Going to the movies with good friends...

So, last Thursday, July 9th was my fun little movie date and lunch that I had set with my 2 favorite/best friends. We were all set to catch the morning 9:35am showing of The Avengers, Age of Ultron movie. And we were going to have lunch of course afterwards and more than likely we'd be talking and staying at the restaurant, all the way up until it was time for us, to pick up our kiddos. So, I knew dinner either had to be cooked courtesy of my Crock Pot, that I bought and brought here over 10 years ago from Denver, to Japan with me. An American moms best friend in the kitchen, I tell ya....we do love our crock pots. Hahaha. Or it would have to be an easy already rotisserie chicken from Costco, you know what I mean...it had to be an easy dinner though, because I wouldn't be home that day. Knowing this on Monday as I was writing out my weekly menu, I picked up a lean block of beef, Wednesday, I defrosted it from the freezer and so Thursday morning, I sliced and cubed it, skillet fried it in a tad of oil and salt and pepper, then I filled my crock pot up with the right amount of water and threw it into the crock pot, on high. 

About to be plugged in and quickly set. I do have a counter in my kitchen obviously, but...I didn't want to move my rice cooker or anything else and as I was pressed for time (had to get dressed, wash my face, put makeup on etc etc) I just put it here and called it done!

We 3 went to the movie. We enjoyed the movie so much! We went to Saizeriya (an affordable Italian restaurant, it's a chain restaurant) after the movie and we stayed there from 12 noon until 2:10pm. I had to get Noah at 3pm and drive back from Ibaraki to my town. So, I had to leave at that time. I made it right on time to get Noah. Bran got off at 3:45pm. I picked up Noah and we went home. The rice cooker was just finished, it was playing, it's little melody/song as we entered the house. The beef in the crock pot was fall apart tender. I, at that point, started to slice an onion, get the mushrooms out of the fridge, peel 2 large potatoes. Slice the carrot. And at that point. Noah stayed home, in the kitchen, and did his homework with strict instructions, do not answer the door for anyone (he knows this though already). And I'll be back in 5 minutes. I went and swung by the plaza and sure enough Branden was just walking up, he hopped in the car and we were home lickity split! Bran, went upstairs changed his clothes and whatnot. I meanwhile, transferred, the crock pot contents to a regular stock pot type pan on the stove, added the veggies set the timer for 30 minutes so the potatoes would be soft but not obliterated. While dinner was just finishing up. Noboru came home. He took a shower. And by the time he came downstairs, I was already melting the beef stew roux in the stew. Noah *loves* beef stew so much and considering he's such a skinny minnie, I am very excited to see him eat. Noah had 2 full servings of beef stew. Which made me thrilled. Branden ate, Noboru ate, we all ate a very nice hearty meal. We all asked about each others day. And just had a nice dinner conversation as a family. I didn't have many dishes that night. The crock pot I washed by hand, Bran dried it for me and put it into the dish cabinet. But other than that, I really only had a knife, a cutting board and our 4 curry/stew curved plates and some spoons and whatnot to toss into the dishwasher. It was a fairly easy peasy dinner. We all had cantaloupe for dessert, and that's only because melons are superly cheap around where we live, so we eat honey dew, cantaloupe and watermelon all summer long. Until we're all sick to death of it. hahaha. Luckily we're not at that point yet though, so it was wonderful. : )  Anyway, that was the... fun little movie date with my friends. And then a quick dash to get the kids and a quick and easy, dinner (thank you dearest crock pot). : )