This is a great question, How do I cook from scratch (and therefore food storage) as a working and/or single mom? Well first, let me say-yeah for you for trying to cook from scratch with such little time and such a harried schedule. But let me also say it is entirely worth it! Why? Well outside of the obvious reasons that it’s cheaper and healthier, you’re also more likely to have family dinners together which studies show can help a girl’s image of herself, reduce the risk of drug and alcohol abuse among children, and help your kids get better grades. It can also provide a great training ground for your kids to learn how to cook, help, and work together. So why is this worth fighting for? Because, in a nutshell, it provides a great way to multi-task many different things together-just in cooking…and cooking together! That is one of the biggest reasons I love cooking!
So now that you’re sold on the idea of cooking from scratch I also know it can be harder to do with little time, so let me give you my best tips for getting it done.
- Get the entire family involved! Get the kids chopping, slicing, stirring, and HELPING. You don’t have to do everything yourself and in fact you shouldn’t=the lessons a child learns while cooking are priceless!
- Make a menu! Cooking from scratch requires good PLANNING! (If you want my help menu planning-you can check out my MENU PLANNERS) If you’re planning ahead you can get chicken in your fridge thawing the day before you need it, do some chopping the night before, etc.
- Going along with a menu-you can get your chopping done for all the meals you’ll need on a Saturday (or which ever day you have a block of time) AND have your kids help!
- Learn to love freezer meals! My friend Jenny Stanger (she did the video on making your own freezer pizzas with me) has a wonderful book all about making your own freezer meals and a freezer meal blog. The wonderful thing about freezer meals is that it involves more than just dinner-you can make your own freezer cinnamon rolls (yes, you could be one of those “perfect moms” who serves cinnamon rolls in the morning!), freezer rhodes rolls, you can even freeze RICE to make your meal making even faster!
- Make the slow cooker your best friend! One of my favorite slow cooker cookbooks is by Stephanie Ashcroft and is titled 101 Things to do With your Slow Cooker. She even has tips in the beginning for how to convert any and all of your recipes to use a slow cooker. Nothing beats coming home and having dinner done.
- Make mixes to save time! My favorite cookbook for mixes are Make a Mix or even Dinner is in the Jar.
I’m so glad you wrote this post. I’m a working mom who is out the door at 7 a.m. and gets home at 630 and I cook breakfast for my family, make lunches, and has a home cooked dinner on a daily basis. Am I super woman?? Maybe…not. I use all the tips you have provided. I get everyone involved which is the biggest thing. My two boys can cook a meal if necessary. They help pack lunches, mix, cut, stir…any little bit helps. The hubby helps too. At one point we had 5 kids at home to cook for, but we’ve always worked as a team. It does require planning but it’s totally worth it. My 16 yr old son said the other night “mom, you do everything a stay at home mom does”…and that has always been my goal, to provide my family with the same amount of home goodness my stay at home mom provided to me.
And thank you for providing all these wonderful tips. I hope to be able to get to a cannery soon to use some of the food storage you write about. Aside from that, you have educated me a lot…keep up the good work.
Have you ever used powdered butter? If so, what do you think about it and how did you use it? I think I might be posting this in the wrong spot. Thi is for the January questins.