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mommy4ever
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 9:55am | IP Logged
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Running a home daycare makes supper time a challenge.
I can't do without the income, so not having the daycare is not an option.
But I need to find a way to make it work. Between homeschool, fieldtrips, dh medical/insurance paperwork, I'm struggling to get a meal on the table.
Dh said I *could* get some meals from a local Meal Assembly place, which would mean taking it out the day before, and cook the next day. Great!!! I was excited. But then I looked at the menus... not to our family tastes, and I am gluten free, and it limits it even more. Not to mention that the prices are higher than what I make, just 6 suppers is more than I budget for a full week of groceries.
I'm at loss what to do. I am feeling frustrated, I just don't have time. We have evening activities, so it's hard to even think about prepping the night before, I think it is a viable option that I might need to consider. Perhaps, I need to look at one night a week and preparing 3 to 4 meals, to have some in the freezer, just like the assembly place would supply, but to our taste.
I only have my 4 kids, and really they are old enough to help, but they are very difficult about helping. And it's suddenly urgent to interrupt when I'm at the door trying to gets set off for the day. If it's not the 10yo(the baby) the 20yo is no better. I have spoken to them time and time again. Get them cooking and it's a disaster. I know, it's likely their way to get out of doing it, make mom miserable enough, she'll say forget it. I need to get the message through to them, that they don't have a choice and need to do it with a good attitude.
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ardently praying for a new addition to our family.
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organiclilac
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 10:03am | IP Logged
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Maybe something like this:
40 Meals in 4 hours Slow Cooker Freezer Cooking
I have NOT tried it, and would probably do it on a smaller scale... but it looks very tempting.
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Tracy, wife to Shawn, mama to Samuel (4/01) and Joseph (11/11), and Thomas (2/15)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 10:13am | IP Logged
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I do ok even with manic evenings, if I have a plan if I don't then it's much more difficult.
On one of our busiest nights I almost always make burritos.. tortillas (gluten-free can use corn tortillas) refried beans, cheese, salsa, sour cream, lettuce.. maybe some saute veggies, maybe some meat.. I try and change it around a bit but it's easy and portable if you get stuck in a time crunch and are running out the door with it.
pasta dishes are also somewhat easy if you have quick sauce options (just make your own gluten-free noodles) by the time I get a big pot of water boiling I can usually have a sauce mostly made.. either a tomato spaghetti type of sauce that doesn't require a long simmer or a hamburger stroganoff type, or occasionally I get some jars of alfredo sauce.. veggies in the sauce or green salad makes it easy for it to be a well rounded meal.
But if you have a list of items you can make in the time you have.. then you can plan on how to do it.
Things like onions can be chopped on a weekend when you have time and tossed in a freezer then you just grab them from the freezer for ease of use.
Maybe if you post some meals you think would work and what your family likes we can help you brainstorm some shortcuts.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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Martha
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 10:13am | IP Logged
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Have you used this website? Lots of cheap gluten free crock pot meals. We have made many of her recipes and enjoyed them.
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com
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Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
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mommy4ever
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 11:07am | IP Logged
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Besides gluten free
Onion allergy
beans are a no go.
Dh requires meat, his metabolism is high and vegetarian meals don't hold him over. Typical cuts you'd find here: pork shoulder butt steak, ground beef, sirloin tip steak(cheapest cut, ironically), roast of some kind, pork tenderloin, bacon, gluten free hotdogs, burgers(I usually make our own, unless a killer sale). I will eat a burger with lettuce and pineapple, no bun. I am more paleo than gluten free as the alternate flours, and baking, buns etc are very expensive here, so I tend to just go for more veggies. At the campsite I do keep a pack of gluten free hot dog buns, so I can have a smokie at the campfire on occasion.
We like pretty basic meals(I get a little bored, but when I mix it up too much, no one will eat). Think grandma's home cooking. Pot roast - well not really, they prefer that I make the roast into beef dip, but to get beef dip, day 1 is pot roast..lol, chicken pot pie, shepherd's pie, salisbury steak with mashed potatoes, gravy, salad and raw veggies.
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 11:31am | IP Logged
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Perhaps you can come up with a strategy to use your crock pot more throughout the week, but instead of thinking in terms of crockpot meals, think of bulk ingredients you can plan for. I find chicken thighs cook well for recipes using shredded chicken. I also make thinghs in bulk in trays in the oven. Salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder and 30-35 minutes at 425.
I have not tried it, but I saw one woman describe how she makes bulk ground beef in her crockpot.
Pot roast you already do.
Make twice as much as you normally would and start putting some in the freezer. Maybe the first week you choose a bulk ingredient to make every day and then on out, you just have to make 1-2 things a week to have enough in the freezer to cycle through.
I keep frozen mixed veggies on hand for easier soups, pot pies, etc...
I also make at least two meals a week that anticipate a second meal, much like your pot roast/beef dip. Tacos then Chili or chicken breast then chicken soup.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 11:35am | IP Logged
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prep your veggies the day you get them as part of the putting away process.. then your salads and raw veggies will be grab and go.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
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mommy4ever
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 12:43pm | IP Logged
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is there a trick to salads? I find they rust if I cut them up. It'll be pristing, then rusts. ughhh
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 12:47pm | IP Logged
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Tearing results in less browning than chopping with a knife.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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organiclilac
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 12:51pm | IP Logged
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Having a salad spinner helps a lot with lettuce. I am amazed at how long it keeps in there. Lately I have been making coleslaw instead of salads. Mine will keep for almost a week, so I can make a huge batch at once.
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Tracy, wife to Shawn, mama to Samuel (4/01) and Joseph (11/11), and Thomas (2/15)
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mommy4ever
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 2:27pm | IP Logged
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You store it in the salad spinner?
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organiclilac
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Yes, I keep mine in there - I have a Tupperware one. You could store it elsewhere, I'm sure, but the combination of drying the lettuce well, while keeping it sealed in a humid environment seems to keep it well.
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Tracy, wife to Shawn, mama to Samuel (4/01) and Joseph (11/11), and Thomas (2/15)
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mommy4ever
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 4:16pm | IP Logged
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I will look into it. thanks.
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MichelleW
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| Posted: June 05 2014 at 9:24pm | IP Logged
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I lean on my kids a lot. One of the things I started a few years ago, was kids cook on Friday. Friday is movie night and I told them that whoever cooks gets to choose the movie. After I instituted this rule, I cooked for a few weeks and picked movies they hated. They made the transition pretty quick after that... boy that sounds tricky...but it worked...
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Becky Parker
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I don't know if your evening activities involve the kids or not, but that is one way to enforce their helpfulness. If you have to run off to ds's sports practice, then he could help you to get him there on time by helping with dinner prep. We use that a lot. "If you need me to drive you to ___ and get you there on time, I need you to ___ so we can get there." For us that usually means things like change your little brother, put the bikes and outside toys away, etc. But it could also be "make the salad, drain the pasta ..." I would enlist their help as much as possible.
Something we deal with here is our children thinking they have a "right" to numerous outside activities. I have nothing against them but I think, if they disrupt the peace of the family they need to be reconsidered. My dd's dance classes come to mind. They are soooo expensive and require a lot of driving time for me. So we pay for one, she works to earn the money to pay for the rest. I think one activity per child is enough, but any more than that and we go crazy just getting to everything. Just another consideration.
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Becky Parker
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mommy4ever wrote:
| Get them cooking and it's a disaster. I know, it's likely their way to get out of doing it, make mom miserable enough, she'll say forget it. I need to get the message through to them, that they don't have a choice and need to do it with a good attitude. |
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We had a "cook off" one year and the older kids each made a meal. The kitchen was a mess but dh just said, "you cook in the kitchen you clean in the kitchen". They didn't like the cleaning part, but they learned how much they enjoyed cooking. Now, ds (college student) will sometimes make home made pasta, ravioli, bread, etc. Maybe you have a chef in your brood but they just don't know it yet! 
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Becky
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MichelleW
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Becky Parker wrote:
mommy4ever wrote:
| Get them cooking and it's a disaster. I know, it's likely their way to get out of doing it, make mom miserable enough, she'll say forget it. I need to get the message through to them, that they don't have a choice and need to do it with a good attitude. |
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We had a "cook off" one year and the older kids each made a meal. The kitchen was a mess but dh just said, "you cook in the kitchen you clean in the kitchen". They didn't like the cleaning part, but they learned how much they enjoyed cooking. Now, ds (college student) will sometimes make home made pasta, ravioli, bread, etc. Maybe you have a chef in your brood but they just don't know it yet! |
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Yes! After a few weeks in the kitchen, I started asking them to help me regularly on a rotation so that we could connect and so that they could enlarge their repertoire. Soon, we all felt confidant that each one could handle an entire meal completely without me if I had to be gone. Now my daughter (14) is the most competent at every day meals, but my son (16) is the chef. He has discovered that he loves to experiment. He is my go-to weekend and holiday meal person. It has become so fun! (but it really really didn't start out that way!)
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Michelle
Mom to 3 (dd 14, ds 15, and ds 16)
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Struggling with supper time
