Five ways to make dinner FASTER
I work every weekday afternoon, but I don’t get to work many mornings (usually one a week). That means my afternoons are JAMMED with things to do, and I’m working until the very last second before dinner.
Then … oh, right … I have to make dinner?
In this way, I’m pretty similar to a parent who works outside of the home. Except many of these parents are good cooks, and I am most definitely not. (I’m a baker, though)
Since making dinner (quickly!) is a struggle for me, I’ve put together some of my patent-pending methods for speeding up the process.
Behold!
- Plan as if your life depended on it. I’m amazed when people have the ability to walk into their kitchen at 5 p.m and *wonder* what they feel like making for dinner. If I tried to throw dinner together on a whim, we’d end up eating rice with canned soup and maybe some half-thawed cookie dough. I have a written-out meal plan that takes into account which days are busier for us, which meals will give plenty of leftovers for lunches, and which fresh ingredients in the fridge should be used up first. It’s like a manifesto, really. Our meals are definitely not fancy, but they are planned, dammit. We eat what the paper says.
- Make love to your slowcooker. I could kiss my slowcooker, I love it so much. It saves my butt MULTIPLE times a week. Now, there are a lot of gross slowcooker recipes out there. We tend to stick to pretty basic things: salsa chicken (which we use for wraps, tacos, and nachos), meat sauce for pasta, pulled pork, etc. If I’m throwing everything in at breakfast-time, I set it on “Low,” and if it’s lunchtime, I put it on “High.” Then I forget all about it.
I baked these turkey meatballs at lunchtime (recipe here) and tossed them in the slowcooker for the afternoon - … and then have a three-way with the bread-maker. Our bread-maker gets a lot of use, BUT we never, ever use it for actually making bread. (It doesn’t fit properly in the toaster) We use it for making homemade hamburger buns and rolls, but our go-to recipe is pizza dough. I throw alll of the ingredients in at lunchtime, hit the switch, and it’s ready to toss onto the pans as soon as I’m done working. Which brings me to my next point …
- Start making dinner at breakfast-time (or lunchtime). I don’t have any time in the afternoons, but I do have a few minutes here and there while my kids are eating breakfast or lunch. I grate cheese, cut up vegetables, brown ground beef, cook chicken, etc. and then it’s much faster to pull dinner together that night. If I’m really ambitious, I’ll make most of the meal at lunchtime and toss it into the slowcooker to stay warm until supper. This works well for things like taco meat, pasta sauce, and Sloppy Joes — just add a little extra liquid to keep it from drying out.
I put the pork in the slowcooker at breakfast-time, and prepped these roasted sweet potatoes at lunchtime. - Set yourself up for success. That sounds very self-helpy, doesn’t it? What I mean is: if I’m making pasta for dinner, sometimes I’ll take a few minutes at lunch time to fill the pot with water, add salt, and put it on the stove — and I’ll set the box of pasta right there, next to the stove. I’ll dig out my beloved microwave veggie-cooker (this one, from Pampered Chef) and sit it on the counter so I can run upstairs at 5 p.m. and toss frozen broccoli into it. It sounds like overkill, but it makes a huge difference on the really busy evenings.
xo
Meet our unpaid nannies: Mrs. Netflix and Ms. iPad
I’m over at “The Mom Scene” today talking about new year’s resolutions for parents — specifically, my own list of things I’m trying to work on.
One of the biggies is technology: cutting back on our beloved unpaid nannies, Mrs. Netflix and Ms. iPad.
So pop over to check out the full column, if you’re so inclined, and I would be so appreciative!
(Oh dear. The terrible irony is that while I’m writing this post, they are watching Netflix …)
Mommy needs a time-out: Seven things to try (and three things NOT to try) when your kids are driving you crazy
Taking a deep breath and counting to 10? Has that ever worked for anyone who’s pissed off? Or am I just immune to the cliche of calm-down techniques?
I have no problem admitting that I get frustrated with my kids. I feel badly when I lose my temper, and I try to think about it afterwards and see what we could have done differently. (The answer is that the kids should have turned on those freaking listening ears.)
When I’m about to lose my cool — or, as it often the case, I’ve already lost it — there are a few things I can do to get it back …
- Get the heck away from them. Obvious, right? It’s not always possible, but I do enjoy a good dash-away-from-the-kids when Darling Husband gets home from work, or wakes up from sleeping after the night shift. I basically say “YOUR TURN,” and stalk off to another level of the house. In these cases, I don’t listen to music or watch TV. I need total silence. After 10 minutes of flipping through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on my phone — with no one grabbing my legs or whining at me — I feel calm enough to return. It’s basically a Mommy Time-Out.
- Wash the dishes. I know, it’s ridiculous, but I don’t mind hand-washing dishes. In fact, I find it kind of soothing. I turn the water to a hot-but-not-too-hot temperature, and tune out the kids with Songza on the iPad while I scrub away. It’s almost like a spa for your hands … almost? … and by the time I’ve simmered down, the dishes are done.
- Tidy a room. You must think I have the cleanest house in the world, based on my calm-down methods (I don’t). If the kids have made a mess of the toyroom, I’ll march the three of us downstairs and we’ll clean it up together. Four-year-old D is quite helpful, and two-year-old C mainly just plays, but I don’t mind doing most of the work. Throwing toys back into bins is wonderful for blowing off steam, and — you guessed it — I feel much happier by the time we’re done because the basement is clean!
- Run an easy errand. Sometimes I’m cranky because I feel stir-crazy, so it helps to get everyone out of the house. We’ll run to the mall or pop into a store — mostly because my kids are much better-behaved in public than at home — and then all is well with the world. I know some mamas who take a spin through the drive-thru at Starbucks, just to get out of the house.
- Read a book together. I like reading aloud to my kids, providing it’s a book that I’m not ready to throw out the window. Mommy’s Choice, kids! Gather ’round!
- Take them outside. The weather’s been horrible lately (read: January), and I’m really, really missing how easy it is to go outside in the warmer months. Even though I’m totally not an outdoorsy person, my kids LOVE it out in that damn backyard. The fresh air also helps my mood, I must admit. And here’s a pro tip: you can’t hear the thudding footsteps of two active kids when they’re running around on the grass.
- Bake something. This is something I do often when I’m annoyed with the kids. They seem to turn their listening ears on when we’re in the kitchen together, and baking usually goes smoothly. We have muffins for the next day, or cookies for a playdate, so I get to feel a bit productive. They help me up to the point where we get it in the oven, and then I shoo them away so I can wash the dishes in peace (see above).
- Tidy their bedrooms. Cleaning my kids’ bedrooms makes me ragey, so it’s best to avoid this. Our two-year-old daughter is in the middle of that terrible room-destroying phrase. (Actually, scratch that, it might just be a family trait, because many of my friends’ kids have never gone through it) When I walk into her bedroom and see a mountain of doll clothes, people clothes, books, toys, toilet paper, ripped pages from books, and pieces of my soul, it’s all I can do not to throw Elsa and Anna at the wall as hard as I can.
- Kiddie crafts. I have to have a lot of patience for complicated, messy crafts. Beads rolling around on the table and skittering all over the floor, glue accidents, and painty hands threatening outfits? They’re not kind to the OCD part of my personality.
- Take them to a Cranky Store. My kids love coming to stores with me, and I’ll take them anywhere. But there are a few places I try to avoid if I’m feeling impatient:
- Wal-Mart (something about the lines and the sheer size of the place just raises my blood pressure)
- Canadian Tire (no idea why, but they always act up there)
- Dollar Stores (I love Dollar Stores, but there’s something in the air that makes my kids whiny and annoying — possibly those 2/$1 suckers near the cash)
It’s a new soundtrack | I could write to this beat | forevermore
You know when you friend-request someone and you’re kind of nervous about whether or not they’ll accept?
Well, making your own Facebook page is like texting hundreds of friends and acquaintances and former colleagues and asking if they’ll please, please, please, come to your lame birthday party.
So this is me, inviting you to my lame party. There might be cake …
 |
| There is not cake. Maybe snacks, though. |
I have been putting off this whole make-a-Facebook page thing for ages now, because I’m terrified I’ll end up with like 23 pity-likes from family members and close friends.
I struggled with what to call the page, because I feel like I’m walking around every day as five or six different Heathers — each with their own “thing.”
- Blogger Heather, sparkly pink keyboard sold separately
- Parenting columnist Heather who once got hate-mail for sunscreening her kids “wrong”
- DIY columnist Heather who always has paint under her nails
- Journalist Heather who wears a headset and does interviews while the kids are asleep
- Copywriter Heather who, like, puts words on, like, professional stuff?
- Aspiring author Heather who can’t seem to find time to write and publish a damn book
The girl in 2009
Married for just over six months, all I could think about was having a baby. I was completely and totally obsessed, and there was no one I could tell.
I started this blog six years ago, can you believe it? Six years? My life was so different on that fateful January morning — alone in our condo — when I secretly hit “Publish” for the first time.
Back then, I worked a 9-5 office job and dreamed of writing professionally. We lived in an expensive condo in an even more expensive suburb. I had a brand-new husband I didn’t see very much, because he was working two jobs. I desperately wanted children, but I was terrified about the future at the same time.
These days, I certainly sleep less — and have less free time on my hands — but my heart is full. I have a son and a daughter that drive me crazy make me laugh, and I can’t get enough of them. We live in a lovely small town where we’ve met so many amazing friends, and playdates are plentiful. I still don’t see Darling Husband as much as I’d like, but at least he’s down to one job.
I can barely remember the girl sitting in the condo, all alone, typing all alone about how much she wanted to change everything. I also can’t imagine what the next six years will bring, and I suppose that’s life.
xo
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