Company Coming
Saturday evening edit: Plans change! Thank goodness for a good friend and his family who came over to help Jeff with the fencing on Friday and Saturday. As a result, we’ve had company on Friday and Saturday (and tomorrow is Sunday). Many of my preparations (and more besides) have already been eaten. 
Gonna start afresh tonight by putting more beans and another chicken in the crockpot. I love it that my crockpots work all night while I’m sleeping. In the morning, I’ll cook more rice, make a second batch of ice cream and assemble the ingredients for the rice bowls. It should all work out fine!
We’re having friends over on Sunday afternoon. On Saturday we’re going to be really busy putting up fencing, so I’m going to do a bunch of my cooking on Friday, and only a little on Saturday.
The menu is burritos rice bowls consisting of chicken, rice and beans; ice cream and cookies for dessert:
- chicken meat from the crockpot
corn tortillas (batter style)brown basmati rice- refried beans
- toppings for the burritos–sliced olives, diced onions, shredded goat cheddar cheese
- salad of some sort (brought by our friends)
- vanilla coconut ice cream
- cinnamon-raisin bar cookies (gluten-free)
I might change my mind about the corn tortillas, considering that they are time intensive to make, especially for a crowd. So, instead of that, I might use the chicken and beans and toppings and serve it all over rice, as in a rice bowl. Okay, I’ve convinced myself. Scratch the tortillas, substitute brown basmati rice.
So what has to happen is that tomorrow (Friday) I will make 2 batches of the cookies and freeze them. I will make one batch of the ice cream. I will cook the pinto beans for the refried beans. I will take the chickens out of the freezer to thaw. (I will also clean house this day, but that is unrelated to the kitchen.)
On Saturday, I will cook the chickens in the crockpot all day. I will make another batch of ice cream. In the evening, I will take the meat off the chicken bones and refrigerate the meat.
On Sunday morning, I will cook the rice and prepare the toppings. I will heat the chicken and season it with salt, pepper, cumin and paprika. I will mash the beans and season them, turning them into chunky refried beans. I think I’ll reserve some of the beans and blend them into a seasoned sauce which we can pour over the foods in the rice bowl (ala the Yumm! Sauce from Cafe Yumm! — although not using chickpeas and sesame, as they do; this will instead be a cumin-spiced bean sauce). I will take the cookies out of the freezer. The kids will set the table and fold napkins and help me with last minute straightening.
Then we should be ready for fun with our friends.
Hi Wardeh,
A friend told me about your site last week, and I just wanted to tell you what an encouragement you’ve been to me this week! We have multiple food sensitivities in our family, including gluten, soy, dairy, corn, egg, yeast, as well as blood sugar issues. Sometimes it feels nearly impossible to cook without making somebody sick! I have never found anyone who cooks like I must, until I found you! Thank you so much! My husband and I enjoyed your chocolate almond spread with rice crackers the other night, and I made some graham crackers today that my daughters (3 and 20 mos.) will love. Whole chicken in the crockpot is on the menu for tomorrow.
Thanks again!
I love this step by step account of how you planned to prepare a meal for guests! Thanks for writing it all out. It’s nice to see how someone else prepares for a big meal.
Kelly, this is one of those times that I have not been able to stick to my plan! My husband asked a friend and family to help us with the fencing yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday) — a great blessing. I’m finding that my plan, however slightly I’m able to follow it, is helping me tremendously because I’m needing to provide food for a crowd for three days straight. My crockpots (3 of them) are at work every night. I don’t know when I’ve ever been so thankful for crockpots. Love, Wardeh
Sara, how good to “meet” you! I love to hear that there are others like us. I believe we can be a great encouragement to each other! Please let me know if there’s ever anything I can do to help you! Love, Wardeh
It sounds like you still made it work out! What a delicious meal. Do you buy your coconut milk in bulk somewhere? I tried your coconut ice cream yesterday and my family LOVED it!
Hi, Kelly! I buy it through Azure Standard in a case of 12. I get a price break that way. But I am about to experiment with making my own coconut milk by whizzing the coconut meat and water in my Vita-Mix to see if I can get it smooth enough. I think that would be less expensive, but I don’t have enough coconut to try it until next week. I’ll let you know! Love, Wardeh