What's for Dinner?

Whenever I wonder what's for dinner, I feel a slight panic fluttering around my middle. The later in the day I pose that question to myself, the greater the panic. It's a combination of having picky children and gargantuan reluctance to prepare anything more taxing than canned soup with a peanut butter sandwich. At the risk of sounding like a slacker mom, I have practically zero interest in cooking on most days. Adding to my angst are two packages of buy-one-get-one-free chicken thighs that were too cheap to pass up. So, what do I do? My favorite way to prepare chicken is to braise it--that is to brown it, remove it from the skillet in order to brown vegetables like onions and garlic, and herbs and seasonings. All I have to do after that is pour enough water or broth over to barely cover it and then simmer it until it's done. I like cooking dishes that require little preparation up front and can finish largely unattended. This is why my family is tired of chicken stew. Still, I figure if I perfect my technique I can come up with easy dishes I can prepare with little fuss, leaving me plenty of time to do other things. With a little inspiration and planning, my meals can practically cook themselves, right? So I made this dish--a teriyaki-like variation on Chicken Surprise--in which I browned the pieces, sauteed the garlic, added a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and the zest and juice of one lemon, and pour 3/4 cup of water over it. The chicken pieces were not swimming in the deep end the way they do when I cook them in the slow-cooker. They were healthy, full-grown chicken pieces sitting in the baby pool. I wanted to submerge them, but the memories of countless bland chicken stews flashed across my mind. I let my chicken thighs go wading. While the chicken cooked, I started a pot of brown rice. Brown rice is supposed to be healthy, but the real reason I cook it is that I'm sadistic mom who lives for feeding her family unappetizing food. When the chicken was done, I went to battle with it to separate the skin and bones from the meat with a pair of kitchen scissors and a table fork. That I am still a carnivore after years preparing meat is a testament to my moral weakness. I really do despise cooking meat of any kind. But in the end, I had dinner ready--delicious Chicken and Rice Teriyaki Surprise. The only problem: what's for dinner tonight.