Monday, November 1, 2010

Awesome Blog for Busy Cooks

I have discovered this wonderful blog called 5 Dinners 1 Hour. Here is the link if you would like to check it out. www.5dinners1hour.blogspot.com

Michelle, the owner and creator, posts recipes and such on the blog. In addition, you can order a 3 month subscription to her menu plans. I always have the dinner time ho-hums, and when everyone comes home and wants to know what's for dinner, I usually have a shrug, and "I don't know" look to accompany it. Now, with the help of the menu plan, I have a plan in advance. It provides a shopping list, assembly directions, cooking directions, etc with it. The idea is to make EVERYTHING up in advance, store in refrigerator, freezer, and Zip-Loc bags. On the day of the meal, pull the baggie out, put in a dish, pop it in the oven, and Voila! Dinner is ready. I've found that I need to alter some of the meats for my 12 y.o. picky eater (because, "aww mom....you know I don't like sauce on my food"), but easy enough to do, I keep his out of the sauce, and put the rest in. Unfortunately for me, I discovered the site, after already doing some grocery shopping, so I'm slowly but surely trying to get rid of my other food items, to make room for the new plan.

The school lunch planning, has also been a terrific time saver on busy school mornings. I make all my lunch sandwiches in advance, complete with baggy, and pop it in a plastic shoe box in the refrigerator. I also ration out the fruit into baggies and chips/snacks as well. What a time saver on busy mornings. Just grab your lunch sack, and place 1 from each shoebox in the bag. Quick and Easy Peasy!!!