Saving Time by Planning and Prepping Ahead

I've been trying to save as much time as possible in the evenings to get some time back to spend with the boys. I feel like I work all day, sit in traffic, pick up Landon (Christopher picks up Carter), get home, stare at the pantry for a while trying to figure out what to fix for dinner, either eat junky boxed stuff or end up getting take-out, eat, clean up from supper, get the boys to bed, pack lunches, go to sleep so I can do it all over again!

I am taking my life back by just doing simple things like planning and mass prepping ahead of time. None of this is rocket science but I wanted to pass along these ideas as they have definitely changed my life.

I sit down with Christopher on the weekend and plan our dinners for the week. I know what I am having when I get home and don't waste time staring into the pantry abyss. Also, I can make sure to have my proteins thawing in the fridge the day beforehand so I'm not wasting time thawing meat when I get home to cook that night.

I am trying to use my crock-pot at least once per week. (Note: save even more time by buying crock-pot liners. Pull that baby out, toss it, and you are done cleaning up your crock-pot!) For a roast the other week, I cut all of the veggies (onions, carrots, potatoes) and mixed up my sauce the night before. I stored them in a tupperware overnight (seperately) so I just had to dump everything in the crock-pot the next morning.

I try to make casseroles ahead of time (ideally on Sunday afternoon when I have some time) that I can just pop in the oven when I get home. In this instance, I boiled my chicken one night while we were eating dinner, then prepped this casserole the next night to cook the following day.

And then there's lunches. Time-suckers! I tried my hand at packing all 5 lunches on a Sunday night. Yeah, there's some lunchables in there (they are expensive but are time-savers). There's also mini pepperonis, sandwiches, turkey rolls, etc. I always try to send one fruit, one veggie, and one dairy/protein like cheese or yogurt. I send berries earlier in the week since they tend to go bad more quickly after washing. I also add napkins and write a week's worth of love notes. I bag each of them seperately in grocery bags so that it takes up as less room in the fridge. At night, all I do is dump the contents of a bag into his lunchbox, add a freezer pack and BAM! It has really cut out some time. (And yes, I use a lot of Tupperware. I shudder when I see pictures of mass prepping using tons of baggies. I still use some baggies but try to be as environmentally-conscious as possible.)