How Do Working Moms/ Busy Moms Make Meal Times A Reality Weekdays?

Have you ever thought to yourself this is something stay at home moms and dads are able to do?

You can do it just as well at the other moms who are always at home with their children even though they may not have ample time as you assume.

Some parents would love to use this opportunity to do more for their children during their weekdays.

Whatever your reason is, i am here to share what i have learnt through other moms and my journey in motherhood as i figure out what works best to live a much more fulfilling life.

Read : What Has Kept You From Living Your Best Life As Mom

Plan Ahead

You get home from work you are tired and that is how most week days are.

You find yourself eating fast foods or toast and eggs or Emasi if you are me! If this is overdone it may not be the healthiest option for you and your family.

Solution

Know your busiest days at work that make you feel like coming home and just not doing much.

Have something frozen for those rainy days when you just want to prepare meals in as little time as possible.

When you have more time, on less busier days and you have more time to cook. Use these days to cook more and freeze more.

Cook once, eat twice. I love this phrase so much because it has made my days much simpler. Cook once a day and keep some by freezing for another days use. This is another option for us moms with hectic schedules.

This allows you flexible days when you find yourself really tired or you just get home later than usual. Take something frozen and warm it up and next thing you are having supper in as little time as possible.

Read: Meal Times Are Family Fun Times!

Break down your meal plan

You know how you get home and you just do not know what to cook and when you eventually decide you realise there are no ingredients.

Meal planning helps you to be ahead. When you get home and you do not know what to cook, this can waste your time.

When everything is planned, you have already defrosted, you get home and start cooking.

It may help to know what meals you will be preparing all week so you are better prepared with ingredients.

Your family enjoys a home cooked meal.

Buy Ingredients During the weekend!

Now that you know what meals you will be cooking during the week, now stock up on the ingredients you may not have in your pantry.

Better yet include lunch box meal ingredients in your visit to the grocery shop.

A week on its own can be hectic enough for a mother, so on your leisure time during the weekend include it in your weekend plan to do meal planning for the week then add up on the ingredients you may not have.

What has been your biggest challenge preparing meals during the week?

You know them best, work around that!

Make the most of your weekends

When you start the week under pressure and you know at the back of your mind that you are not fully prepared for the week, it can really weigh you down.

When i get really frustrated by a routine, i try my best to figure out how i can outsmart it and have calmer days.

So on your free time during the weekends whenever you can cook more starch or it can be protein. Easy example is rice and beans then freeze them, this means your week is already much easier for meal preparing.

Shop smart and consider those tired days and include some frozen vegetables in your groceries to help you prepare your meals much quicker!

Whenever you want fresh vegetables on less busier days for you and your family. You can have some under no pressure to spend less time cooking.

Start cooking almost immediately you get home before relaxing!

What happens when you rest first?

It is possible you want to rest some more!

One of the habits that made me so lazy was i got home and had my coffee( wrong choice after 5). I would sit with my coffee on our bamboo chairs in our back yard sipping while i watched my children play.

I would literally start cooking after an hour, imagine.

I had to change this habit, it was not working. I slept late most days because that is what happens when you start cooking late, you serve supper a bit late, you clean up late and you get to bed late too.

I changed this habit and we now have our meal times earlier and have plenty of time to relax before the children’s bedtime.

When you get home start cooking before actually sitting down unless you are still breastfeeding and this could be a great read for you.

Read: Mother To A New Born Baby/ Babies ( the post partum plan)

Focus on preparing supper than multitasking!

Multitasking is not a bad idea at all. However sometimes it is better to focus on one thing at a time to avoid burning food or serving your meals late when children are already sleepy.

There was a time i had tried multitasking on my posting days on the blog. I would cook and draft a blog post.

It just never worked out, i was home but under so much pressure.

Focusing on task at a time, most of the time you accomplish more. After supper and spending time with your family, you can focus on other things than need to be done.

Get the family involved!

Get the children and your spouse to help you in preparing meals. It just makes family life so much fun and you get things done quicker.

You get to spend less lonely time in the kitchen and you are able to spend some time with your children and better yet they are learning so much as they help you set the table and take food to the dinner table.

Children love it when you involve them in activities. It makes them feel capable and strong.

However give them tasks they can handle like handing you vegetables, picking peels from the floor, handing you dishing spoons an taking their food to

Have a meal together!

Having a meal together with your children rather than at random times teaches your children to focus on their meals and enjoy sharing a meal with their parents.

You may find that when you feed children separately from your own meals, it may be harder to feed them sometimes.

Yet when they see you eat, they are drawn to sit next to you and do what you do.

As you get used to this, it becomes normal and an every day routine to prepare meals, eat together, laugh together then later pray together before going to sleep.

Have fun and live a little

It is so easy to be focused on deadlines from work, get home and start taking care of your family. At times one mom may feel so weary and just need time to relax and enjoy being in your body and have enough time with your children while you are tired. You just forget to enjoy your family.

You are blessed to have a family, remember that and let it propel you forward to a more fulfilled life.

List the things that hinder you
Find out your time wasters
Figure out what you can eliminate
Find out what you can do consistently in life that will make your life much easier.

Sometimes a break from cooking once a while may be just what you need to come up with new routines. A tired mind is far from creativity.

Wrapped in love,

Futhi Mkhwanazi