Knew I'd ran out of time to prepare our first meat-free feast before a meeting at 6.30. Plied Lou with snacks and prepared the jasmine rice in advance. One job out of the way. Left it to cool and off we went.
Meeting overran so at 7.45 I had a hungry child, the onset of a headache and the stress of knowing that dinner would be even later now.
Walked in the door to find Husband eating beef & ale stew accompanied by my lovely prepared jasmine rice. Started to harangue him for a) poor combination choice and b) the fact that we had no rice now for our Thai Butternut Squash curry but thought better of it, and grabbed the rice noodles instead. And breathe, Emma.
Stir-fried some red onion with SprayLight (and yes, I did want sesame oil but....), then added a couple of tablespoons of red thai curry paste and one tablespoon of peanut butter. Once cooked through, added 400ml of reduced fat coconut milk (on special at Tesco's currently, 50p bargain), 250ml of chicken stock and left to simmer. 200g each of cubed butternut squash, baby corn, red pepper, homegrown cherry tomatoes and button mushrooms completed our vegetable quota.
After 10 minutes of a pretty vigorous simmer ("Dinner won't be long, Lou"), I used the back of my wooden spoon to test how tender the squash was. And splashed the simmering stock all over my chest. Ouch. And breathe, Emma.
Served dinner and waited for the verdict. Silence in a good way. Went back to the kitchen to get mine ready. And then I heard "Mum". It was the kind of "Mum" that every parent will recognise. "Mum, something's broken, but I didn't touch it", "Mum, I've just wiped all your Midsomer Murder V+ recordings; you know the good ones with Tom Barnarby, not John." That kind of "Mum".
He'd spilled his drink everywhere, and yes, it had gone into his dinner. Now orange-squash butternut squash curry didn't taste so good. And breathe, Emma.
Choc ice dispensed (don't judge me!), The Great Escape playing, I finally sat down to eat. Lovely flavours, nice combination of textures, and I didn't miss the meat at all. Feeling virtuous, I sat down to watch Masterchef and for the first time that day, could finally breathe normally.
Happy Tuesday x
