Last week, I was worried that our routine was so new that I didn’t know how to plan for it. This week, I’m feeling rushed, even though the week hasn’t even started. The frenetic pace of the school year is here and I’m feeling it. In my head, I want to have more time to prep meals right before we eat them, but that seems to just not be
I’ve got to figure out how to work with it, instead of pushing against it. It’s like one of the Chinese finger traps that I had as a kid. The more that you pulled on it, the tighter the woven tube became on your fingers. But, if you pushed in, just a little, suddenly, you were free.
As I sat planning this week’s menu, my “push in” to prevent feeling rushed was thinking about when I had prep time and which meals might warm up easily in the oven. As much as I wanted to find things that would be fun for me to cook, simple is going to need to be the name of the game for a few weeks as we adjust and continue to find our pacing.
I’ll be blocking off some time in the kitchen on Sun. to get ahead on the cooking, too. If I can go into the week with a few dishes already prepped and ready to go that rushed feeling my start to subside just a little bit. My goal is to give myself that feeling of “I’ve got this” that we desperately crave as parents.
Sunday – Hamburgers, fries, roasted delicata squash (we picked up a few of these at the CSA this week and I haven’t found my go to recipe yet), sweet chili green beans
Monday – Leftovers
Tuesday – Pizza
Wednesday – Blintz soufflé, banana bread waffles (mushy bananas make great banana bread, but they can also make yummy waffles!)
Thursday – Fish sticks, teriyaki salmon (I’ll write this up one day, but the recipe is so simple! Just mix brown sugar with teriyaki sauce and soy sauce and then pour it over the salmon. Broil it until cooked.), roasted Brussels sprouts, sweet potato casserole*
Friday – Sedona tortilla soup (the kids keep asking for this, probably because they like crushing up tortilla chips into it), make your own taco (I’ll brown some ground beef with taco seasoning and put some simple sides out for the kids to build their own taco)
Saturday – Bagels and lox, spinach quiche
