Life is so hectic! You work 8-10 hours a day, then there is traffic. At home you have laundry and dishes waiting on you, not to mention homework and screaming hungry kids. I can’t help with getting the clothes folded (except suggest that you get your kids to do it) but I can help when it comes to knowing “What’s for dinner, I’m hungry!” No one seems to think they have time to prepare home cooked meals anymore, but you can, it just requires some planning on your part. Planning is the key to success in anything. As the old saying goes, those who fail to plan should plan to fail. Planning saves you time, grocery money as well as money on your electric bills because if you plan ahead, you can cook multiple batches of the same recipe at once while oven is still hot.
It’s fun to eat out at a Dine In Family Restaurant or your favorite caribbean restaurant once in a while. However, you should also prepare in advance the meals you’ll be cooking at home. Planning and cooking most of your meals at home saves you again from spending money on lunches during the week and you always know that you are getting a healthy meal that is pushing you toward your goal vs. the fast food meals that are taking you down the wrong path.
- On the weekends, plan your menu for the week so you can plan your shopping trip. If you have a list, you will spend less at the grocery store and not have to ask that dreaded question, “What am I going to cook tonight for dinner?” Start by looking at your menu and making a list of the foods that you will need.
- After you get back from grocery store, use this time to do prep work. For me, this is a good time to make bread, waffles for the week and other breakfast foods. You can also chop or process your veggies like shredding cauliflower for the next week’s meals.
- Make 4-6 batches of Ricotta Waffles & Blueberry Syrup or Dessert Waffles. Since I have the waffle iron hot and the bowl and beaters dirty, why not go ahead and knock out a week of breakfasts. These waffles freeze/refrigerate well so you can just pop them in the toaster in the morning.
- I also make 3 or 4 loafs of The Easiest Bread or Sandwich Buns Loaf pans are not that expensive so I encourage you to go ahead and stick 3 loafs in at a time so you only have to heat the oven once. Make one of them a dessert bread if you like to snack on.
- Make Granola/Cereal: Cereal/Granola. Put this in the oven after bread and turn off oven. You are just trying to dehydrate it slowly anyway.
- Make the Breakfast Sausage Balls – Go ahead and cook them up. They re-heat in less than 60 seconds in microwave in mornings.
- Prep Veggies: Shred 2 heads (or more) of the cauliflower for the Pork Fried Rice Recipe and cut up another head of cauliflower for the Cajun Chicken Alfredo
- Make Meatballs: Go ahead and prepare meat mixture for Spaghetti and Meatballs with Marinara Sauce and shape into balls (remember to use small scoop to make your life easy and cleaner).
- Make Sweet, Tangy & Spice BBQ Sauce
- Make Almond Butter Spice Muffin Tops
Dinner: Baked Chicken with Sweet, Tangy & Spicy BBQ Sauce with Green beans & Bacon
Breakfast: Use the Ricotta Waffles or Easiest Bread Ever to make a sandwich (Egg, grilled cheese, ham, etc)
Dinner: Spaghetti and Meatballs with Marinara Sauce
**If we don’t eat out I may do something like (Margarita Meatza Pizza)
Lunch: Leftovers from week
Dinner: Grilled/baked/Rotisserie chicken with Sweet, Tangy and Spicy BBQ Sauce, veggy
And don’t forget about Desserts:
5 minute ice-cream
Chocolate Chips cookies
Chocolate Cupcakes, and if you really want something great: Tiramisu
