Day Five: Conveniencing Yourself

Yesterday in this series, we talked about checking our schedules when planning our menus, so that we don’t plan a labor-intensive meal on a day when we usually run errands.

As wives and moms, managing our time is important. As much as I love to cook (and I really do), I also have come to a point in my life where I don’t want to spend all of my time cooking instead of enjoying my family.

Convenience foods are more expensive, and sometimes contain questionable ingredients, but they do save time. The key is, as I wrote in Shopping & Cooking Frugally, figuring out which ones save you real time and which ones are easier to just make from scratch (packaged oatmeal and microwave popcorn being on the top of my most ridiculous convenience foods list).

As I seek to save myself more time (but not sacrifice health or money in the process), I’ve learned some tricks to making meals more simply without sacrificing taste.

1. There are many easy to make mixes you can prepare at home, incluing this one from Money Saving Mom which I use.

2. The crock pot can save you tons of time. You don’t have to make your whole meal in the crock pot. I sometimes use it just to pre-cook meat for dishes like fried rice, tacos, or even “Grilled” chicken on my salad. It also keeps your house cooler in the summer if you’re like me and don’t have air conditioning.

3. Making extra batches and freezing some (if you have the freezer space) is a huge savings. I buy my disposable pans at GFS (a wholesaler that sells to the public) and make larger batches of lasagna, enchiladas, and so forth as I am able.

4. Preparing some of the food ahead of time when you get home from the store is also a big help. For example, for fajitas, we slice our boneless, skinless chicken breast when we get home, and freeze it in strips in the marinade. That way, when we are thawing it later, it marinates while thawing (multitasking!). Preparing pizza crusts ahead of time is also helpful to me.

5. Stocking up on useful convenience foods when they are on sale and you have a coupon is fantastic. We love pizza, as I said, so I stock up on French bread baguettes if I See them on sale, and I freeze them for French Bread Pizza. Super quick!

Assignment #5

Today, I want you to again pull out the list of family favorite meals from day one — those meals that everyone in your family loves — and think through ways to simplify them or make some of it ahead.

Are any of these meals you could prepare ahead of time?

For example, when I make a pan of lasagna, I usually make about 5 pans, and freeze the other four or later use. All I have to do is thaw and bake! I do the same with Enchiladas.

Can any of these meals use a Crock Pot(slow cooker) to prepare at least some of the meal?

The day I discovered that chicken roasted in the crock pot with some seasonings on it makes better Chicken Soft Taco filling than the “old way” of cooking it, while taking less time, was a great day in our home. It even tastes better! And, I can leave it cook for hours while I’m out of the house.

Here are some sites I enjoy with crock pot meal ideas on them: Hillbilly Housewife (my favorite!),   SlowAndSimple, and Food Network.

What other time saving preparations could you do to each meal?

Can you cut up vegetables ahead of time? Would your life be simplified if you sliced up chicken breast when you bought it, so that it thaws already sliced?

Happy Cooking,