Today I wanted to answer these frequently asked questions regarding how I feed my family whole foods from scratch:
Are you in the kitchen ALL the time? How do you get all of this done? How do you keep up with all the dishes?
I am in the kitchen a lot…but I don’t live in there. (See, like right now I’m on the computer in the living room instead. :) ) Cooking from scratch and finding good sources for our food does take time…but here are some things I do to make my work simpler:
- I plan our menus!!! I can not be efficient in the kitchen without a plan for the week. (Just ask my kids how last week was when our computer was down and I didn’t have access to my site for my menu plan. They’d say, “What’s for lunch?” (at 12:36) and I’d look at them with glossy eyes and say, “Uh…”) Menu plans are a must for me.
- I cook simple meals…simple foods. I rarely cook anything that requires complicated steps or hard to work with ingredients. Meat, potatoes, rice, beans, veggies, fruits, grains, eggs, milk…it’s all just basic food put together into different yummy meals.
- I wash dishes as I go. I really do dirty up a lot of dishes in a day…but I try (try) to keep up with them by washing them as I cook. Sometimes they pile up. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up. Sometimes they make me discouraged. But they get done. I have a dishwasher. I have boys old enough to help. I have ten minutes here and there to knock more out of the pile. I love having clean countertops.
- I think ahead, plan ahead, cook ahead. This is one of my biggest cooking helps. I look at my menu plan and know what I’ll need for the week. If I can, I spend several hours on Friday night and Saturday cooking and baking for the week ahead. I’ll make up a double batch of tortillas, cook chicken for broth, bake four loaves of bread (sometimes making a couple of the loaves into cinnamon swirl bread like the picture at the top of this post), brown hamburger meat, cook rice, put together burritoes for the freezer, or any other foods that will make the week ahead run more smoothly. THEN, during the week…it’s like having convenience foods in the fridge or freezer!
- I keep a running list of what I need to buy or order. Usually, I do this online on my co-op website. As I think of something I need to order, I enter it into my online invoice as soon as I can so I don’t forget. The website remembers my order for me and I can just keep adding to it until I submit my order each month.
- I make tomorrow’s breakfast while I’m cooking tonight’s dinner. This doesn’t always work (like, I’m not going to scramble tomorrow’s eggs at 6:00 tonight…yuck), but if we’re having muffins for breakfast, I’ll mix them up and bake them while I’m in the kitchen cooking dinner. In the morning, I’ll re-warm them in the oven for a few minutes, or just serve them as is. Or, if I’m making biscuits tomorrow morning, I’ll mix the flour and buttermilk so they can soak overnight…and then just finish them up the next morning. I often make a double batch of waffles, let them cool, then freeze them. Then we have convenient, toaster waffles whenever we need them. LOVE it. I mix up turkey sausage, shape it into patties and stick them in the fridge for the morning.
Those are some of the things I do to keep myself organized and sane during the busy weeks of school work, computer work, laundry, and you know…Chutes and Ladders.
What are some of your best ways of staying organized while you’re cooking? Do you feel like you spend hours in your kitchen?
Visit Tammy’s Recipes for more kitchen tips.
Great tips Laura….but yes, I DO spend hours in the kitchen!
I want to thank you for these tips!! I *really* would like to make more of my family’s food from scratch but I am a mom that also works outside of the home 5 mornings per week. THe thought of managing it all overwhelms me. I am going to put your practical steps in practice to try to increase our rom scratch meals/snacks. I really like the idea of makng the next days breakfast that evening.. Because we all leave the house so early in the morning, muffins are a great idea! I have also done crock pot oatmeal which is great. Yesterday I made a huge batch of granola from scratch too to keep breakfasts homemade but also quick enough for us to be able to enjoy them as we get ready for the day!
I can’t really add any good tips to your list, because these are all the things that I do too! Although I do my extra cooking during the week, because my husband wants my attention on Saturday and I want to give it to him!!! I can testify that planning 3 meals a day – in advance – saves SO much money, and time too.
I am the same way about the menus – if I don’t have it prepared and printed, then I go into that glassy-eyed mode . . .
Gotta go fix Cheesy Beef & Rice for dinner : o )
I don’t do everything you do, but I do have a menu and I LOVE when I can spend Sat. morning prepping next weeks meals! I will also, double double double. If I can make extra I will! Thanks for the tips Laura! Definatley going to add “breakfast prep” at dinner time to my routine! That would help so much. My kids are ready to eat early and I am still in “need coffee first” mode, so they end up w/ cheerios! I would love to give them something better.
Great tips! I also menu plan, and cook simple meals. My shopping list is simple too – I buy milk, eggs, cheese, fresh produce, meats, etc. Eating at home saves lots of money. And menu planning allows me to have to only go shopping once every two weeks. (Once we have a house with more cabinets to store food, I’m planning on going only once a month!) I don’t bake my own bread yet, but I have been meaning to try it!
I think it would be so fun to live with you for a week and watch you in action.
I love the breakfast tip…I’m soooo not a morning person…good idea!
I’m with Jayme, when do classes start and can I bring children? ;)
I do the same things you do and I don’t feel like I spend hours in the kitchen, but I do spend a good bit of time in there, I’m sure. I’m one of those rare birds that LOVES to grocery shop and loves to plan out meals.
I have to say that making out my weekly menu and coordinating shopping list really helps with my grocery budget. BTW, I like to make my own homemade turkey breakfast sausage too. My recipe is slightly different, though.
I have a clipboard posted in the kitchen with my menu plan and recipes for the week. Just in case I get an evening out, or need a break, husb’d and the kids have everything at their fingertips.
And, I do breakfast prep the night before, too: soaking oats, or barley, preparing batter for muffins and such, or preparing yogurt. Oh, and I usually double a muffin recipe and keep the batter in the fridge for the week.
I too use my Saturday morning for weekly planning, making granola, and bread baking for the week! But, I never thought about dinner prep! I have to try this. ;-)
My mother in law had eight children and cooked from scratch. My husband said he recalls her cooking dinner at 6:00 in the morning :)
I am not very organized as a cook but your ideas are really good and encouraging.
Roberta Anne
You can come take over my kitchen anytime, Laura! :)
Regarding menus, I try to do mine a month at a time, and I do a better job sticking to it if I put it on the fridge so that it’s always in front of everyone. The kids know what days certain meals are coming up and look forward to them. If I get off-schedule, they make sure I’m aware of it and that helps me get back on track!
For breakfasts, I try to repeat seven things on a weekly schedule. Right now it’s muffins for Sunday, homemade sausage egg McMuffins on Monday, smoothies on Tuesday, oatmeal on Wednesdays, cinnamon rolls on Thursdays, cold cereal on Fridays, and waffles/bacon on Saturdays. It’s nice to make pre-make cinnamon rolls and flash freeze them before they’ve risen. I can just take out however many I need on Wed. night, and by the time I’m back from my 6:00 AM walk they have thawed, risen, and are ready to bake!
We have a meal plan which I vary each fortnight, and I shop fortnightly to make sure we have all the basics.
I also have a weekly ‘chore chart’ which includes all the children, even the 2 year old who can help a big sister set the table, so I only actually do the cooking and most of the cleaning up is done by the children.
This year I have changed our chore chart so my two eldest can start doing some cooking too. (Or I DID change it but the computer crashed and it’s lost. I have to start all over now.)
I almost always make breakfast the night before, especially during the week. It saves me so many times!
You have the same tips I do… I think people put too much thought into it, stress toooo much about it… and put it in their minds that they don’t have time….
I think you can carve out time lots of places…. I can mix up a batch of muffins during a commercial break, (of course I only watch a few shows a week, but still)… This is because I KNOW where everything is to make them! I can clean a bathroom in about 5 min tops! This is because I have learned how to clean quickly! My house is always clean, it doesn’t look like i have 4 kids, and we eat home cooked meals everyday!
Someday I will have to work outside the home, and I know with my training now, I will still be able to keep it all together then… just have to use my weekends more wisely!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the great tips today!
One thing I do to make cleanup easier is when I cook, I keep a plastic grocery bag nearby. As I go along, I throw all the garbage (empty pasta boxes, fatty pieces of meat, fruit stems, etc.) into the bag. Then when all my prep is done and the meal is cooking, I just close up the bag and wipe down the counter. No mess!
Great tips.And i love your new layout. Very cute.
I do a lot of these same things. Of course, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen but not as much as if I didn’t plan and do things ahead. I often roast a chicken or bake a roast or ham and then use the meat for 4-5 meals throughout the week. That helps speed up meal prep since the meat is already cooked.
I sooooo love the idea of baking breakfast the night before. I wonder if sometimes you are surprised by the things that people get excited about. I wonder which ones that you just thought everyone did. :)
I don’t menu plan, because it seems to actually impair my ability to cook. :) Whenever I have done it over the course of our 10 years of marriage I have actually cooked less and become a big disgruntled, grumpy wife. (I get discouraged that this is something that helps so many, so I wonder what is wrong with me. but–then my hubby just comes in and says, ‘just don’t make a list’. Brilliant man, that husband of mine! )
So for me, I learned to keep the pantry stocked with the essentials of things that we use and so anytime I go to them I can make all of our ‘old stand bys’ and even usually most new things too. I’ve learned over the years what things we use and what we don’t. Like I always have A can of artichoke hearts on hand, but only one because otherwise it might not get eaten. But I might have over 20 cans of tomato paste in my pantry at any given time. And carrots, don’t get me started on how many carrots we always have on hand–they can go in almost everything and they are dirt cheap, even organic–so we always have a ton of carrots. and so on
I do usually have a few things I want to try and so for those I will make sure I have any special ingredients, but for the most part our menu revolves around simple food. I buy in bulk, started canning last year (and love it), and buy on sale when possible. (Oh and I always have a ‘honey I found this great deal’ category in my budget of anywhere from 15 to 30 dollars for those times when you find some amazing close out on something and you want to buy it. THat way I don’t have to cut something which we really need, but can still get the good price. It’s amazing how every time there is something that I am running low on that fits this category.)
I also buy things in season as they are cheaper, especially since I try and buy only organic. The jump to buying in season was kind of big for us, because it means no grapes in December and such, but we have been doing it for over a year and have seen some pretty big results in our budget and in the flavor of the produce! And now the kids get so excited about it. they are even learning about the cost of things, because they know when the price is good or not and if we are going to buy it. And they are 7 and 4!
Something else we do is to make big batches of EVERYTHING. We have multiple allergies in our family, so convenience foods are for the most part simply not an option. They are either 3 times more expensive than normal, or they don’t exist. Sooo, when I make soup I make double the amount and we freeze half in a bag. If we make bagels we quadruple the recipe and freeze a ton. If we make pizza we make 6 pizza crusts instead of 2. If we make crockpot applesauce, we fill it to the brim. And so on… And then when I don’t ‘feel’ like cookin, or I’m sick, or we are going somewhere and would need something fast–we pull out our ‘frozen’ dinner. It’s fast, but WHOA MORE IMPORTANTLY, its homemade, nutritious and delicious.
Whew, that was a computer screen full, but I guess I got on a roll of sharin…
thanks for being so open about your life and helping and encouraging those of us readin it. you are AMAZING!
I too do a lot of what you do:
– plan meals: I do this on Wed and then go shopping on Thurs. This actually helps when you are on a limited budget.
– cook simple foods: I use a lot of your recipies of course
– wash as I go: I enjoy clean counter tops as well but sometimes the dishwasher gets full before I can put in all the dirty dishes so I do end up with a counter full of dirty dishes on one side and clean “airing out” dishes on the other.
– think, plan, cook ahead: I use my menu plan for this. For example, if I’m making waffles on Thursday morning I’ll make a note on the menu plan on Wednesday to prepare waffles (mill grain, soak grain, etc). That little note is a HUGE help.
– grocery list: I have a pad on our refrigerator where we can add things that we need for our next shopping day. I also have a grocery list organized by aisle and have it printed so that I can highlight what we need. This makes grocery shopping take less time (I know right where every thing is) and very focussed (I don’t veer from my list)
– pre-prep breakfast: I set the table and do all that I can the night before to make breakfast as easy as possible.
Laura, I third Jayme! I’m ready to come and glean a few things from you. BUT would it be OK if we waited until the summer?
I’m going to try the toaster waffles – mmm!
I agree, planning is a must. I have a hard time keeping on top of the cleanup though – I have just a single basin sink and no dishwasher. But I NEVER go to bed with unwashed dishes on the counter. Never.
Thank you for your tips! I’m really struggling with cooking, spending time with my kids, and keeping house somewhat clean (the clean part isn’t happening like I’d like it to.)
My main trick to saving time is to make ‘packets’ of dry ingredients to things I make regularly, like bread, muffins, granola… Then when I’m ready to make the item I’m not pulling out all of the ingredients and measuring cups and spoons, except for the liquid ingredients.
I really like the idea of making breakfast during supper prep; I’m teaching my kids to cook, so this might become a great habit for our family. :)
I enjoy your tips as well as TammyK’s tips.
I think I may start bagging my dry ingredients for future muffin and/or biscuit making. Heck, I will even add the good ol’ stand by of corn bread.
I pack my husband’s breakfast and lunch every night to help ease my morning. Since we both work, it makes it a little easier.
I’ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.