Lateness and Burnt Toast: The Miraculous Mental Shift After the Toaster Incident | 100-Yen Shop 'Whole Stuffed Bell Pepper' Dinner

A hungover morning, my child is super late for club activities, smoke is pouring from the toaster, and the breakfast bread is burnt to a crisp...
This is a real-life holiday struggle story of a dad who turned such a desperate, one-parent-household disaster into a laughing matter using a 100-yen shop microwave cooker and a 'divine post-fasting mentality'!

Even though my older child said they had club activities today, they were sleeping soundly and leisurely.

My younger child asked me, while I was dazed and suffering from a severe hangover,
'Can I watch TV?'
and...

'U-uh... sure...'

Since I was woken up by being spoken to, I woke up like a zombie, sipped some hot water, had a puff of a cigarette, and was relaxing when...

Suddenly, a shockwave ran through my brain. 'Oh! Isn't it club day?'

It was supposed to start at 8:30, but it was already past 8:00. Yep, I'm done for.

I called out to my older child, and from here, our household's one-parent-childcare, stormy time attack began.
Time to make breakfast! I dashed to the kitchen, but...

'Ugh! I forgot to cook the rice!'

Can't be helped! I'll use the French bread I bought yesterday... wait, it's covered in mold!

Ugh... Can't be helped! I shoved a avant-garde hybrid breakfast of bananas, cheese, yogurt, miso soup, and natto down their throat, and dashed to school by car!

...Yeah, arrived at 8:50. Lateness officially confirmed.

I watched my older child go into school, and on the way back, I stopped at a convenience store to buy cigarettes and sliced bread for my younger child's breakfast. My younger child had promised to play with friends at 10:30 today, so...
But, I was relaxing and watching soccer on TV. I hurriedly started preparing breakfast for my younger child.

I put the bread in the toaster and turned the dial to the usual '5 minutes'.

A few minutes later... wait, what is this black object? Charcoal?

For some reason, it was burnt to a crisp.

'That's strange,' I thought, and tried again with '3 minutes'. Tick, tick, tick... ding. ...

...Yeah, it's burnt again. Is this toaster broken, you piece of junk?! Well, it's edible if I scrape it off, so it's safe! (It's not.)

Anyway, I fed them breakfast and took them to the place we promised. Because my younger child was watching TV and dawdling, we were 10 minutes late. Their friend wasn't there, and my younger child burst into tears. Can't be helped, if it's come to this, Daddy will be your playmate!

Air hockey and billiards, 'Hiyah! Take that!' I showed off my adult seriousness and had a blast as a dad. The moms and kids around were watching with curious giggles, but you have to throw away your shame! If you don't enjoy it, you're losing out. Hiyah! Take that! I heard another child watching say to their mom, 'That looks fun! Mom, I want to do that too!!' I occupied and monopolized the games, played until I was satisfied, and then let them have a turn.

The mom and her child. They played in silence and it wasn't fun at all... The child didn't look like they were having fun either. I thought to myself, 'You really have to throw away your shame and have fun,' as I left the facility to pick up my older child.

For lunch🍚, the kids said,
"We want to eat pasta for a change~"
so I just made it normally using this 100-yen shop pasta cooker below and we had a normal meal.
The seasoning was Napolitan🍝.

Wow, I'm stuffed😆

After eating, the kids threw their dishes into the sink and vanished into another room in an instant🥲.

I was looking at the cloudy sky while making and smoking a cigarette🚬 with that homemade cigarette machine of mine below.

I thought, "Huh?"🤔

Things have been so hectic since this morning, one strange thing after another, the kids didn't even try to wash the dishes on their day off, the table was left dirty...
It's a total mess, yet I'm not feeling irritated or having my nerves frayed?🧐
I'm not thinking about anything, I'm not bothered by it.
Of course, I'm not holding back either.
This is unthinkable for the me from before fasting.
No, even thinking back to my whole life, this version of me is impossible.
Honestly, I'm changing on my own to the point where I wonder if I'm dreaming.
Maybe neuroplasticity🧠 is still continuing.
Thinking that,
I realized my own strange change, and I was a little happy as I stood there for a moment with a cigarette in my mouth, looking at the cloudy sky.

The weather is bad today, and the older one had club activities in the morning. The younger one was at a facility in the morning, so they probably just want to stay home, read books, and lounge around.
It's okay to have days like this... I was just zoning out like that😊.

Today I tried making whole stuffed peppers🫑

Remove the stems of the peppers and take out the seeds inside with a spoon.
Finely chop the onion.
Put it in a 100-yen shop ramen cooker, put on the included lid, and
600W for 30 seconds

In another 100-yen shop ramen cooker, add
ground meat,
onion,
1 tbsp sake,
1/4 tsp salt,
1/4 tsp grated ginger,
mix it,
put on the included lid,
600W for 6 minutes,
leave it for a few minutes to let the residual heat cook the meat. Add green onions and egg, mix to make the meat filling,

Stuff the meat filling tightly into the peppers and coat the entire pepper with potato starch.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap, and
microwave the peppers at
600W for 5 minutes

It looked a bit suspicious, so I flipped them over and did another 600W for 5 minutes

In another 100-yen shop ramen cooker, add
1 tbsp sake,
1 tbsp mirin,
1/2 tbsp sugar,
1 tbsp soy sauce,
1/2 tsp potato starch,
and
600W for 1 minute,
take it out immediately and mix to thicken. Pour this sauce over them. The older one doesn't really like mayonnaise, so I didn't add it, but for the younger one, I topped it with mayonnaise.

Everyone is smiling, let's dig in today too🧑‍🍳

By the way, the potato salad on the plate is the one I made by referring to the record I made previously↓

Looking at this record,
Whoa!!✨

14,000 likes on an old guy's diary... I'm just so incredibly grateful😭💦

Thank you so much😭💦
Even though it's just an old guy's diary and experiment log, to have so many people press the like button... I'm truly honored🙇
I wish I could write more useful information or things that would make you laugh if you read them... but I'm not good at writing and lack literary talent💦 (I don't even have the academic background)
I'm sorry I haven't been able to write anything helpful🙇
Thank you so, so much‼️🍀
I feel like I'll have a good dream tonight✨😊
Thank you🍀😊


Where is the "fasting old guy's brain," which is evolving surprisingly calmly amidst a chaotic daily life, heading?
Next time, I want to make it an even more chaotic holiday and a breakthrough recipe for 100-yen shop microwave meals.
What will be the outcome of this dad's transformation?!

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