Cutting out the Chaos of Cooking Dinner by Phyllis Miller
These days it is difficult for any mother, working out of the home or not, to keep a level of sanity at dinner time. Our lives, and that of our families are often so scheduled and we rush out like mad women much of the time. We eat out too often which, although expedient is expensive and not necessarily the most healthy option. Certainly it is not a good old home cooked meal, which these days is easier said than done.
But with a little organization and upfront planning I have found a way to cut the chaos of cooking dinner. It feels good to make a month, or a few weeks, of meals in one day and freeze ahead of time.
First find a day when you have little to nothing going on and begin planning the evening before by doing some research. A lot of recipes can be found on www.sixsistersstuff.com which devotes an entire section to crockpot recipes with grocery lists which is extremely helpful. I also do searches based on what I know my family likes, for example “slow cooker chicken recipes”.
Once I have a list of what I am going to make for the next few weeks I draw up a shopping list. On a day that I can organize to be at home all day I buy all the food and then set aside 2 to 3 hours to make all the meals. I focus on very easy meals and try to make them healthy : homemade chicken noodle soup, chicken enchilada, sesame pork chops, balsamic chicken etc.
If I am making a slow-cooker recipe I will bag everything up in a crock-pot liner, then stick that inside a Ziploc bag to freeze. Remember to label the contents with a Sharpie and write the cooking/heating instructions on the bag too.
The night before I want to cook it I take it out the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge. In the morning I toss it in the crockpot. My crockpot has a ‘warm’ setting so I’ll set it in the morning, it will cook, then shut off and go to the warm setting so it’s ready to eat later that night.
This makes our weekdays so much easier and crockpot liners save me from having to wash a lot of dishes ! I also make corn bread and homemade rolls ahead of time and freeze them to go with our meals. Some of my family’s favorite crock pot meals are Balsamic Chicken (its a Weight Watchers recipe), Honey Sesame Chicken, and crockpot lasagna. For casseroles, we love Bobby Dean’s Baked Spaghetti and Poppyseed Chicken.
A home cooked meal, shared as a family around the kitchen table : with a bit of planning it’s easily said and done.
Meals prepared for the next few weeks going into the freezer.
