Dinner in Thirty Minutes

I really like to cook. But life with two preschoolers and running a school board (and attempting to continue to have a creative life as well) has really toned down my cooking style. Today was the perfect example. Normal life, normal day: kids and I played the morning away (with bits of Board work while they painted), our regular Monday Lunch (peanut butter on graham crackers, Noodle soup, apples), a race to get to school on time, two and a half hours of Board work while at the school office (we seem to be in a season of putting out fires), home again, a random drop over from a friend and her daughter = chaotic playing while the Mum's sipped tea, and suddenly, it was five.

So now I've got two hungry kids, tired from a busy and cold day, and, if I'm lucky, half an hour to pull off dinner. Enter... thirty minute meals. A friend on the island had found The 5:30 Challenge at the library, and I think we've both been cooking from it since. So tonight was a chile relleno bake - five ingredients (beans, salsa, cheese, green chilies and corn bread mix - and even though I made the corn bread mix from scratch (and used my trusty stash of frozen cooked black beans instead of canned), this was actually ready in only 35 minutes. That included help from my trusty assistant, Sterling (those of you with five year olds know that help from that age bracket sometimes slows things down).

The result? Nothing beautiful to look at, but topped with some fresh tomatoes and sour cream, it was delicious. Some fresh fruit for dessert, and, viola, dinner in 35 minutes!