I like baking. I like the precision of the recipes. I like the smell of something sweet and delicious baking in the oven. I like how pretty desserts look when they’re plated and ready to serve. I like the leisure of making them, usually well in advance of eating them. Everyone loves baked goods, even when we shouldn’t.
But I don’t like cooking. Cooking is usually done for a set meal that has to be ready in 30 minutes or the natives get restless. It doesn’t always look pretty and it doesn’t always get rave reviews from the picky eaters in the group. And while there are recipes, there are also lots of variations. If you happen to be working off someone else’s recipe, there’s a lot of “couple of cubes of butter” or “a handful of celery.” How big are these cubes? What’s a couple? Whose hands??
My husband has this annoying habit of throwing a bunch of stuff in a pot or skillet, mixing it around, and plating these amazing concoctions that smell and taste great. He is the worst example someone like me can ever follow. I need exact recipes, three times the average prep time to account for lack of skill, and a very gracious audience. My demands are met about as often as a terrorist’s.
So when cooking became my primary responsibility after nearly nine glorious years as a barely utilized pinch hitter, I needed a plan. Okay, I needed a plan and a prayer. If you struggle with meals like I do, these are six strategies that help take the overwhelm out of my daily kitchen forays:
Meal Planning is your friend. As much as I enjoy planning in general, I avoided doing it with meals. But I found that without having any plan, I was often short ingredients, prep time, and patience. The meals I was throwing together were not balanced, at times were rejected by my (normally) “I’ll eat anything” children, and just not that good.
About a month into my cooking career, I started making a meal plan and posting it on the fridge each week. I labeled out all three meals as well as the snacks that would be available throughout the day. This allowed me to plan based on our schedules what I would have time to make and give my family fair warning of what was coming (there was not going to be seven straight days of pancakes, sorry).
Organize your recipes. I had heard of a site called Plan to Eat before but hadn’t given it much thought. Once I started meal planning, I realized I would need to increase my repertoire or we would all die of culinary boredom. I got a year subscription for a great price and have been so happy with it. It’s so easy to grab a recipe off the internet and upload it. The site creates grocery lists that I can access on my phone at the store. It’s actually kind of fun (don’t tell anyone I said that). But most of all, it makes it so much easier for me to gather recipes and organize them so I can set up the week’s meals without fuss.
Keep it simple. I am not a creative cook. I am a simple recipe follower so I have found that keeping it simple is best. I like to stick with staples for most of the week, such as spaghetti and meat sauce, chicken and vegetable stir fry, and spam, eggs, and rice (a Hawaiian favorite). I’ll try one more challenging or time consuming dish a week, like lasagna. And I have one cop-out night, which is usually frozen pizza. I sneak veggies in wherever I can, such as spinach in the eggs.
Lunches are either sandwiches or a smorgasbord. I’ll plate nuts, cheese, crackers, and fruit. Grilled cheese is about as difficult as the midday meal gets. And breakfast is a rotation of oatmeal, cereal, scrambled eggs, and pancakes. We spice up Saturdays with cinnamon rolls and yogurt.
Think frozen. Freezer meals are a God send. I’m able to prep them days or weeks before I need them. Some I make uncooked in a bag to be thrown in the crockpot in the morning. Others, like lasagna, are assembled for oven cooking in the evening.
I started doing this for other things, too. Extra cookie dough, pancakes, and breakfast burritos to name a few. It allows me to prepare at leisure, like during naptimes, and do minimal work when time is short.
Double up. Making extra doesn’t require much more planning or effort. When I make lasagna, I make two trays. I double my cookie recipes and pancakes. I make extra pasta sauce. Then, I bag and label the surplus and leave it in the freezer until I need it. Anything that can save me time when hunger strikes at 5pm is worth it.
Slow cookers make up for slow cookers. When I know I have a busy night ahead of me, I break out the slow cooker. Rather than stumble my way through dinner prep in between tasks, I just defrost a pre-made freezer meal the night before and put it in my crockpot in the morning. It’s ready by dinner and I didn’t have to do anything.
While I would still not call myself an enthusiastic cook, I no longer approach meals with trepidation and weariness. Getting organized and having some simple strategies has helped me to put out more balanced and tasty meals that my family enjoys and I don’t dread making. For those of us who don’t throw a meal together with the flair of an artist, meal planning is our recipe for success.
How is your meal planning going? Does your family have any strategies that make dinner time easier? Let me know in the comments!
Need to turn inspiration into action? Ready, Set, Go!
1. Make a meal plan that you can execute. Gather your recipes and keep things simple.
2. If prep time is hard to come by, consider making freezer meals on the weekends or when you have some time. You’ll thank yourself on those hectic weeknights.
3. Double up recipes: one for eating, one for freezing. Again, your future self will thank you.
4. If you don’t have one, consider getting a crockpot. Dropping things in your slow cooker while sipping on your morning coffee is more relaxing than the frantic 5pm rush. Your future self..
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