Chili!

I'm on a bunch of food mailing lists - Kraft, Allrecipes, Betty Crocker, etc. - and in the last week they've all sent emails focusing on chili.   I know, big shock since the weather's getting colder and everybody is thinking about winter comfort foods.  When the kids were growing up, I came up with a fantastic chili recipe that was inexpensive, simple, made A LOT of food, and the family loved.  I recently figured out how to make it in a much smaller batch - tougher than you'd think since I've been cooking for an army (feels that way) for so long.

So basically I want to make a batch of chili - a little for dinner and a little for Rob's lunch and maybe enough leftover for another dinner.  I suppose that means I'll have to go to the grocery store today.

• Chili!  With sour cream, cheese and frito's.  Maybe I'll pick up some corn muffins too.
• Lasagna roll ups.  With vodka sauce, sausage, salad and garlic bread.
• Parmesan Chicken breasts with creamy potatoes and peas
• Frozen pizza for Rob and Lindsay on my class night
• Poor Man's Soup - kind of an open a can and dump it in the crockpot sort of soup
• Ravioli/spaghetti/Italian something - maybe even a goulash.  Or chicken.  I'm super undecided.
• Slop - my lazy fallback.  Turns out that I've started offering a choice between slop and burrito bowls because their base is the same - ground beef and rice - and they're about the same amount of work.

I can go to the grocery store by myself this morning and still have time to come home and finish a couple loads of laundry, clean and vacuum the office and living room, and neaten the dining room before I have to pick Lindsay up from school.  We'll even have time to be lazy before we have to leave for her appointment late this afternoon...  I'm thinking movie/tv show and some hot chocolate on the couch under a blankey.

Oh, and schoolwork.  I've got three huge assignments due in two weeks - none of which I have finished.  I have an individual presentation, a group presentation, and a case presentation....   damn, enough with the freaking presentations!  By the end of that class, I should be super comfortable getting up in front of them and talking.  Hopefully it isn't an issue at the beginning of class either.  

There's crazy life-changing stuff brewing in our family.  Not only is Jake getting married in nine months, but Matt is probably going to reenlist.  I'm over the moon excited about one and fighting the depths of despair with the other.  What we expected our lives to look like just isn't going to be the case.  And...  such is life.  Full of twists and turns, unexpected events, and disappointments.