I cook every meal. Except BBQ.  That is his domain. So, when we BBQ, I make sure we get a BUNCH of meals out of it.

Here’s what we typically make:

4-6 chicken breasts
4-6 hamburgers
8 hot dogs

I prep all of the food, so all he has to do is cook.  Which means, by the time dinner rolls around, all I have to do is EAT.

For the burgers, I make my own special concoction.  I combine any BBQ sauce (about 1/2 a bottle) with 2 tablespoons of honey, a tsp of minced onion and a few shakes of garlic powder.

Coat the bottom of a pan with the special sauce, place a burger in the pan, cover the burger with the sauce, place the next burger on top, etc. Then the burgers chill until he is ready to get cooking!

For the chicken – I place the breasts in a Ziploc bag with ANY marinade.  My favorites are the Lawrys – the Teriyaki, the Lemon Herb and the Garlic marinades are fantastic.  I dump 3/4 of the bottle in the bag, seal it and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.

Hot dogs – well, I don’t do anything extra special with them.

The food we make typically lasts at least 3 nights and often fills in for a few lunches too. That’s the bonus – multiple nights – no cooking!

It’s “Fast Food Night”, and it has nothing to do with going to the nearest drive-thru.

Buy some pre-formed hamburger patties (or pre-make them yourself if you’re intent on showing the rest of us up), some frozen French fries, and vanilla ice cream and flavorings for shakes.

Put some hats on the kids if you have them, or headbands or bandanas-whatever you have handy. You be the cook, let the younger children be the servers, and the older ones be the customers. (Adjust accordingly to the size of your family. A good idea is to let your children invite friends over.)

You want this to be all about exaggeration. Tell the servers to yell those orders out! When you shout “order up!” do it like you think Pavarotti would have. Get one of those dingers that you slap with your hand. In other words, the more obnoxious, the better!

Remember, this is fast food. Cut corners where you can, such as using the pre-formed patties, frozen French fries, dill pickle chips, pre-sliced cheese, etc.

Hey, if you want to get fancy making uniforms and custom hats, that’s up to you. The closest I ever get to that is saying “Yeah, that would be cute. I should do that.”

Fast Food Milk Shake

Vanilla ice cream
Some flavoring ideas: Chocolate powder or syrup, sliced banana, strawberry powder or syrup, peanut butter, Oreo cookies, malt flavoring, whatever the heck else you can think of.

Drop some vanilla ice cream into your blender and add the flavorings of your choice. Turn it on a high setting and blend away. You can add a bit of milk if you want, but the blender usually breaks down the ice cream enough to make it drinkable.

Secret Sauce for Hamburgers and French fries

½ cup ketchup
½ cup mayonnaise
2 Tbls pickle relish
¼ tsp horseradish

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. Wonderful on hamburgers and as a dip for French fries.

Enjoying dinner while being goofy-does it get any better than that?