Today I am joined by Jenivieve from Attached2Parenting.com. Jenivieve is a Work at Home Mom (WAHM) with a social media web design business and a writer for entertainment sites such as thebump.com. Jenivieve is here to talk to us about how she balances her busy life with work and family while still providing nutritious meals for her family. Welcome, Jenivieve!
Everyone is short on time these days, especially WAHM!! I do everything I can to save time, because the more time I have to spend with my kiddos, the better.
I had seen several people on Pinterest posting about making meals for the month. I am ambitious, but that seemed like a daunting task. I decided to give it a shot, but only cook for the week. I looked online, once again Pinterest (who doesn’t love that site!) and found a casserole and four crockpot meals that would get me through the week. That would make two days of casserole, four days of crockpot meals, and pizza night.
I tried to select a few crockpot meals that had the same ingredients. I pulled up my regular excel grocery list and modified it for the weekly meals, and geared up to shop. I shopped and chopped the same night. After putting away all the other groceries, I kept out the stuff I needed to make the meals. I labeled the freezer bags, noted the instructions on the outside and then threw in the ingredients as I went along.
It took me about two hours, and that is with making the casserole, which we ate that night. So for two hours and an hour of clean up, I had the weeks meals and the evenings dinner prepared.
The freezer meals really made a difference in our week. Things ran smoother, we had more time together and it wasn’t with the sacrifice of our health either! Win! All the meals were high in veggies and protein, yet still yummy.
Now cooking for the week has become a routine for me. I usually cook Saturday evenings - we have the casserole over the weekend, and a crockpot meal each week night. My hubby even said that the Taco soup is his all time favorite meal! Double win! I love it when I pull off something fairly simple, yet it is still loved.
Here are some of the recipes I used. But I modified the ingredients a bit. These recipes are great because you can add veggies or subtract veggies to your liking. Pretty much anything works.
Fiesta Chicken, Rice and Bean Casserole
With this recipe, I like to add fresh peppers and then top it off with sour cream, Mexican cheese and chipotle sauce. It is a family favorite!
From this awesome site, I have made the Meat Stew, Chicken Tortilla Soup, Chicken Taco Soup, Creamy Farmhouse Chicken and Garden Soup, and Spaghetti Sauce.
They all have similar ingredients and I often add veggies into each meal. IF I don’t have something (I do forget things sometimes!) then I just make up for it with another veggie. It still turns out yummy!!!
If you haven’t tried cooking and freezing for the week, I would suggest giving it a shot! It wasn't something I thought would work for me, but it turned out to be a great time and energy saver!
Please check out Attached2Parenting.com for more recipes and parenting topics!
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