Today I’m basking in the blessings of wonderful friends who cook with me to bless all our families! It’s a great way to be that Proverbs 31 woman we all aspire to! You know, “…She is like merchant ships; She brings her food from afar. She rises also while it is still night, And gives food to her household, And portions to her maidens.” (Prov. 31: 14,15) I don’t know about you but that Proverbs 31 woman makes it sound so easy. Personally, I’ve tried to find ways to be that woman working smarter not harder!
I take part in a cooking exchange with a few of my friends and I haven’t cooked since Tuesday. My kitchen stays clean and cool. We eat healthy, save money and my stress level goes way down! I had kind of forgotten what life was like before I got this area under control and just had a reminder last night.
My friend had a party, Homemade gourmet, I think it was called. Basically, it’s a company that does a party plan and teaches ladies to get their meals prepared and in the freezer. They sell mostly spice type blends that you add to flavor you soup, casserole, chicken dish or whatever. Not a bad idea for those who need some help but you can do it easily and inexpensively yourself.
What reminded me of lets say my “former life” was their questionnaire. It was something like this:
1: What keeps you from sitting down at the table for dinner with your family?
2: How many times a week do you get fast food or order pizza?
3: What’s the hardest thing about cooking? Clean-up, recipes, time…?
And there were a couple more along those lines. What it made me realize is that my family is not the norm any more. We do sit down to a home cooked meal pretty much every night. We don’t worry about prep time, clean-up or what’s for dinner because most of the time it’s already done.
I do have vague memories of being stressed out and getting frustrated with my husband and family because I felt like I was failing when I couldn’t get it together. You know, the kitchen was a wreck, Daddy was coming home in 5 minutes and I didn’t have a clue what to make.
So what changed? I started planning ahead! Most meals I have all set in the freezer. The main “cookbook” I started with was the 30 day Gourmet Freezer cooking manual, http://www.30daygourmet.com/Manuals/Freezer_Manual.asp . Besides that I learned to double and triple cook when I do cook and freeze the extra meal or two. Usually about once a month I do a big cooking day where I might make 10-15 meals for my freezer in one day. I did this on my own for several years but then a good friend of mine suggested a co-op.
Here’s how it works for us. We each (there’s 4 or 5 of us who participate) cook a set number of meals and a set number of each recipe. For instance we might each make 5 recipes, 5 batches of each. That’s 25 meals we’ll each make but instead of keeping our own we “exchange” so we each end up with 25 different meals (5 would be ones we made ourselves.)
Whether you go it alone or find some friends I encourage you to give it a try. For me homeschool wrecks havoc on my house and schedule and this is a lifesaver to my day!
Happy cooking.
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