SAM'S CENTS
Take a Bite Out of Meal Prep Stress
I once spoke to a room full of executives who were brought to tears talking about the challenges of coming up with family dinners five nights a week. For many women, myself included, menu planning is one of the hardest parts of being a working parent. But it gets way worse when you don’t plan in advance. I recommend that you sit down and regularly plan meals for the entire week. Every Sunday, enlist your kids’ help, make at least three dishes for the week, and freeze them. I’m not talking about hours of drudgery—I’m talking about “Sunday afternoon cooking parties!”
Whether or not you do cooking parties, cookbook author Katie Workman recommends setting your sights on two to four home-cooked meals for your kids each week. It’s kind of like exercising: when we aim for all seven days, we can find ourselves not doing it at all, but when we have a manageable goal like two to four times a week, we can make it happen. Laurie David, author of The Family Cooks, recommends that you turn over the making of salad dressing to one of your children. “It takes only three or four ingredients to make a healthy and delicious dressing. Assign this fun task to one of your kids! They will love taking ownership of this important family job and will grow up always preferring homemade to store-bought.”
You can also ease the burden on yourself by doing “brinner” (breakfast for dinner) one night a week. Kids think it’s fun, and whipping up eggs only takes five minutes.
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