Cooking with babies

I do not have kids and I do not pretend to know what working, home-keeping women with them do to survive but I wanted to share this...

Last weekend when I was meal planning before grocery shopping, I asked the hubby "if you were at a restaurant that served anything right now, what would you order?"
He thought a moment and said "chicken with prosciutto on top." So I decided, okay, let's do it. And while we're at it, lets make it in a creamy cheese sauce and add spinach.
I thought to myself 'what kind of cheese' and called to mind Oliver Garden commercials and the word "Fontina." Not that I have a clue what fontina is relative to other cheeses (taste, melt ability, ease of finding in the store...), but whatevs.

So I get my ingredients, which included whole wheat penne (Thanks to what was served to us at a friends house last weekend, that part was fresh on my mind.) Then due to my schedule this week, I determined that I would be making this dish Thursday night.
I'm also a nut for one-skillet type meals, so I chopped (ehhem, hubby chopped) the chicken into pieces the night before.

The plan was chicken, butter, oil, light cream, fontina cheese, spinach and the prosciutto in the pan.

The unexpected was a request to babysit my nephews - 3 and 9 months. No biggie, they're good kids.

My mom reminded me of this one key thing: the baby is now mobile. He can crawl and stand, so watching him is way different. I look around the house and decide that while's its not officially baby proof, it's not that UN baby proof. (side note: babies will show you exactly how not baby proof your house is.)

So here I am, attempting to cook in my kitchen while the baby finds ways to get into trouble in the living room and dining room and the 3 year old uses my legs to hide during his game of "pretend to be afraid of the dog" who by the way kept trying to eat the baby when she wasn't busy chasing around the 3 year old.

So yes, I attempted to cook with 2 kids and a dog running around.

Beside the recipe/anecdote below I leave you with one heartfelt suggestion - cook your face off before you have mobile-aged children!

Directions:
cook smushy roasted garlic and chicken breast piecess in some fake butter and EVOO
Add in some light cream and chopped (softened in the mic if you want) fontina
Add in ripped spinach
Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste
Wish you had some "bacon or something" to add
Remember the whole idea of this meal was the prosciutto
Laugh because clearly the distraction of children made you forget
Add in ripped prosciutto
Cover and simmer a bit
Serve over cooked whole wheat pasta


Forget to take a picture for the blog and take one of your leftovers the next night instead.

Enjoy!