At some point I really hope to get on a regular schedule, but right now I am in survival mode with school starting back up and I haven't really figured out how to accomplish any more than I am right now at this moment. But soon, very soon, I will figure it out- I hope.
This post is dedicated to all my friends who have been posting their crockpot meal ideas on pinterest lately. Crockpot meals have taken over my Pinterest feed. When one starts posting crockpot meals this sends the message that this person is seeking ways to make life more managable. In my case, when I was searching for crockpot meals about a year ago, my ship was sinking and I was going down with it. I clung to crockpot meals like they were my life preserver in the storm. Sadly though, crockpot meals for me were an epic fail- but the good news is I managed to survive without them.
A little word to the working moms- hesitate to take meal advice from mom's who work from home. Working Mom and Working From Home are not the same thing! I am not saying stay at home or work from home moms do not work hard, because they do, but it is different. (More on this topic later.)
Crock pot meals do not work for me because I am gone too many hours. Crockpot meals usually require 6 to 8 hours of cooking. I am gone at least 10 hours a day. So by the time I get home, my crockpot meals have been cooked to their death and are no good. One time, my sister and I were hashing out life and the fact that there are too many things to accomplish during the hours in which we have to accomplish them. (this is a weekly conversation between the two of us) Anyway, we decided that crockpot freezer meals were the answer. We spent approximately two weeks researching until we found what we believed to be the best crockpot meals. We then dibied up our grocery lists and went to shopping. We spent about $80 a piece and an entire Saturday, but we prepared around 6 to 8 crockpot meals each. At the moment the last baggie was zipped we were officially the most organized mom's in the county- hands down. And then about two weeks went by and neither of us had put a single meal in the crockpot. See what happens is, you have these big dreams of crockpot meals and butterflies and rainbows, then reality strikes and you realize you have to actually put the meal in the crockpot. They should tell you that on the recipe, really. They say, "then you put the meals in the freezer until you are ready for them." This is very misleading. Mornings are crazy busy at my house (again, saving the topic of mornings for another posting) and I just wouldn't think of the crockpot meal until it was time to go out the door. On the one day I did think of it, I left the meal in the crockpot, on low, and went to work. I'm pretty sure I was walking a little lighter that day knowing dinner would be waiting on me when I got home. Well, dinner was waiting, but nobody wanted to eat it. My chicken was totally dried out and brown and the sauce had pretty well disinigrated. I left it for too many hours. I tried a couple of the meals after that on Saturdays when I was home to make sure the drying out didn't occur again, but I'll just be honest, they were not good. This leads to my second lesson, when you freeze food in baggies, the flavors and goodness stick to the sides of the baggie and never really end up in your meal. Today, the rest of the meals sit in my freezer, cold and alone. I will clean them out in all of my spare time. haha wink, wink
The truth of the matter is, if you are a working mom that still likes to prepare dinner for your family there really is no good answer. You just have to search for something that works for you. The thing that works for me the best is freezing actual meals that I have prepared- example, make a lasagna on Sunday in a 9 x 9 pan instead of a 9 x 13, prepare the leftovers in a 9 x 9 foil pan and freeze it. Another nice trick is cooking up a bunch of hamburger and chicken and freezing it. Then, on taco night your burger is already browned, you simply thaw it (because we know we will forget to put it in the fridge before we leave for work) and add the seasoning. This knocks a good 20 minutes or more off your prep time. Another helpful tip is taking time each weekend to plan your meals for the following week. Simply having a plan helps more than anything. Then, if you have time on Sunday, go ahead and brown your hamburger if you are going to need it or boil and shred your chicken and freeze it. You can also prep some veggies to keep in the fridge until you are ready for them. I don't always get this accomplished over the weekend, but when I do, life for that one week is a little less stressful.
I want to share one last handy idea with you before I go take care of the toddler that is currently emptying all of my kitchen cabinets. Rotissary chicken. If you are going to be running behind and need something that doesn't feel totally like a take out meal, stop by the store and pick up a family size rotissary chicken and a bag of ready made salad. This will be dinner for the evening. Save the leftover chicken for the following night and make enchiladas or chicken tacos or ranch chicken, whatever your heart desires!
Best of Luck! You are doing great!
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