I have been at home with my daughter since she was born, now she is 18 months old! I just got offered a really good job, that I interviewed for when I was pregnant! It was totally unexpected but an answer my husband and I where seeking for our recent financial strain. I have always been very good about having dinners planned for the week and I usually prepare them when my daughter is napping. Now that I am returning to work I am very stressed about how I am going to get a healthy, square meal on the table when my husband and I both will not get home until 5:30 pm.I know that I could prep meals and have them labeled in the freezer, but it makes me so sad to think I may be in the kitchen for a big part of the weekend, when I will want to be spending time with my family. Does anyone have any other options, or really fast, healthy recipe ideas that I could use.
J.,
I agree with the rest. crock pot. You can make a roast(with a little water and onion)and later throw in some egg noodles. Just keep canned and fresh veggies available and some milk or cottage cheese. There are tons of those frozen meals with veggies, noodles and meat in them for the skillet. I suggest spending some time browsing the aisles of the grocery store. You may get inspired. Trying new things is good.
Crock Pot.
:-D
Also, when you get home from grocery shopping do as much prep work on your produce, and meats as you can prior to putting the food away (wash, chop, trim etc) that way when you are ready to put food together into a meal it doesn't take that long because all the prep work is already done.
Def. get a crockpot...I have a big oval one that I can fit a turkey in (cut in half and stuffed in) LOL! Point is, its easy to prep in the morning and is ready when you get home. I have even found that I can prep the night before, put the pot in the fridge and then just set it in the base in the morning. If you are SUPER organized you can make enough in one batch to transform into 3 different dinners for the week!
~L.
Check into the Rachael Ray recipes. Instead of doing all that extra prep on the weekend, do some one night during the week and let hubby put your girl to bed (compromise if you're both working, right?) I like to do alot of the prep as soon as I get home from the store too. I just consider it part of the whole gro. trip. YOu could also make it kind of a special part of your weekend if hubby likes to cook too. You could open up a bottle of wine and start cooking! Besides doing the freezer thing here are a couple of quick meals that I use in a pinch:
Quesadillas
Baked fish fillets-they cook in like 12 min!
steamed veggies
pasta dishes (with leftover meat or frozen meatballs)
I think the crockpot is a great idea for you too. You can use it for the entire meal like roast, chili, etc or you can use it to just cook the meat and then make sides of steamed veggies or whatever really quickly when you get home. Sometimes I buy big meat (hams, chickens, turkeys) and cook them on the weekend and then use leftovers for 2-3 more meals during the week. I am a SAHM, but somedays, especially when it is nice outside, I don't like to be tied to the kitchen for an hour or so making dinner!
Everyone has alreayd given you some excellent options...many of which I will use myself:)
My husband is so great when it comes to this. We both get home around 5 and depending on what the meal will be, sometimes we put my son in his highchair and he plays/snacks and we make dinner together. He loves to watch us cook! Then we all eat together and one of us does the clean-up. It is also much easier to clean as you go so you have less to clean at the end. TEAMWORK is a must!
Last, kraft has a great website (type in to google...not sure of the actual address) with tons of easy recipes. I particularly like their "5 dinners/1 bag" where you can make 5 different meals out of only a few ingredients making shopping easier. Hope this helps!
H.
Hi J.,
It is hard! My husband and I both work full time and it is hard to juggle. My husband and I sat down and made 4 weeks worth of menus. We have one sheet per week with the recipe listed by day on the front and then on the back side is the shopping list for the week. I print it out, flip it over and then cross out anything that I already have and don't need. It really cut down on excessive spending and throwing out of rotten food. It also solved our "What do you want? I don't know....what do you want? and then ordering pizza" dilemma.
I picked easy things that really don't take that long. We make a double batch and then have lunches all week and we also schedule Wed. or Thurs. as leftover night. Every other Fri. is take out night.
Email me if you want some of the recipes. I have a very picky husband and 5 year old son so I have spent a lot of time. I like Rachel Ray, but I mostly use allrecipes.com.
Good luck,
C.
I don't know your tastes, but I depend a lot on my crockpot. Also panini type grilled sandwhiches with veggies and chicken I cook in quantity and freeze. I have a recipe for poaching chicken breasts in the crockpot but haven't tried that yet. . A lot of people like Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals cookbook but I haven't read it. I really feel for you. For me that was just one strain. I really missed the SAHM thing completely. My kids are 13, 11 and 9 now and I still feel that! I did a thing called Dream Dinners that was very convenient during my busy season at work. You spend 2 hours at their location and prepare up to 13 meals for the freezer. The meals are quite good and not too expensive, but were a little complex for my kids palate. If you're interested you can Google it. Good luck and don't pressure yourself to do the same meals as when you were home. Aim for healthy! Also, a good crock pot cookbook: Not Your Mother's Crockpot Cookbook, Hensberger. I made granola and the best rice pudding I ever had! I think the rice pudding recipe was from the web, which is also a great place for fast meal ideas!
