Mother's Day Spread

With the hubby out of town for most of the weekend and no other grand offers, the choices for a Mother’s day meal were slim. No sibling(s) to host my Mother and me. The idea of taking three kids to a nice restaurant after getting them to sit still for a hour of church just seemed to be along the lines of cruel and unusual punishment. So…. That left things to me…The Mom.

Not having a strong desire to cook for my own Mother’s day I decided to go with the prepared food section at the local grocery store. Coming home from church with my Mom and three hungry little mouths, I needed food that could heat up on it’s own and be ready when we all got here. Hubby was expected home about the same time we get back from church so I didn’t want to count on him for too much set up.

Saturday, (in gale force winds) I made a trip to the store and came home with some salmon cakes, twice-baked potatoes, caramelized brussel sprouts and the ingredients for a pasta salad. (I’ll post that recipe soon).

Knowing what chaos ensues during church mornings I did all my prep Saturday evening. The brussel sprouts, potatoes and salmon cakes were each placed into foil pouches of their own. A few minutes of cutting and chopping and I had a fruit salad, a pasta salad and some cut up peppers ready, wrapped and tucked into the ‘frig.

On Sunday, I skipped my morning coffee and set the coffee maker up on the timer to start brewing about the time we should be pulling back into the driveway. Before we scooted out the door I slid the foil pouches into the oven and set it to turn itself on while I was gone.

The night before I had organized all my serving dishes and labeled each one with a post-it note (I’m a little OCD like that) so I knew what food went in what dish. (Or by chance if hubby was home he could get started).

Sure enough, we walked in the door and coffee was ready, Hubby was home and showered and the food was hot and ready. I popped some brown and serve rolls into the oven for 10 minutes while we got the kiddos ready to feast.

Grandma (aka "Mimi") brought some danish for dessert. Yum!!!!

Not too bad for no time and not wanting to cook. I sure did enjoy myself. I hope your day was a nice one!!!!