I’d like to think that I am a pretty good cook and baker. I hear from my family and friends that the food I make is delicious, so it must be true. However, some days things just don’t turn out in the kitchen.
I can’t always put 100% focus on creating meals and baked goods, and sometimes I fail. Even the best cooks have bad days. Add in kids running towards the hot open oven, spelling word practice, and other distractions dinner can turn out as a disaster. Well, I had one of those days when I was making mussgo pizza from leftover pork and pineapple kabobs. I got distracted by Baby getting into the flour and forgot to put cornmeal on my pizza paddle. Needless to say, the dough got stuck and made a mess when I finally got it transferred to my preheated pizza stone. I was able to salvage some parts of the pizza that didn’t get all crumpled up or get burnt from hanging over the edge, and it tasted good. However, there wasn’t enough good parts to serve up to my family. 
The pizza must go to the dog’s bowl and I was really glad to have the convenience of a hot Costco pizza for less than $10 only minutes down the road. As my husband says, most of my food is great, but we all need to have failures to learn.
After this experience, I made the kids some cloud dough since they love getting into my flour. It provides them with a great sensory experience and gives me a few minutes peace to focus on making dinner. Cloud dough is non-toxic and edible because it is just 8 cups of flour with 1 cup of vegetable oil mixed together until it holds together when squeezed. It is moldable and my toddler and older kids love to play with it. Fancy molded and played with the dough for over an hour! Unfortunately, it is messy and takes a while to clean up. After giving the kids showers, sweeping up the floors, wiping up the table and chairs, I wasn’t as sold on the idea of the cloud dough. 
I “accidentally” threw it in the trash while cleaning up. Maybe we will make it again in the summer when they can play with it outside, but for now it is more mess than I am willing to deal with…the day-to-day messes of our family of 5 and a dog is more than enough to keep me busy. Hopefully, this week’s meal plan will save us both some time as we deal with all the messes life throws our way.
Friday
- Baked Chicken Parmesan
- Pasta with marinara
- Caesar salad
Saturday
- Mussgo, freezer meal, or meal not used last week
Sunday
- Greek pork loin
- Grilled asparagus
- Mediterranean couscous salad ( I omit the olives because none of us like them)
- Lemonade Pie
Monday
- Margherita pizza
- Salad bar salad (has defrosted peas,
shredded cheese, and hard boiled eggs added to typical salad ingredients)
Tuesday
- Tamale pie
- Tomato and avocado salad
- Fresh cantalope
Wednesday
Thursday
- Mussgo
- Chicken parm sandwiches
- Add pork from Sunday to Ramen coleslaw from Wednesday, top with a peanut sauce
I have the attitude that I can’t have it all and I’m okay
with that. I love this diagram, because it is so relevant to my life. The 2 things I can balance change day by day, minute by minute, but that keeps life interesting. Now I must go tend to Baby’s dirty diaper…that counts as kids and cleaning, right?
-Mussgo Momma