Making It Easy

I like to bring my breakfasts and lunches to work. And I love cooking dinner at home. Not only do I enjoy preparing food, I save tons of money and know exactly what I'm eating. However, I still dread packing my lunch every night because it seems to take me FOR-EV-ER.

I want to continue preparing my own meals, so I'm going to try to change my attitude towards packing lunch. Instead of it being a chore that I have to face every night, I'm going to think of ways to make it easier. Then when I feel the dread building up I can tell myself, "this is only going to take 15 minutes - no big deal!"

For lunch and breakfast I packed 2 bowls. Easy enough!

Breakfast was a bowl of plain yogurt topped with a diced peach and some crushed pecans.

For lunch I brought leftover potato cheese soup. I picked up a side salad from the cafeteria and grabbed a banana on my way out the door for an afternoon snack. Easy peasy!

Tonight I made a cheese/pickle/spinach sandwich and a big crunchy salad for dinner.

Since I was chopping cucumber, tomato, carrots, and radishes anyway I just doubled the amounts and made a salad for my lunch tomorrow. Two meals done at once!

I used to be good about dishing out things for a week's worth of lunches: yogurt, cottage cheese, hummus, peanut butter, baby carrots, etc. A little up front effort makes the actual lunch packing quite easy...and cuts down the time needed on busy weeknights. Along with bringing back this good habit, I'd also like to start meal-planning for weeknight dinners. Too often I'll get home late and opt for something easy and less fulfilling. If I have a plan (including groceries & recipes) I can do some prep work over the weekend or ask Katie to get started on dinner while I finish up at work.

Easy Weekday Meal-Making Tips:

• Utilize leftovers for easy lunches. When putting away extras after dinner, pack them in individual servings.
• It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Have time to make a sandwich but out of fresh fruit? Buy an apple at work - it's cheaper than buying your whole lunch!
• Time yourself. Is it really that long? Are you making it seem worse than it really is? Which part takes the longest - can you do something about it?
• Make your prep work serve double (or triple) duty. Making burritos for dinner? Go ahead and build a taco salad for lunch the next day while all the ingredients are out.
• Prepare what you can ahead of time. Dice a whole bunch of peppers and onions to be used in different recipes throughout the week.
• Pack up individual servings for easy grab-and-go meals. Yogurt, cottage cheese, veggie slices, nut butters, hummus, dried fruit, nuts and salad toppings can all be bagged/bowled up ahead of time.
• Meal plan, make a grocery list, and buy needed groceries over the weekend. Knowing ahead of time what you're going to make will save you so much time - and cash spent in the drive-thru.

Since I love cooking, grocery shopping, reading cookbooks, and planning I may as well enjoy my time preparing meals. Leave the stress for those big piles of laundry.

What tips do you have for making meal prep easier? Please share!