The 5 P's of Life

Prior   Planning   Prevents   Poor   Performance

My 5 P's of life.  I would love to take credit for them, but I heard them first on the Rick and Bubba Show.  I am a task driven person by nature.  If I have a list going & do things that aren't on my list, I'll add them on there just to be able to mark them off.  Yes, it is a little twisted & sick, but it gives me a great amount of happiness.  You know, that little 'woohoo, one more thing off the list' moment.  I put everything on my calendar which is on my computer & on my crackberry.  Both pop up reminders 24 hours in advance of something that has to be done, attended, purchased, etc.  (I'd staple it to my shirt if it wouldn't make me look silly just so I would have one more way to remember stuff.)

If you are a mom with multiple children, you have to live by the 5 P's at least part of the time.  If you don't, I want to know your secret, because I'm going to market it and make a mint!  :)  Just kidding, but I would love to know if you have to have lists to get through your days too.  Yesterday was pretty busy, and I knew I would not have time to cook dinner tomorrow night.  I actually thought about dinner yesterday morning when I woke up at 4:45 am.   I was thinking something like a jambalaya, but there was no time to cook it the normal way, so here's what I did. It's a busy momma's jambalaya.

poached chicken & sausage

I poached the chicken in the crock pot with some Cajun Injector marinade, tons of garlic, 1/2 a small onion, and some chicken broth.  (I used the creole butter.)   What a beautiful creation my crock pot is.  It's almost 20 years old & still going strong.  I can put the meat in there frozen & it comes out fully cooked.  (which is what I did yesterday.)  I also included a pound of turkey sausage.  To the right is a picture of the finished product.

the roux

I had 30 minutes to complete everything else for the dinner.  I needed a roux with this.  The great thing about a roux is a little oil & flour can make a lot.  The way to make it go farther is chicken broth.  :)  A wonderful ingredient, it will add flavor to anything.  Here is my roux while it was cooking.  I added a little kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, a little ground red pepper & ground pepper flakes, and the secret (my favorite) ingredient is Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic.  Yum!  When it was finished I wanted to just eat it out of the pan by itself.  I cooked it to a light brown.  After it was cooked I added 1 onion & 1 green pepper.  (actually you know how lazy I am when I'm in a hurry, so I used frozen onions & green peppers.)

I cooked 2 cups of rice, and shredded the chicken and cut up the sausage and added them to the roux.  Here is the finished product.  It's  hard to see the chicken because it literally fell apart in my hands as I was trying to cut it up.  Henry had 2 or 3 helpings, I couldn't get a firm confirmation, but it was a lot.  The picky one said it was good but not amazing.  He liked the sausage the best.  (I would have used 2 pounds, but I only had one in the freezer.)  Harry said he didn't like it already mixed in with the rice.  He would have liked it all separated.  Picky eaters...

the finished product

Do I use the 5 P's everyday?  No, and  you know what, on the days I don't I'm not nearly as streamlined and productive in what I have to get done.  The day's I use the 5 P's, I can totally rock this mom thing out!  Well, now I can go mark a few things off my list.  :)  And so it begins...

Y'all be blessed beyond measure,
~ashley