Simplifying My Life as a Mom – Kitchen Helps!
I love to cook. I can’t even describe how much I love being in the kitchen. I’m totally in my element. Chopping and seasoning and mixing. Whether it’s making dinner, or baking a treat, I love it. Enter baby. This made things a little more complicated. Trying to balance keeping my little guy happy and getting a meal on the table every night was tricky. I used swings, and a binky, I piled toys around him. Everything I could think of to keep him happy and entertained so I could make dinner. And then, it was like I had an epiphany. An idea of how I could make things a little easier on myself, and ensuring I would get a yummy, homemade meal on the table every night. And it’s such a simple idea. It really has simplified my life as a mom. Chopping everything beforehand. A chop night.
And so that’s what we do. Usually on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, my husband and I pull out all the produce we need for the next week’s meals. Granted, this does involve some planning on your part. You need to know what you’re cooking for the entire week, and you need to have it all in your house. I make a list of all the ingredients and how they need to be chopped. For example, 1 medium onion – diced, or 3 cloves garlic – minced. You get the picture. And then we set to work. I group things together by meals, and by what can go in the same bags that are added to the recipe at the same time. We wash produce, chop, place in individual bags, and then stick them in a tupperware to make sure no smells escape (hello, onions!).
Then, Monday night rolls around and I pull out all the bags labeled “Lasagna Soup” and I set to work. It’s surprising how much time it saves! Wednesday hits and I pull out everything labeled “Orange Chicken Stirfry” and I throw it in the skillet. There are, of course, things that don’t work too well being chopped too far in advance. Zucchini? Forget about chopping them earlier than about the day before (maybe 2). They become a mushy mess. Yes, I speak from experience. If you’re chopping potatoes, make sure to fill the bag up with cold water to keep them from going brown. Most things hold relatively well – even for an entire week. I can’t tell you how much time this has saved me, and how much easier it is for me to get a delicious dinner on the table every night. Oh, and it helps to have a willing husband whose help you can enlist! 🙂
I like how easy this really is to do. It would help me so much. My biggest problem is that I need to start making a meal plan. I sometimes just fly by the seat of my pants. Which doesn’t work great. I do make a lot of freezer meals. I need to start doing this. Thanks for the post and the motivation.
Great idea! Going to give it a try next week.
I like this idea and I know my husband would help out too. What a great time saver.
wow what great ideas, thank you so much for the great post
I’ve thought about doing something like this before. It’s a great idea.. maybe I should give it a try. Maybe even create some freezer meals that would just need to be cooked up when there’s little time to spare. Thank you.
Great Ideas I’ll be sure to try.
I love your idea. Some recipes, the chopping up of veggies takes up the most time. This would cut the time down so much. Now I just have to train myself to do it.
Thank you for this post! This is going to help me sooo much. It will save me time during the week when making our meals so I will be less likely to pick up carry out when I am really busy. It know it will also save time overall just because it will go faster when doing everything at once, and you already have everything else out!
I like how this really does save a lot of time when cooking during the week! I like what your are doing with chopping up everything in advanced! I want to start doing this. Then when I start cooking everything is already chopped!