Dinner Blues

Having been married for nine years, having 2 kids and a full time job - dinner time is a thorn in my side.  I do like to cook.  I do like trying new recipes.  I do like having something simple, healthy and tasty ready to go.  That, of course, does not always happen.  I do not have the time inbetween after school activities and the bedtime routine.

Having talked with all of my friends - this is a pretty common problem - stay at home mom or not.  It is an unending problem - so I thought I'd share some things I've used along the way if you are looking for something new to break up your routine.

Super Suppers Cookbook....I made about 75% of the meals in this book.  I loved it!  The theory is that you can make most of these meals ahead of time and freeze them or refrigerate them until you are ready to actually cook them.  Very yummy!  And they had some fancier recipes in there that you could use for entertaining.

Deceptively Delicious Cookbook - Jerry Seinfeld's wife wrote this one.  I liked it...and my kids did eat some of the "healthier" versions of stuff in it.  If you pre-make all the purees and have them frozen and ready to go it's great.  I still use ideas from this book all the time - but only when I remember to actually buy the veggies/fruit to make purees.  My favorites from here are the chicken nuggets with spinach puree and flax seed - the boys do gobble those up.  And adding squash puree to boxed mac and cheese is a big hit too.  I like to giggle while my kids are eating loads of veggies - like I've beat them at the game or something.

OAMC - or Once a Month Cooking.  I tried this idea with my Mom and sister - I love the concept and the actual getting the cooking done ahead of time.  We prepared all this food and split it up between the 3 of us - it took an ENTIRE day to cook all of it.  It takes A LOT of planning and some major shopping to truly accomplish this.  There are several websites out there with OAMC meal plans - I did find one site that had meal plans for beef, chicken and pork recipes and a breakfast plan.  I loved the breakfast plan and have used that idea several times....especially since we don't have a whole lot of time in the morning to accomplish much past cinnamon toast crunch.  Only thing was a made a butt load of french toast and froze it - then the boys decided they didn't like french toast one day - and now it still sits in my freezer.   It works great for taco meat, meatballs, pork roast, etc.  If you have a giant freezer this is fabulous - if not - you are screwed because you have no where to store all this great food!

I also love to try and save money in the whole grocery shopping experience...Along came The Grocery Game.   I was never much of a coupon cutter before - but this changed our life.  The concept is that you stockpile items when they go on sale and use the coupon for that item so you get it at the lowest possible price.  It organizes the store sale adds in a format that is easy to read and convenient.  It is not that expensive for a subscription and once you get going on it - you really can save some money.  Especially in your family staples like toiletries and cleaning supplies.  I did get a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I was stockpiling and had to cut back on the purchasing of it.  But I have saved or 57% on a grocery trip before!  

My latest adventures is in e-mealz.com.  You pay a small subscription fee - you choose a meal plan (low-fat, couples only, store specific) and then  you can print out a 7 day meal plan with full recipes and the corresponding grocery list - all based on what's on sale at the store that week.  It has gotten our family to branch out a bit from our normal meal items and the recipes are so easy to follow.  It does save money and I have even combined the e-mealz and grocery game lists for even more savings.  It saves me time in that I don't have to be hunting for recipes or deciding what to make for dinner that night.  Most of the recipes make plenty so we've been able to freeze half for a meal in the future.  We've slacked off a bit this summer since we are home and I'm beginning to try and use up what might be in our pantry or freezer.  I totally recommend this to anyone that feels a little crunched for time and overwhelmed by deciding dinner.  Click on my button over there to check it out!  They even have sample lists you can download before you sign up.

Happy cooking!