Saturday, December 3, 2011

Work for a day...

So, having three children is wonderful, but there is a certain hour of the day when all members of my family disintegrate.  All you moms and dads out there know what hour that is.  The dinner making hour.  Pretty much the hour you would need to be slaving over a stove to get dinner on the table, my precious darlings turn into gremlins.  Not the Star Wars cute, fuzzy guys; the horrible gnaw-your-leg-off-at-the-knee kind (from some '80's movie I was never allowed to watch).

Once upon a time (five minutes) when I had one child, I prepared dinner during his (consistent, three-hour) afternoon nap (and cleaned the house and did the folding) then when Annabel came along, I got a lot more serious about meal planning.  I found the most awesome web site:
Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat
I love this site...love, love, love.  I have been trying to create something like it on my own for years, but I always over complicate things.

Here's the deal...you import/input your recipes.  Drag and drop them into the calendar.  Then they make you a shopping list.  Brilliant!  Through the help function you can get it to sync with your personal calendar of choice (don't ask me how...I just followed the help guide).

This month I did something I knew was in my future since I heard about a mother doing it when I was in high school.  For some reason, I heard my mom talking with this woman and my heart grew tremulous.  I knew someday I would have to make all my meals for a whole month and freeze them.  I don't know why this made such an impression on me, but I knew I would have to try it.  Someday.  When I grew desperate.

I have grown desperate.


So, I planned December in Plan to Eat, made out my shopping list, went on a insanely long trip to the grocery store, hired a babysitter and cooked all day long.  All day.  But now all I have to do to make a homemade dinner is thaw and heat or pop open a jar of home canned soup.  The best part? I can play with my babes during the witching hour without any anxiety about getting dinner on the table or eating pb&j too many nights a week.






Only problem is it makes about a month's worth of mess in your kitchen!

4 comments:

  1. If you have some time you should check out www.moneysavingmom.com she has a great blog that I think you would enjoy.
    She is Christian, a mom of three (but her 3 are a little older then yours), she home schools, she lives simply, does freezer cooking, ect.

    On her page there is a section called From My Kitchen it has some tips and ideas on freezer cooking. She used to do a month at a time but I don't think she does anymore. She also shares lots of deals and ways to safe money.

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  2. You are so right. I need to check out that site, like right now. If I had done it sooner I could be sleeping now instead of watching a turkey roast at 9 PM because that's the only time of the day calm enough for cooking and realizing that it will need to cool down for a long while even after it's done cooking, so I might just be awake until the morning ;-)

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  3. Oh my! Turkey sounds good though. Mammas of twins get special regard in my heart.

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  4. Stacy, that site is huge! I will take some time to look it over. Thanks for the tip!

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