Prepare Ahead of Time

Every month I make I big trip to the grocery store where I buy most of the food items we will need to get to the end of the month. Today was that day. I went to the store, with my list in hand, and by the time I got to the dairy section (when? When will I learn to go to the dairy section first?!?!) I was rearranging the items in my cart to make room for the milk, yogurt, cheese and eggs that were still on my list. This was after I had skipped completely over the pasta aisle (whah! The pasta was on sale too!) and the coffee aisle (java! Java! JAVA!).

My cart was simply too full to accommodate much more than what was already making the metal creak and sag. But I did manage to get most everything that I needed for the month. It just made sense to go to the checkout with what was already in my cart. Normally, this isn't much of a problem because I have extra hands at the store. My mom will usually come with me and if I need a second shopping cart, she is there to grab one and push it through the store for me. But this time my 3 year old decided to have a tumultuous three's morning and my mom watched the kids at the house for me instead. Then we could also avoid any possible screaming and tantrum throwing in the middle of the store (which would also cut a grocery trip short).

Without the extra buggy I had to cut my trip short, but I still got what I needed. That was this morning. This evening I will go back to the store (while my adorable children are at church for the kids' program) and pick up the 4-5 items still left on my list.

This afternoon, I will cook.

I used to do once a month cooking. Where you prepare a month's worth of meals and stick them in the freezer and just pull out what you need everyday. I loved it! It was so simple to just go to the freezer and pull out dinner in the morning and stick it in the oven in the evening. It saved so much time!

The downside was there were 2 days at the beginning of each month where I was simply too exhausted to do anything else like schoolwork with the kids or cleaning up the house. My shopping day and my cooking day.

Not to mention I actually missed getting in my kitchen and chopping veggies and marinating meat on a regular basis.

So I modified my once a month cooking plan to something that fits better with our life and my need, desire, yearning to be in the kitchen. I shop once a month (minus the perishables that I have to buy weekly) and still have a cooking day, but a toned down cooking day. Mostly, I cook up the ground beef or make meatballs or meatloaf, etc. I also chop some of the fresh veggies that wouldn't last a month in my freezer. I then use my wonderful new kitchen "toy." My Christmas present from my husband. My vacuum sealer!

I can keep beef and chicken and veggies for SOOOOOOOO much longer in the freezer and refrigerator now! It is great! Say good-bye to wasted money and freezer burn. "Good bye!"

So this afternoon I will fix up the ground beef into taco meat, meatballs, and plain browned ground. I will chop up fresh veggies and seal them in baggies and stock them in the freezer.

Chicken for some of my dishes will be baked or boiled. Bones will be removed, the chicken will be cut into bite size pieces, and then divided up into recipe size portions and frozen as well.

Whenever I can, I like to prepare some parts of meals ahead of time (like precooking the chicken or ground beef). That way I still save some time in the kitchen but keep my daily dose of cooking dinner fun.

Now that I have written this and had a chance to rest from my shopping trip this morning, I am off to cut some veggies and cook up some beef and chicken!