I conducted a “pop quiz” last week on my personal facebook page to ask “the two things you have most trouble keeping organised at home?” I had lots of great responses from busy Mums (and Dads) One big challenge for busy families is meal preparation. So let’s have a look at ways to make this household chore easier, fun and more enjoyable!
Some of the main reasons that cooking is not fun:
- the repetitiveness
- it’s thankless
- the fact that it doesn’t stop
- not having the ingredients
- not having the inspiration
- not having the time to cook.
How do we work around these issues and make cooking easier, fun and more enjoyable?
10 different approaches to meal preparation:
- Plan in advance – You may recall my blog a couple of weeks ago “Planning meals ahead of time saves time, brainspace and money”. Meals planned in advance quashes the need to think or argue about what’s for dinner and stops the need to stand endlessly in front of the fridge looking for inspiration.
- Get the family involved – take it in turns to cook each night or a couple of times a week. Even more importantly, pick a few easy meals and teach the kids a technique or two.
- Use someone else’s meal plan – The Total Wellbeing Diet is a higher protein, low GI eating plan that is scientifically-formulated by Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, for weight loss and overall health. Get yourself a copy of the book (or checkout the online version here) and follow the expertly prepared menu each week.
- Cook in bulk – Choose a few of your favourite recipes, put some time aside to shop for the ingredients and cook up a storm. Why not cook extra and freeze the left overs and pull them out of the freezer in a week or two for a delicious quick meal.
- Dinner swap – find a friend to swap a main meal each week. Make a lasagna or casserole or hot pot of some sort and get them to do the same.
- Outsource – there are lots of fabulous services available where people come to your house to cook your main meals including Justine Law from Domestica (http://www.domestica.com.au/). Justine’s services are quite affordable and she specialises in catering for people with allergies and intolerances..
- Eat around the World – Plan your meals for the next 3 weeks. Choose a different country for each week and plan at least 3 meals in that week from that country. Fill up the rest of the week with your favourite Aussie food.
- Shop online – there are some great meal planners online where you pick you meals and then put all the ingredients straight into your shopping cart and have it delivered to your door. Check out https://www.woolworths.com.au/Shop/Recipes/meal-types/dinner.
- 15 minute meals – If you don’t have a lot of time to cook there are lots of great, simple, delicious ideas online. Again with a bit of planning in advance for the ingredients you can rustle up something yummy in no time at all. Need some inspiration? check out these ideas on Pinterest.
- Give thanks – Much of the anguish about cooking is that it’s a thankless task. Create a new tradition where as soon as you sit down at the table, you give thanks to whomever cooked the meal. Soon enough this awkward new habit will roll of the tongue without thought.
I hope you’ve found some inspiration above in 1 of the 10 suggestions to make meal preparation easier, fun and more enjoyable. With a bit of forethought, participation from others and finished off with a bit of thanks, the daily task won’t be so tiresome.
I’d love to hear from you if you have another suggestion I have not listed. Leave a comment below.
If you need a hand to create a daily routine, including preparing meals, then check out my Time Management Services or Contact me today for a chat about how a bit of planning ahead of time can make meal preparation fun and enjoyable.