I want out of the kitchen, the only problem is I love to eat. Also, there’s that whole starving to death thing if you don’t eat. Living in Utah there are so many wonderful things to see and do outdoors, I just need to figure out how to get out there.
Making dinner can be the biggest time consumer of my evening. If I forgot to thaw something or I have nothing quick on hand, I just pick up the phone, pizza, sandwiches, or Chinese, all on speed dial. This is bad for both my wallet and my waist. There has to be a better way.
Part of being prepared to make dinner every night is planning ahead. I always plan my meals and make a grocery list before I shop. The problem is, my life hasn’t seen my meal plan and the night I’m supposed to make lasagna is inevitably the night I have to work late, get a flat tire or the dog vomits all over the carpet. Something always comes up, and I order out, or eat chips and salsa standing at the counter wondering how my day got the better of me, again.
I love involved, intricate, homemade meals but I’ve had to make them my go to for the weekends. Otherwise, I never find the time during the week and the ingredients go bad. I’m learning to cook in batches on the weekend and freeze meals. This way I can have lasagna or enchiladas on a weekday.
I’ve also learned to keep quick and easy meals for during the week. No matter how good my intentions are sometimes I don’t have an hour to prepare and bake a meal.
For me, bagged salads are a lifesaver. I try to cook some of the meat as soon as I bring it home. Bake some chicken breasts and then chop and freeze, brown ground turkey and freeze. This makes it much easier to throw together a salad, I can add some chopped chicken or some ground turkey, tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole and chips and have a taco salad.
Also hard boiled eggs, veggies and hummus makes a quick and easy dinner, especially if you boil the eggs on Sunday morning when you have time.
In order to feed our families healthy meals, we need a plan, but the plan needs to change. Unless you are June Cleaver with perfect children and a self cleaning home, you are not going to have time for four course meals after working all day. Change your expectation, change your eating habits and ease up on yourself. After all, Betty Crocker doesn’t live here.