Monday, March 29, 2010

What's Cookin'?

In general, I really like to cook.  Before Perron came along, I would usually cook every night that I didn't have an after work commitment.  I would make pretty elaborate meals and tell myself what a little Suzie Homemaker I was.  Now that Perron is here, I still need to cook dinner every night, it's not like we have stopped eating since his arrival.  The only wrench in my plans is that my time is now severely limited.  I basically get to spend an hour and a half with my son every day that I work.  By the time I get him home for the day and he has to get ready for bed, we have about an hour to spare.  I was hating it that I was having to spend a minimum of a half hour of my precious time with him in the kitchen making dinner.  So I started searching the Internet for solutions and I found this.  Basically you prepare either two or four weeks worth of meals all in one day and then you freeze them and pull them out the night before.  I tried a two week cycle and it worked awesome.  It is so nice to come home from work and just put something on the stove or in the oven and be done with it.  It took me five hours to cook 13 meals (I didn't cook one of them) and then clean up the kitchen.  It definitely made the kitchen look like a food bomb had dropped in it and I had to run the dishwasher in the middle of cooking because I was running out of mixing bowls, but in the end it was all worth it.  I have so much more time with Perron and I have the added bonus of not having to stress about what I am going to make each night.  The plan calls for a major grocery shopping, so that takes some time, but my in between trips to the grocery are much shorter.  It also is saving me money because I am buying in bulk and not throwing away food that never gets used.  So, to all of my working mama friends...or even those who don't, but are sick of the nightly dinner night...go out and buy this book.  I promise you will not be disappointed.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a PLAN to me! Thanks!

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  2. I'm going to have to check this out... Adding another baby to the mix is going to have my busy. Would be nice not to worry with multiple trips to the store or changes with the nightly menu. Did the serving sizes work for one night only or did they save for a 2nd night? Did you mostly prepare stuff ahead of time and cook it after it thawed?

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  3. What a great idea, Julia!! Even with no kids, I run out of time. ;)

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