One dish meals by default

My days are not just very full, they are insanely full. I attempt to do in a day, what I used to do in a week. So by the time I need to start preparing dinner, I occasionally stop short of the mark.

Case in point, Tuesday night this week i began mentally putting the meal together as I looked for ingredients. Rice, butter beans, yellow squash and salmon fillets (my brother brought these over a couple weeks ago and put them in the freezer). In short order the rice was cooking, and then I diced an onion, got it sauteing, cracked open the two cans of butter beans, and then drifted over to my computer. I was immediately and entirely absorbed in shooting off email replies, and quite frankly forgot I was wife and mother, much less in the midst of dinner prep.

Somehow through the fog of business I heard Jon's truck rumble into the driveway, and glanced up. Uh, oh. Dinner. I raced to the stove, dumped the butter beans into the pan of onions, checked the rice, and decided who needs salmon. I called everyone to the table, put the rice and beans on, and in walked Jon.

Honestly, I thought Jon was going to say something in the way of complaint. Even I felt like a farmer's wife post civil war, spooning out starvation rations of butter beans and rice. On the bright side, just looking at the food gave one less of an appetite. Much to my shock Jon made absolutely no comment about dinner, and then asked for seconds!

I was puzzled. But the man looked exhausted, and quite frankly, I couldn't even remember the last time we got more than 6 hours sleep, so I decided he wasn't fully conscious of what he was eating.

The next day when everyone sat down to dinner, Jon looked the meal over and said, "At least it isn't butter beans and rice." I laughed and laughed. Last night's dinner was really a winner. Noodles, chunks of chicken, broccoli and cheese in a savory sauce. No salad or rolls on the side, but as Jon said,"Not only is this not butter beans and rice, it's actually yummy!"