Peace and Love in the Kitchen

So many of us start out with good intentions, but then get off track.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  The best defense is a good offense.

SCHEDULE SHOPPING DAYS

Choose one or two days a week to do your shopping.  Keep a list taped to the refrigerator of things you need.  A list keeps you organized, so you won’t need to run to the store all the time.  That is exhausting.

SCHEDULE COOKING TIMES

I have friends with full-time jobs, part-time jobs, and friends who work at home. Everyone’s children go in a hundred directions every afternoon. It’s challenging.  You have to have a strategy or your groceries will sit uncooked and wasted. Here is a sampling of how a few of my friends manage to cook.  Figure out what works for you.

V. cooks every morning after her children leave for school.  With 4 children to chauffeur to different sports activities each afternoon, V. has no time whatsoever to spend in the kitchen before 6 pm.  At dinnertime, she only has to heat up what she has already made.

M. works full-time and is usually the last to arrive home each night.  Every Sunday, she prints out a family calendar to see which nights they will eat at home. She plans the meals and adds them to the schedule.  Her nanny and her husband start dinner before she gets home each night.  The children set the table.  She usually arrives in time to help them finish the job.  Everyone cleans it up together.

L. subscribes to a website that sends her menus and shopping lists.  For her, it is a relief not to have to plan.  All she has to do is shop and cook.

I designate Mondays to shopping, planning, and prepping. After shopping, I organize the food into meals and then post a weekly menu.  Food for three nights’ dinners will be prepped that day:  meat marinated or seasoned, vegetables washed and chopped, and two of the “three bowls” assembled – the fruit bowl and the raw vegetable platter.  Monday’s dinner is always fish which is quick and easy.  The rest of the week’s cooking is efficient and quick as well because the prep work is done. Thursday is designated as “Pasta Night”. Once a month, I replenish the freezer with homemade soup, homemade chicken stock, and a muffin or bread.

DEDICATED NIGHTS

Dedicating certain nights of the week to certain meals is a great planning tool.  You always know what to buy, and the children always know what is for dinner. There is comfort in the predictability.  At our house, Monday is fish and Thursdays is pasta.  We’ve dedicate other nights off and on.  The children love Burger Night and Steak Night.  I like Omelette Night.  Use your imagination.