Feeding Your Family With Less Stress
Where did summer go? It seems I was just thinking about summer beginning and now here we are ready for winter! Personally I love falling back into a routine (even if it is crazy at times!). The one challenge I always face is feeding everyone when we are all running in 10 different directions, not to mention when I am spending 30-40 hours a week out of the house at work. I have found that having wholesome meals for home, school and work makes everyone happier and healthier. I finally feel like this year I’ve got a good plan of attack and hope you can benefit from it too.
Before We Get Cooking…
Schedule – In order to make a solid plan, you need to know your schedule as well as the schedule of everyone else in your family. I have tried a lot of different methods, and ultimately I’ve realized you need to decide what works best for you. My favorite method is Google Calendar. I put in everything–and I mean everything. My work schedule is blocked out as well as any meetings or events I have during my work day (this calendar syncs to my work calendar). My husband’s class and work schedule are there. My son’s soccer games and practices, as well as the days that he is taking cold lunch are put in (more on that later). I also block off times for blog work, house cleaning tasks, meal times and homework time for my oldest son. Doing this allows me to really see what time I do have open.- Planning lunches – My children are both in public schools and every month a calendar comes home that lists their lunches for every day. I go through this list first and automatically send a cold lunch for any day that has a pork option. Then I go through the remainder with my son to see what days he does want to eat hot lunch. I usually end up sending cold lunch 2-3 times a week. Having this mapped out a month in advance makes meal planning much easier for me. I also can make extra food at dinner time to carry over for lunch the next day.
- Planning dinners – Let’s face it, after working an 8+ hour day not many of us are dying to get home and cook dinner. It’s so much easier to grab some take out or throw together some type of basic meal. I am not against this; however, dinner does not have to be this way! As I mentioned in my interview with American Muslim Mom earlier this year, dinner time is our time to get together and connect. Here are some suggestions to help get dinner on the table easier.
Dinner Without the Stress
- Make a meal plan. There are countless resources on the internet for meal planning. Spend some time familiarizing yourself with the concept and adapt it to work for your family. Some people like to try something new every day, others prefer themed days (Mexican Monday, Pizza Friday), and still others plan based on tried and true recipes from their repertoire. Schedule these meals into your calendar. It makes grocery shopping and meal preparation much easier.
- Pre-cook/prep food. Something that I am going more in depth about this fall on my blog is cooking for your freezer. If you Google “freezer cooking” you will find fabulous sites and recipes about cooking ahead and freezing. While one day will be a long day of cooking, the subsequent days or weeks will be so easy! Another tip that I have been implementing is prepping food. If I bring home 5 onions for the week’s meals, instead of chopping them when I need them, I chop them all at once and store them in the fridge. When it’s time to cook it’s a lot faster.
I’m going to continue this post in the future to discuss planning for breakfast as well as making time for the other duties at home. If you are a mom that works out of the home like myself, balancing these obligations becomes an extra challenge and I truly feel there is a lot of value in sharing what works!
My Challenges to You This Month:
- Create a calendar for your family that includes everything important to you.
- Commit to cooking and eating a home-cooked meal 3 days a week.
I hope you’ll leave a message in the comment section letting me know if you will accept my challenge and leave any other suggestions you have for making meal times easier for working Muslim moms!
Similar Posts:
- 5 Work-at-Home-Mom Tips That Make Achieving Home and Work Life Balance Easier
- Tips For Securing A Halal Hibachi Lunch
- Free 30-Minute eCookbook Giveaway- A Muslim’s Perspective
- Breakfast for the Working Mom: The Most Important Meal of the Day
- Preparing for a Simple Ramadan
Category: All in a Mom's Life
Really useful tips. I like the freezer cooking idea. It’s a very practical solution if you mostly eat non-veg, but hate spending too much time in the kitchen. Meat dishes take a lot of time to cook!
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Personally I love falling back into a routine (even if it is crazy at times!). The one challenge I always face is feeding everyone when we are all running in 10 different directions, not to mention when I am spending 30-40 hours a week out of the house at work.
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Thanks Amanda for sharing your ideas. My mother always does this. She is also working and though we do not have a soft copy of the meal plan, she has made it on a paper and has stuck it on the kitchen wall. She ensures to give us sprouts and soups as snacks. I am glad that I got a caring mom who takes so much care of me and my brother!
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It is so good to plan out the meals. In this way mothers can ensure that kids are getting complete nutrition all through the week. We take homemade food five times a week. I always give my children their favorite once in a week. I love serving them hot food.
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Great idea Amanda! You really sounds like my wife. She’s always preparing a checklist for one week budget including the food to prepare everyday. I salute all moms with great idea!
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Thanks for all the great comments so far – it seems like a lot of people are using a meal plan!
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Hi Amanda, thank you for sharing these ideas… This is really a great help for me because I am always stressed for preparing my family’s meal.
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I try to get food in time. But sometimes I can’t. This blog has solved my problem. Thank you Mouttaki.
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Organized things and also the kitchen utensils before cooking to make you cook more comfortable and it’s more easy and quick if you’ll have it that way. Then if you could wake up and cook early before the kids are up then it might as well be good and worked on your advantage.
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