So You Think You No Longer Have The Time

So now you have made the commitment to cook and bake from scratch vs. trying to purchase pre-made items with your Food Stamps!

First off, Congrats! It's not easy to do, BUT it's also not impossible!

Second, now you need to MAKE the time - like what I did there? Sort of like making the breads, and foods you wish to eat you now need to find the time to do so.  If you are anything like me you work a crazy schedule, have kids who need to be taxied from here there and everywhere and you are trying to do all of this while holding onto a small part of your sanity!  It is possible, trust me ya'll it is possible!

What do I do? First off, I look at my schedule for the week, if I have a week where I close a lot I pre-plan meals that my husband can prep and cook on his own (he's not very brave in the kitchen yet ;-) ) or items I can throw into the crock pot for him and the kids.  Some of our favorites are Spaghetti (sauce goes in the crock pot), Three Bean Turkey Chili (another winter time crock pot favorite), Pot Roast (hubs makes this and it's AWESOME!)  and a Roast Chicken (prepped by me and he puts it into the oven).  

Then once that is done, we look at the rest of the week and meal-plan from there.  We plan out an entire week's worth of meals, including those listed above, and then write up a grocery list and shop.  BUT I also figure out what I'll need to make, and if there's missing ingredients we need to buy them.

After the shopping is done it's just a matter of reviewing the schedule again and finding blocks of time when I can do my baking.

For Example, this week here's my schedule:

Sun, Working 10:30 am - 7:15 pm, we don't have anything planned for dinner tomorrow night, so we'll figure it out tonight and I'll probably need to go shopping before work tomorrow.

Mon, Working 3:30 pm - 9:15 pm, so again we'll need to meal plan and shop, then any prep work I need to do will be done before I leave for work

Tues/Wed - Off - so these will be my heavy baking days - baking bread, rolls, cookies and assembling more pancake mix.

Thurs - Working 9:30 am - 6:00 pm - Prep work will be done Wed night for any meal Thurs and I'll cook it when I get home

Fri - Working 9:30 am - 3:30 pm - This is a night I can make something like Pizza because I can make the dough and let it rise before baking a pizza.

Sat - Working 3:30 pm - 9:15 pm - Again prep work will be done Fri evening and Hubby will cook dinner this night.

If I know the nights I need to do prep work I can both physically and mentally prepare for the meal.  So it's all about planning - plan your meals - plan your prep work and baking and it can be done! I am finding I have to do bread/cookie baking once a week as those items last us a full week.  Plan your meals around your baking - make them bread and veggie heavy and you'll find success!  Use your imagination for the meals, find recipes online or in your already existing cookbooks and/or family recipes!  Have fun and just enjoy it!

Your Food Stamps will go so much further this way!

Next up - some of our favorite meals will be shared!