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Sometimes I just need things to be easy. Mealtime is one of those moments. It's not that I find cooking difficult. But often with a toddler (are they toddlers before they're actually walking?), I get a little distracted and I suddenly find myself scrambling to get dinner done before daddy walks through the door. Or better yet, it's lunch time and I now have a very hungry little one who doesn't quite understand that things don't magically appear on the tray of her high chair.
The difficulty in mealtimes for me comes in deciding what to feed all of us. I think this is a common problem. Choosing a meal when you're hungry or at the very last minute is stressful and usually end in take out. Am I right? To save myself from dietary blunders, I plan a menu. It's something that I had done years ago, but gotten away from for the few moments that Art and I experienced an empty nest. Recently, I've started forcing myself to plan again.
Back when I was the master of meal planning, Drake had just recently been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. At that point, we had to "feed the insulin", which meant at least twice per day he needed a snack with a certain amount of carbs to keep his sugar from dropping to low. I had 4 weekly menus that contained breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks per day. It was perfectly balanced with the food pyramid. Each meal or snack had the right amount of carbs he needed to help maintain a healthy blood sugar. And best of all, it took all the guesswork out of what we would eat.
Times have changed. There is no longer a need to "feed the insulin" due to changes in the type of insulin he uses. Drake has also moved out which means I am no longer in control of his daily eating habits. Arden has joined our family and we have eliminated grains and dairy from our daily diets. All of these things combined have made me implement my menu planning skills once again.
I again have 4 weekly menus, but this time they just include breakfast, lunch and dinners. I rotate these each week giving me a whole month worth of meals. It is quite time consuming to sit down and plan them. But do it. It will save time, money and headaches. I promise.
Another thing I do to help in meal prep is I over cook. That doesn't mean I burn my meals. I make extra. If I'm making chicken instead of making a serving for each one of us, I double it. It takes the same amount of time, but now I have a stock pile of "quick meals" in the freezer that I can have ready in a matter of minutes. I do this with just about anything. Meats, chili, soups, pancakes, and even fruit.
I also try to maintain some sort of organization. When my fridge or freezer gets to the point where I have to move this to get to that, I get a little crazed. To help maintain some order, I schedule a "leftover" day usually a Saturday or Sunday. This means there's one day where I don't have to cook (yay!) and the fridge gets cleared out.
I also do a weekly clean out of the fridge. I check expiration dates, toss anything that needs tossing or freeze it if it's still good but we're not going to finish it before it's "time". This has cut down on a ton of waste. And added to my "freezer stash".
And yes, I even organize my freezers (we have a top door fridge/freezer and a chest freezer as well) . This is a recent development. I've always tried to maintain some sort of order in the freezers, but I've been super frustrated with having to "move this to get to that" and I yesterday I finally had enough. I planned out what I would keep in each freezer, and hit the stores.
In the house, I decided to keep our daily meals. I split them into 5 different groups. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, fruits and veggies (I have two of these. I'll explain in a moment), this weeks dinners.
Breakfast is pretty self explanatory. It is filled with all of our grain free pancakes and breads that can be quickly thawed and enjoyed.
Lunch and Dinner is filled with thaw and enjoy meats and main dishes like chicken, chili, turkey burgers....you get the idea.
Fruits and Veggies #1 is filled with chopped fresh fruit and veggies that are toddler friendly although we can enjoy them too.
Fruits and Veggies #2 is filled with the frozen veggies that we need for the week. It also contains frozen fruit that we use for smoothies.
This weeks meals contains the main dishes for the week that still need to be prepared.
*It's worth mentioning that I freeze all of my breakfast, quick meals and fresh fruits and veggies in single serve baggies or containers. This makes it even easier on me because these are items I can throw in the diaper bag and go. It also means that we can still avoid grains and fast food when we are out and about.
The chest freezer we have I often joke is the place where things go to die. It is a logistical nightmare to organize because you can't see everything. I'm still working out the kinks on this one. I'm not sure if I'll ever be truly satisfied with how it's organized. Only time will tell.
Right now, all of my meat is all sharing one space. My ultimate goal is to have each type of meat have it's own crate, chicken, beef, pork etc. all nicely separated into their own happy spots. Everything else is separated by vegetables, desserts (I keep those in the garage freezer so they are not so easy to get to. That means less temptation for me), any of my "quick meals" that can't fit in the house.
To help make mealtimes even easier, I wash, chop and separate all of our fresh produce. This cuts down on a ton a waste because lets face it, unless someone's washes and chops the celery, it's going to rot in that bottom drawer. Fruits, like melon, berries and kiwi all get chopped (if necessary) and put into single serve containers. Veggies get chopped and placed into grab and go baggies.
All of this does take a little extra prep time, but the headaches it saves is worth it.
The difficulty in mealtimes for me comes in deciding what to feed all of us. I think this is a common problem. Choosing a meal when you're hungry or at the very last minute is stressful and usually end in take out. Am I right? To save myself from dietary blunders, I plan a menu. It's something that I had done years ago, but gotten away from for the few moments that Art and I experienced an empty nest. Recently, I've started forcing myself to plan again.
Back when I was the master of meal planning, Drake had just recently been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. At that point, we had to "feed the insulin", which meant at least twice per day he needed a snack with a certain amount of carbs to keep his sugar from dropping to low. I had 4 weekly menus that contained breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks per day. It was perfectly balanced with the food pyramid. Each meal or snack had the right amount of carbs he needed to help maintain a healthy blood sugar. And best of all, it took all the guesswork out of what we would eat.
Times have changed. There is no longer a need to "feed the insulin" due to changes in the type of insulin he uses. Drake has also moved out which means I am no longer in control of his daily eating habits. Arden has joined our family and we have eliminated grains and dairy from our daily diets. All of these things combined have made me implement my menu planning skills once again.
I again have 4 weekly menus, but this time they just include breakfast, lunch and dinners. I rotate these each week giving me a whole month worth of meals. It is quite time consuming to sit down and plan them. But do it. It will save time, money and headaches. I promise.
Another thing I do to help in meal prep is I over cook. That doesn't mean I burn my meals. I make extra. If I'm making chicken instead of making a serving for each one of us, I double it. It takes the same amount of time, but now I have a stock pile of "quick meals" in the freezer that I can have ready in a matter of minutes. I do this with just about anything. Meats, chili, soups, pancakes, and even fruit.
I also try to maintain some sort of organization. When my fridge or freezer gets to the point where I have to move this to get to that, I get a little crazed. To help maintain some order, I schedule a "leftover" day usually a Saturday or Sunday. This means there's one day where I don't have to cook (yay!) and the fridge gets cleared out.
I also do a weekly clean out of the fridge. I check expiration dates, toss anything that needs tossing or freeze it if it's still good but we're not going to finish it before it's "time". This has cut down on a ton of waste. And added to my "freezer stash".
And yes, I even organize my freezers (we have a top door fridge/freezer and a chest freezer as well) . This is a recent development. I've always tried to maintain some sort of order in the freezers, but I've been super frustrated with having to "move this to get to that" and I yesterday I finally had enough. I planned out what I would keep in each freezer, and hit the stores.
In the house, I decided to keep our daily meals. I split them into 5 different groups. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, fruits and veggies (I have two of these. I'll explain in a moment), this weeks dinners.
Breakfast is pretty self explanatory. It is filled with all of our grain free pancakes and breads that can be quickly thawed and enjoyed.
Lunch and Dinner is filled with thaw and enjoy meats and main dishes like chicken, chili, turkey burgers....you get the idea.
Fruits and Veggies #1 is filled with chopped fresh fruit and veggies that are toddler friendly although we can enjoy them too.
Fruits and Veggies #2 is filled with the frozen veggies that we need for the week. It also contains frozen fruit that we use for smoothies.
This weeks meals contains the main dishes for the week that still need to be prepared.
*It's worth mentioning that I freeze all of my breakfast, quick meals and fresh fruits and veggies in single serve baggies or containers. This makes it even easier on me because these are items I can throw in the diaper bag and go. It also means that we can still avoid grains and fast food when we are out and about.
The chest freezer we have I often joke is the place where things go to die. It is a logistical nightmare to organize because you can't see everything. I'm still working out the kinks on this one. I'm not sure if I'll ever be truly satisfied with how it's organized. Only time will tell.
Right now, all of my meat is all sharing one space. My ultimate goal is to have each type of meat have it's own crate, chicken, beef, pork etc. all nicely separated into their own happy spots. Everything else is separated by vegetables, desserts (I keep those in the garage freezer so they are not so easy to get to. That means less temptation for me), any of my "quick meals" that can't fit in the house.
To help make mealtimes even easier, I wash, chop and separate all of our fresh produce. This cuts down on a ton a waste because lets face it, unless someone's washes and chops the celery, it's going to rot in that bottom drawer. Fruits, like melon, berries and kiwi all get chopped (if necessary) and put into single serve containers. Veggies get chopped and placed into grab and go baggies.
All of this does take a little extra prep time, but the headaches it saves is worth it.