I like to think of myself as the everymom. You know, the one who occasionally loses her cool and yells at the kids, who says “okay one more popsicle, but I’m drawing the line at 5!” and who makes a fool of herself on a regular basis in spite of really attempting to be cool. I’m that woman who, realizing she forgot tampons, was frantically asking random strangers at a kids’ birthday party to hook a sister up. That’s me. So when I see the whole “I hate Mondays” posts on Facebook, or see that mom rushing her kid into school, not realizing she’s still carrying the dog poop from the morning walk, I like to think we stand in solidarity with one another: life is hard; momming is hard.

Have you seen the kids’ movie, Mr. Peabody and Sherman? I’ll save you the trouble and cut to the chase…dog raises boy, boy loves dog as father, society develops serious issue with idea of dog as father, child services attempts to remove boy from dog father. And then, in a climactic moment, Sherman affirms his loyalty to Mr. Peabody as his father, saying, with a crowd of people joining in, “I’m a dog, too!” Well friends, that’s a mantra around here. Whenever we see a screaming toddler in a restaurant, or the guy whose grocery bags decide to explode in the crosswalk at 5:30 on a Friday, Cora and I look at each other thinking, “I’m a dog, too!” They may not be big problems, but holy geez those little ones really do add up.

Monday was no different for me this week. After several weeks of therapeutic interventions for our littlest boy, we finally came to a head and lined up appointments with specialists. Only this dodo mama decided lining them all up in the same week would be a great idea. And in typical suburban-mom fashion, my kids are ENTIRELY overcommitted to activities that I swore we would not be doing this time around (seriously??? why can I not just say ‘we are staying home and watching Sesame Street reruns and you’re gonna like it!’). So after figuring out how to get this troop to girl scouts, ballet, 5 therapies a week, confirming a zillion appointments, filling out all the pre-authorization paperwork and printing off and filling out all the new patient forms, I was done. I was ready to make dinner, relax with the fam, and close the books on this Monday. And I went to my trusty white board to see what I was supposed to make for dinner. **GASP** I was staring at last week’s menu. Because I didn’t write one for this week. And when I groaned really loudly at this discovery, Cora came in, saw what I was mad about, and said, “it’s okay, Mom. I’m a dog, too.” She totally gets me.

Okay, yes, you can roll your eyes at the sheer ridiculousness of my first world problem here. But seriously, after an emotionally draining few weeks and tons of really not-fun paperwork, all to the tune of a toddler letting me know every time someone in the house was crying, hungry, thirsty, or playing loudly (Co-wah, too LOUDDDD!!!), I did not have the creative juices to come up with anything whatsoever to make for dinner. Ugh. Mental head slap. I could pull from my freezer stash, but none of that stuff was really doing it for me. So…I pulled out a backup plan. And it was not a restaurant (because the last thing I needed was the spike in blood pressure that comes with taking this wild troop to a restaurant). It was my favorite easy meal: Roast Veggies and salad. And yes, I cheated and fed Celia mac and cheese, which she loves and which saved me from one more person complaining about the events of Monday. So here it is friends, nothing fancy, and I don’t have much in the way of pictures. But I can assure you it was good, the cleanup was fast, and no one went to bed hungry.

Ingredients:

• Veggies of your choice, sliced (I used acorn squash, but you can use mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, butternut squash; the list goes on and on)
• Olive oil
• Garlic powder
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Shredded parmesan cheese

1. Preheat your oven to 425, and line a baking pan with aluminum foil.
2. Butter your foil, or brush lightly with olive oil
3. Line sliced veggies along the pan, drizzle with olive oil and top with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and shredded parm.
4. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes (give or take, depending on the veggie- harder veggies will take longer and require more oil, softer veggies will take less time and require less oil)

That’s it! I sliced acorn squash from last week’s veggie share, and it made enough for all of us, and fortunately I had a salad already in my salad spinner with onions, tomatoes and sliced almonds, so we were basically set. I finished us off with watermelon for dessert, which I keep sliced in sticks in the fridge for a healthy munching option. I change this recipe up sometimes and drizzle with balsamic vinegar and herbs like rosemary and thyme (broccoli, carrots, mushrooms and onions are a fall fave that way), or I use lemon juice and parsley instead of parmesan with potatoes, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes. You can do it however you want with whatever you have on hand, and it really is great in a pinch.

Here’s to kissing Mondays (or any bad day for that matter) goodbye, and moving on to a wonderful week. Because I’m a dog, too!

xoxo~ LWH