How to Make Dinner Without Actually Making Dinner

I don't know about you, but I am exhausted by the Dinner Argument. You know, that discussion you have every morning and every evening, the one with no resolution and no end in sight? I've totaled up the number of hours Brian and I spend talking about what to have for dinner, and it breaks down to approximately 37.2 hours per week. That's a lot time to spending talking about food.

This is usually how is goes:

K: What do you want to do about dinner?
B: I dunno.
K: Okay...how about chicken?
B: Um...okay.
K: Great! I'll make [insert type of chicken dish here].
B: Oh wait, I had chicken yesterday!
K: ::head desk::

This conversation loops around for approximately 6.3 more hours, before we pop a bag of popcorn.

So, in honor of all of you who may have similar situations, let me offer the following recipe. It makes it appear as though you have thoughtfully prepared something for your spouse, when in fact, all you've done is dump stuff in pots. I can handle this.

Apricot Crock Pot Chicken with Brown Rice and Broccoli:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 jar of apricot jelly (we like Smuckers)
1 pkg of Lipton onion soup mix
some chicken broth

Dump all ingredients into your crock pot. For the chicken broth, I pour it into the now-empty jelly jar, shake to get the rest of the jam, and then pour it in the pot.

Cook for 5 hours on high.

I pair it with the Costco "microwave-in-the-container" brown rice (90 seconds! Word!) and with some steamed broccoli. This involved boiling water in your steam pot, dumping (that word again...) some fresh broccoli in the basket, and steaming it until it's bright green.

Enjoy! See, your spouse will think you spent all day in the kitchen. That is, unless you write about it in your blog, and then the cat's out of the bag...

(meow!)

Happy dinner, everyone!