Defining "It"

I was trying to think of something useful to post in my blog this month. I had nothing. The well was pretty dry.
My two year old is coming into full bloom and I'm just running all day. Pretty typical for any parent of a toddler. Except in my circle most, okay no one, has five kids. So people ask me all the time, "how do you do it ". Honestly, I've had a hard time defining "it". I guess sometimes we tend to look at other people and think that they have it all together. It's a pretty subjective word - IT.

I've decided that IT might be all the daily grind. So here's the secret..... shortcuts. I cheat.

Two and half years ago my sister and her family moved on the same day as my family did. To the same city. Their move was beautiful. Everything in uniform boxes, neatly labeled and sorted. Her husband had the space in the moving van all mapped out. Quite the contrast from our day. We had boxes of every size, plastic bags, loose things all mixed up crammed into a truck.

When my sister's family arrived in their new home every box went directly to its appointed room. Not us. We shoved it into the house, set up the beds, ordered Swiss Chalet and went to bed.

Well, the next day we invited them over for dinner.... frozen lasagna (cheat, cheat). They came in and our house was completely set up. when they mentioned their surprise we very casually said, "of course, isn't your house unpacked ?". IT was great ! I still can't help but laugh. See, my husband and I took everything and hid it in the crawlspace. Oh yes, just to mess with them.  We are cheaters.

So I thought  over the next little while I'd share my cheat sheet with you. Since the last post was a menu I thought I would go ahead and talk about food tonight.

* Look for recipes with few ingredients. I aim for five. You can always add to it.
* Menu plan (beg , borrow or steal these. Best yet just record your meals for a couple of weeks and you already have a start to a plan for another time)
* Cook once, eat twice. Mash potatoes , next day Shepherd's pie. Pasta sauce, then casserole. Rice with dinner, fried rice for lunch.
* Use a mix. Just get over it. I happen to love homemade cranberry sauce so I will make that ahead of time but I refuse to spend the time making stuffing... it's a dollar a box. Bread crumbs everywhere, crying over onions, mincing celery, good grief.
* Crock. Pot. Get your pot set up while the kids are in bed. Take it out of the fridge in the morning and plug it in.

* Summer salads; stock up on some yummy sunflower seeds, raisins, croutons, toss in your leftover meat and veggies, splash on some oil and vinegar and pile it all on a bed of greens.

* The more you cook, the more creative and resourceful you will get at it.

I'm not saying I will do this forever, I like cooking. But when time and energy are low these are good ways to get the job done.

So here's one of my new favourite food ideas. Oatmeal. Use steel cut oats . Plug it in at night and enjoy in the morning. You can change up the flavour any way you want. This is my current favourite;

I got my basic idea for making overnight oatmeal from ;

http://www.mommyskitchen.net/



So happy Thursday everyone ! What's your favourite way to "cheat" ?


Carolyn,
Daughter of the King, wife to Richard
                                                                                     Mother to five beautiful boys.
                                                    "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength " Philippians 4:13