Well I use lots of methods for getting dinner on the table every night. And no it is not a once a month marathon of cooking 30 meals (although I have done that before!). Rather I employ a combination of ready made seasoning mixes that you combine with your choice of meat and liquid/canned good and place in your freezer for a future date. I also keep on hand many microwave steamer meals that get's dinner done in under 30 minutes!
I also use methods of C.O.S.T - Cook Once Serve Twice. No, I'm not feeding the same recipe to your family again or even telling you to double the SAME recipe. Instead we turn tonight's dinner into a completely NEW dinner tomorrow. Trust me, I HATE leftovers but with COST you don't even know you are eating leftovers! Brilliant!
Let's Get Started
- Crock pot is my number one used kitchen gadget
- Oven
- Microwave
- Grill
- Rice Cooker
- Tupperware
- Gallon Freezer Bags
- Internet - for researching recipes
Types of meals that work best with WAHM cooking:
Meals that can be assembled in their pre-cooked or cooked state in the freezer and then either slow cooked, grilled or baked in the oven. Meals that have shelf stable ingredients so that you always have them on hand for quick meal preperation. Casseroles, 30 minute meals, meals with less than 5 ingredients, soups, and baked potatoes, you get the picture.
Organizing your WAHM day
Prepare Freezer Bags with Just Purchased on Shopping Day
What I like to do is on the days that I do the grocery shopping or my bulk shopping (buying all my meat and stocking up when on sale) I prepare my 4 Meals in 4 Minutes meals right away. This way in just a few minutes I have all my meat in bags in the freezer ready to go when I do my meal planning later that week/month. Then on the day I will be making that meal I just pop it into the crock pot for dinner that night.
Use your lunch time wisely
- Assemble Casseroles - when taking a lunch break use this time to assemble any casseroles for dinner that night, cover and place in the fridge. When ready to cook set it out on the oven while it preheats and pop in the oven.
- Prepare any rolls or breads that require long prep time or baking time. I will just reheat in the microwave a few seconds before serving dinner
- If doing a 30 minute meal, get all non-perishables out on the counter for later cooking. Chop up and veggies and store in fridge.
- Cook any ground beef or chicken now for later and store in fridge ( I like to bake my chicken breasts, from frozen at 350 degrees for 45 min to an hour then chop, so much better than boiling!)
- Start any desserts that need long baking time - like cakes or cupcakes
- Bake cupcakes, and sweet breads on weekends and freeze for later use during the week
- Experiment with new recipes and those that take long cooking times for down home cooked meals
- Make large batches of soups for soup night that you can freeze in family sized portions and reheat during the week
- Cook up large batches of ground beef or baked chicken for use in recipes
- Chop up veggies for use later in the week
As you can see, when you work at home, if you use small blocks of time here and there you can prep your dinner all throughout the day so that you just throw it all together at dinner time.
I will post my suggestions on when to prep and what order to cook these things in my recipes on the blog. Hopefully you will find the trend and make a schedule that suits your family and your work schedule.
Enjoy!
WAHM Cook
