Tired Mommy Tales

I haven’t participated in Working Mommy Wednesday in a while but I’d always enjoyed it and liked representing the Working Mom in the blogging world because it doesn’t seem like there are many of us!!

Prompt this week: Meals for the week, do you cook every night? If so HOW do you working mommies do it???

Yep, I cook just about every night. Moreso since we’ve moved to Tennessee. Since running through a drive-thru isn’t as easy as it was in Houston, cooking at home is actually the easier choice. But its still not a walk in the park. In order to Brooke’s bedtime routine started by 7, I need to be fairly quick in meal preparation.

My tips:

Plan!!!!

I create a meal plan every week. Sometimes I take advantage of the meal plan from e-mealz and sometimes I do it all my own. I use ziplist to compile my grocery list based on the recipes I plan to use that week.

Prep Ahead of Time

Whether its the weekend or night before, do as much as you can beforehand. I like to chop veggies and have them ready. I cook chicken and brown ground beef and freeze in one meal portions. Saving that one step on a weeknight can be such a help! I will also set out any canned or boxed goods, dishes or utensils I’ll need and the recipe on the counter. That way I’m also 100% I have all the ingredients I need and won’t need to make an emergency grocery stop.

Keep It Simple

Just about every week, you’ll see “Grilled Cheese/Quesadillas” or “Panini Night” on my menu plan. There are going to be nights when making a “real” dinner just ain’t gonna happen. That’s fine! As long as everyone is fed and there was a decent attempt to get some veggies in there too, I’ve done my job!

This will not be an option for everyone but something I’ve started doing is stopping at home before I pick up Brooke from school. I was driving by our house everyday to get to school and realized, I could get in 30-40 minutes of meal prep, cleaning or a little quiet time if I made a pit stop. So most nights, I’ll have dinner put together and ready to go before I bring Brooke home. I’m sure you can imagine how much quicker you can make dinner without a 2-year old “helping” or asking for a drink, snack, potty, etc. every 30 seconds.

Those are the things that work for me. An added bonus to all these meals at home has been the cost savings!! We’ve really noticed a difference in our wallets since we’ve made more of an effort to avoid restaurants during the week.

Do you struggle with getting dinner on the table at night? Do you have any tips for making the “witching hour” not so witchy?