Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Slow: Sunday Sous Chef

We are returning to Slow Day in our home today, so no slow photos to share - but a slowing idea!

At the moment I'm writing, it is Sunday evening and I have just finishing prepping our meals for the entire week. This is revolutionary to me, I tell you! I am about to jump out of my skin I'm so thrilled and I good golly, I hope I keep this up!

When my Mom and I cook together, we sort of joke that we are the other cook's sous chef :) What a concept to actually be my own. Here's how it started.

Sunday morning, I started potato soup in the Crock Pot and stirred together the dry ingredients for David's favorite dessert cornbread. {Can't find the recipe to link: 1 yellow cake mix, make your own cornbread mix, 4 eggs, 1/3 c. milk, 1/3 c. melted butter, 1 c. water; bake at 350} As the cornbread was baking, I realized that I had about 30 minutes before lunch, the idea immediately came that I could start working on dinner for Monday night.

While the bread was baking, I whipped up a Chicken Pot Pie - it went much faster doing the veggies in the microwave. The whole thing was finished by the time I served lunch! Note: I keep cooked and cut up chicken ready in the freezer so that was a major time saver!

Well, that wonderful feeling of accomplishment settled over me all afternoon and I just sort of glowed in it. As I helped get our littles fed and ready to head out the door to Awana, I realized that if I spent about 30 minutes, I could prep my meals for the rest of the week - great way to start the week wouldn't you say?

It took me right about 30 minutes and here's what I accomplished:

Tuesday night: Ham & Cheese oven sandwiches - these are assembled and ready to heat
Wednesday night: Bacon Ranch Chicken in the Crock Pot with egg noodles and a salad -  I set the chicken into the fridge to begin thawing and cooked up one recipe of cream soup to be ready for this. Everything else will be easy to grab and toss in.
Thursday night: Chicken Noodle Soup and Red Lobster Biscuits: I made two recipes of the cream soup mix and cut up the carrots for the soup - everything else is ready to add.
Friday night: Pizza night - I am totally cheating with a frozen pizza we like!

Yay! What a great feeling to start the week with dinners feeling easy and simple while still very homemade. I am grateful in advance for the time I'll be able to slow because of this small investment of planning and preparing ahead!

A few nights later, I will add that it has already served me so well to have this prep work completed! Yesterday morning, we woke up to very cold temperatures and I decided we needed  soup instead of sandwiches. It was also a CC morning so extra time was scarce but I was quickly able to put together chicken noodle soup in the Crock Pot and it was so yummy and warming - such a blessing!