Yesterday was a very full day. Very full. I watched the 18 month old and 3 year old I normally watch. I watched my (almost) 2 year old and 5 year old grandkids, and I had an hour long meeting with the mom of a newborn I start watching next week. I had a phone conference with a teacher, I made dinner for the piano teacher, I picked my daughter-in-law up from work, I enjoyed her company for a while afterward as she waited for Jason to finish work. (Yes! He has a job!! It's temporary, but you never know where that could lead.) I took my daughter to dance and watched a short Halloween show. There were some odds and ends that got thrown in there also, such as fretting that the horribly windy conditions would finish off our tree or leave us for a week without power again.
Anyway, it was a long, very full day. A good day but busy.
Foolishly, when I made the piano teacher dinner I didn't make ours as well. Normally I would have. There were a variety of reasons I didn't, but basically it was because it just didn't work to. Normally, that wouldn't have been a terrible problem, but since I pick up J&J from piano, then head straight to her dance class, dinner can be tricky if I don't work ahead. Yesterday, for a variety of reasons, I didn't work ahead.
I ended up picking up Boston Market on the way home. Not a good plan. First of all, it's expensive, $32 for dinner doesn't take long to blow the budget. Second of all, it's just not something I like doing.
I know I am not the only one these things happen to. Please help! What do you do? How do you handle those times when life blows a big hole in your plans?
My new strategy is to have some pantry/freezer meals on stand-by that Mark can make in a pinch while I'm at dance or wherever. What works for you? Do you keep meals around like that? What kind? What works?
My kids are super-picky, but I'm going to have to get past that a bit. Julianna's palate expander makes things tricky too, there's a long list of foods she can't eat right now, but I'm going to bury my head in the sand about that too.
I am going to put together 5 meals that I keep in the house at all times, type up a list of prep instructions and stick it on the fridge, and hopefully not find myself held hostage to the "it's 6:00 and I have no idea what we're doing for dinner" bugaboo again.
So, what would be on your list? What works for you? Please share.
I have 1 husband and 4 kids, 28, 20, 11 and 9...I'll be doing the mom thing forever, hence 4evermom.
11 comments:
First, go you for adding another kid to your home daycare! Woot!
I ALWAYSALWAYSALWAYS have frozen pizza and hot dogs in my freezer. ALWAYS. They are not healthy by any means, but I'd much rather spend $6 on a frozen pizza for dinner than $32!
I don't know that I have any 'wisdom' but we do have several frozen meals for adam's lunch or dinner when life gets crazy. Our favorite 'freezer meals' are lasagna, chili, or chicken & rice. All taste great out of the freezer. We also always have a roast that we can throw in the crockpot too.
When I am just too busy to cook a big dinner or something comes up last minute, I opt for soup and sandwiches. Cheap and easy! Breakfast for dinner is also popular around here. I'm afraid I'm not organized enough to make ahead and freeze dinners. LOL!
Those days are tough ones. Sometimes I'm floundering for what to eat on those days too and then feel super guilty for doing the easy way out by spending out of budget for fast food. Some of my "go to" meals for those days that I try, try being the key word, to keep around are frozen perogies and sausages, pasta and sauce, or I make a simple fried rice with whatever meat I can scrounge up. Sometimes it's even been ground beef or cut up sandwich meat but it makes do. I also tend to fall back on going to the grocery and buy their roasted chicken meals which only come to about $12 at the most compared to the $30 on fast food. If I just by the chicken it's only $7 and then you can make whatever out of it.
First: HOORAY! I'm so glad you and a family found each other! Good luck!
Second, the "emergency dinners:"
It's not much to offer, but spaghetti and sauce. One of our local markets just had "Dollar Days" and I bought about 12 pounds of Barilla noodles (various shapes) and Ragu sauce for "those" days.
I'm not very good with the freezer meals...if at 5pm they are still frozen I can't get it ready fast enough.
Sandwiches/soups are also key for us (my husband really likes Progresso Minestrone, for example) and breakfast for dinner (pancakes) are wildly popular here.
Finally, lately, the boys have been super-picky, and there have been lots of apples with peanut butter for dinner.
Good luck! I like the idea of chili for the freezer...maybe I'll do that this week!
If I know HB will be home when I am running about taking children here and there I will leave him a kilo of minced beef, a packet of pasta and a jar of Dolmio pasta sauce so he can make spaghetti bolognase. Everyone in the family likes it and it's easy to make when you use the jars of sauce (which I buy when on special.)
I just read through your comments and saw someone else suggested this too.
When I have time (and room in the freezer) I try to make two of the same meal, eg lasagne, and freeze one for those days when you know it's going to be crazy. This works if HB doesn't come home hungry at midnight and decide to eat it all!!!
If we have busy nights I have no problem making sandwiches or pancakes or something like that. And the kiddos love it!
I always have either chicken or beef broth in my pantry. I then can make a big pot of soup with all the veggie leftovers we have in the fridge. I have full tummies and a clean fridge and I didn't waste money having to throw good food out.
Good Eatin'
I keep dry soup mix in the pantry and some generic garlic bread in the freezer-- at all times. The soup mix I get feeds 8 and I can get cheddar broccoli or potato. They're easy to add to depending what I have at the time. Frozen pizza with frozen veggies is a treat for my kids, so I don't feel bad when I've put other things first and am scrambling to feed them.
I can't tell you how many dinners I've delivered while my kids ate snacks in the car. WHY do we do that????
Well you know I'm in a similar boat here - so it was good to see what other people were suggesting.
Spaghetti is always a fall back dinner for us. I usually have meatballs in the freezer too...
And based on everyone's suggestions for me last week - I need to go out and buy a dedicated freezer. I think if I had meals in there that I'd frozen awhile back, I'd be OK for these last minute evenings.
Post a Comment