Dear reader I sympathise with you. On top of a busy day there are school shoes to buy, last minute stationary to pick up and of course the biggest headache of all the extracurricular and school schedule (clashes galore).
Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a really busy person. I am. The key to fitting so much into my day is organisation. I like to be organised in all my daily tasks, including what’s going on the table for dinner.
I take my hat off to all the mums who get home at 7pm, after sport or dance (and most likely after a flat out day where you haven’t had time to scratch yourself) with no dinner organised. The daunting task of having to concoct a Michelin star dish with whatever is on hand (and hopefully no one screws their nose up to) begins. I’m not that mum at all.
I prepare my meals in advance. However, I’m not a meal planning mum, I don’t take hours to write up menus of breakfast lunch and dinner for the month- not at all; I frankly don’t have time for that. I just ensure I either have something delicious to marinate for dinner to bbq with a salad, or stick in my slow cooker before I leave in the morning or to pull out of my freezer.
Freezer meals and I are best friends. Nothing satisfies me more than when I open my freezer that’s bursting with a selection of delicious things to eat. When I pull one out and easily prepare it on days where I haven’t had time to even think about what I’m feeding everyone, I almost feel like someone else has done all the cooking for me.
At the start of each school term I take a few hours to prepare and store meals that I know my family love to eat. Today it was zucchini slice (in muffin form- also great for lunchboxes), napolitana pasta sauce (due to an abundance of tomatoes in the garden) and pork, chive and coriander wontons (perfect steamed or in soup).
I simply cook, cool and portion everything and pop it in the freezer. I get excited when the freezer is all stocked and ready to go. If you don’t have time to set a couple of hours aside, consider making double batches of the meals your making anyway and freeze the extra for a meal down the track. Bolognese, curries, homemade pies, the list is endless. It takes the same amount of effort to put double the ingredients as it does for one meal.
Many of you are probably reading this thinking I already freeze meals (high five), plenty of people do and I say good on them! For those of you who don’t I challenge you before school goes back to at make at least one meal to have in your freezer as an emergency dinner. Trust me you will thank yourself, especially on those days where everything seems impossible.
