Epic Fail

I knew that I was going to cut a corner with tonight's meal.  The only question was which corner was I going to cut?  Was it going to be the family favourite Bacon Pumpkin and Pesto Pasta, or was it going to be the rare-but-inevitable-during-a-week-like-this McDonalds?

I had all the ingredients for BP&P pasta and decided that really, I should cook it.  It's probably slightly healthier, and besides, I'd already asked Buzz if he'd help me.  But although he's been cooking lots of our meals recently (with everything pre-chopped, the recipe meticulously explained and still given careful supervision,) today he said, "Nah, I'm too tired."  Way to go buddy.  Love to see a good work ethic in my kids.

When it came time to start cooking, I chopped the pumpkin and started roasting it.  My next step was to mow the lawn.  Apparently, I am prone to the odd domestic non-sequitur.

The pumpkin, inevitably, turned black.  Sigh.  McDonalds after all.

It was funny announcing this to the kids though.  Buzz, Jessie and Woody had spent a few hours in the back yard making "wombat stew" out of tank water, sand, grass, dirt, gravel and leaves (but thankfully no wombat,) and had graduated to play in the waterlogged sandpit.  They ended up filthy, so by the time the dinner decision was made, they were all showered, in their pyjamas and watching Shrek.  It was in this position that I found them to deliver the news about dinner.

I pressed pause.  "I thought Bacon Pumpkin Pesto Pasta would be good for dinner..."

Jessie's eyes lit up, and Buzz's head fell onto the couch and his eyes closed, signalling his unavailability to cook.

"... but I burned the pumpkin."

Jessie's expression fell, Buzz opened his eyes, curious.

"So I guess we'll have to go to McDonalds."

Celebration.

Mummy is a hero, but it's still a nutritional epic fail.