Put Your Apron On (for a day)

Work full time & make a wonderfully delicious dinner every night!?! Are you crazy? Lately a lot of people seem to think so, but I don’t think it’s because I’m trying to accomplish the unreachable. I think it has more to do with my ridiculous planning skills (or over planning skills as some would think…you know who you are meanie heads....lol). ;)

Over the last 2 years I have been striving at finding balance between working full time and still being the all-around supermom and model wife. It’s is not easy, but it’s been an interesting ride trying not to fail in one area or the other.

Please keep in mind that my routine works for our family, but it may not work for yours. You have to find your balance, but I hope my tips and suggestions help get you there. :)

The key ingredient in my balancing act has been to plan ahead. Every 2 weeks I plan out our menu for the upcoming 2 weeks. I spend a lot of time searching Pinterest for quick and easy meals, meals that you can make ahead and freeze, or crock pot meals.

Once I plan the menu I make a grocery list. I grocery shop 2x a month and buy everything I need to for those meals at once. I try to use fresh produce items in my ingredients for the first week menu whereas my second week menu I’ll use frozen or canned produce; whatever the recipe calls for. Try to plan your menu accordingly.

After all the shopping is done I’ll spend a couple hours on a Saturday or Sunday preparing as many of those meals as I can; freezing them and marking them off my list of things to do. Not all meals you can freeze or make ahead and some, well, let’s be honest, they just don’t taste good unless you make them the same day. So, what do you do then?

If there’s a meal that needs to be made the same day I try to prepare as much of it as I can the night before; i.e. brown the meat, cook the chicken, boil the pasta, cut the potatoes. If there are dry or wet ingredients that can be mixed together beforehand then mix them and store them in an air tight container until you’re ready to add them to the recipe. Do as much as you can the night before so that when you get home from work you can just throw everything together, cook it, and voila!

Hopefully you have successfully made as many dishes ahead of time as you can so that when you get home from work, you preheat the oven, pop in the main dish, make up a quick side dish of veggies, set the table, enjoy a few minutes of family time together, and then “ding” it’s dinnertime without a huge fuss.

Less fuss makes this mama less grouchy and my boys sure do appreciate less grouchy. ;)

This past weekend I made 6 freezer meals and plan to have 2 crock pot meals. I only make dinners Monday-Thursday. Fridays I let the boys take me out. ;)

Examples

Crockpot Potato Soup

Goulash

Chicken and Wild Rice

Quesadilla Casserole

Layered Enchilada Casserole

In the midst of cooking up all those yummy meals I made a couple desserts for the fun of it. Several people have already asked me for the recipe to the Pumpkin No Bake Cookies. So, here you are ladies.

Pumpkin No Bake Cookies

Happy planning & cooking! Enjoy!

xo,

Krista