School is here. For us that means football season is also here. I am married to a high school football coach and my son is playing his first year of high school football … oh and they are at two different schools. #goteam
In our house, my husband is our main cook. His mom instilled in him a LOVE for cooking and we can just say that that gene does not exist in my body. Friends of mine will probably be in disbelief that I am the one writing this, HA! This year by the time practice is over, we are getting home around 6:30pm. At this point, we have all been out of the house for 12 hours and there is NO WAY I am going to cook a significant meal.
Here are a few things that I have figured out to help me along the way:
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Meal Prep Weekends.
For us, we have busy Sundays with church obligations so typically on Saturday afternoon / evening, we will cook a bit for the week. My husband prepares lunches for the week in containers to grab and go at 6am. Then we make two dinners for the week. Our go-tos are spaghetti sauce; sometimes we make the noodles ahead of time, too. We will also grill a variety of meat … we rotate the main meat then the night of, I throw on some frozen veggies and done. Jambalaya Girl jambalaya is also always a hit in our house – yummy and EASY!
2. Sams/Costco precooked meals.
These are lifesavers. For us, our favorite is the Chicken Alfredo at Sams. You pop it in the oven for 30 minutes (while kids are bathing and doing homework), throw some veggies on the stove and done!
3. Whatever you can find nights.
These have become my kids favorite nights. They are mostly on Thursdays when rations are low and we are all EXHAUSTED. Sometimes they eat leftovers, make grilled cheese sandwiches or a homemade lunchable.
Finally, do not worry, you will still find us running through the Chic Fil A drive thru, especially on game nights but most nights, we would rather skip eating out and go for an easy home meal.
For us, this has taken the pressure of HAVING to cook every night off of us. Our kids are eating … somewhat healthy and we aren’t spending an arm and a leg eating out multiple nights a week. It is a win-win for us!
