Day...

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Today was one of those days that you think you had everything set and then you realize you are an idiot.

We were supposed to have roasted butterflied chicken last night for dinner but I forgot to defrost it. Okay, so we ended up having a homemade lasagna I stashed in the freezer last week- it was on my menu plan for another day so good for me for sticking to the plan somewhat.

I totally forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer and stick in the fridge until very late last night because I can be a ditz sometimes, and even when I tell myself to do something I often get sidetracked with things such as screaming at my kids to stop running in the house and/or the massive pile of laundry that needs to get folded. I then told myself that in the morning I would put the chicken in a pan of cold water to defrost it and guess what? 2 pm came around and I realized that said chicken was still chilling in the fridge and was still hard as a rock.

Doh! My husband offered to run to the store to get something but I said no. We spent our $100 I budgeted for the week and gosh darn it we were going to just have to eat something that we already had in our little ghetto-tropolis . On my menu this week I planned on making chicken with spaghetti, tomatoes and parmesan cheese but upon second thought I realized that while I love food like that, my family would not be huge fans.

Silently panicking a bit as I wondered what I could make that wouldn't taste like crap that also used what we already had in the pantry it came to me- I could make a chicken stir-fry. We had chicken breast in the freezer (the Purdue Perfect Portions kind that defrosts super fast in water- I think it tastes awful but when it's covered in sauce you can't tell), a 1/4 bottle of soy sauce in the fridge, frozen peas and instant rice. This is what dreams are made of, my friends. Everything came together perfectly and we ended up having a very nice meal. If my husband were not home during the chaos that ensued prior to the meal, he would have actually thought that I was some awesome housewife instead of the scatterbrained and disorganized woman that I am.

Here is the moral to this story- even if you are a gung-ho meal planner, make sure you always have random ingredients in your pantry that will allow you to throw together a good meal. Think of all of the last minute trips to the store and take-out orders that you could avoid by just having a few simple ingredients at your disposal. Me, I think I will start keeping a plethora of ingredients on hand to make multiple throw together meals because I do not see my scatterbrain ever getting any better.