“It is in her [the homemaker’s] preparation of the dinner that the cook begins to feel the weight
and responsibility of her situation,
as she must take upon herself all the dressing and the serving of the principal dishes,
which her skill and ingenuity have mostly prepared.
Whilst these, however, are cooking, she must be busy with her pastry, soups, gravies, ragouts and stock,
being the basis of most made dishes, must be always at hand,
in conjunction with her sweet herbs and spices for seasoning.”
– Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, 1861
Sitting down on the front porch wicker couch with my book and a glass of cold water, I rejoiced in a few quiet moments that were blissfully mine. The girls and I had spent the morning canning more (lovely!) green beans from our garden, making two loaves of homemade bread and two batches of homemade bagels, we cleaned and tidied up some rooms and put away a load of laundry. Lunch was cleaned and dishes put away and dinner was slowly cooking in the crockpot, tucked away in the kitchen. Now it was time for a bit of a rest.
The reason the girls and I can take some down time in the afternoon is because of proper planning – proper meal planning and using our given time wisely. My personal rule is to always have dinner ready by 10 a.m. – whether that means a “plan” for dinner or the meat is actually cooking in the slow cooker and the veggies are actually primed and ready to be cooked or steamed. I recently had a reader (Hello, Kristal!) ask how I meal plan or if I do at all. Well, I will try to explain my method.
Tonight, we are having taco salad, so the work load is pretty minimal on my part. I needed to brown the meat (which I did while were canning beans – by using the crockpot, it did most of the work for me), cut up tomatoes and shred cheese {we also keep a hearty stash of pre-shredded cheese in the freezer – if we find a sale on cheese, we buy a big stack and shred the cheese at home and freeze it}. We will use homemade salsa that I canned last year. Before my husband arrives home, I will send one of the girls to the garden to fetch some fresh lettuce and tomatoes. We will cut it up right before we eat.
Other nights, are our meals are bit more labour intensive, but still manageable. I often think of the women ‘back in the day’ and think how easy we have it compared to them. While we do raise our own meat, we do not butcher it – we happily take it to a Mennonite run operation where they, following government regulations and inspections, process all our turkeys, beef and chicken. It is a huge blessing to not have that workload on our shoulders.
If you buy your meat from the store, it is even easier for you.
So now, our freezers (or at least they will be soon) are full of home grown meat. I do not have to run and catch and chicken whenever I choose to serve chicken 🙂 like the pioneer women did … I don’t have to worry about plucking feathers or draining blood, thank goodness! So on busy days, I am still so thankful that all I have to do is go to my freezer and possibly debone a chicken if that is the work involved. We are pretty blessed compared to those days 100 years ago. No need for griping over our tasks in the kitchen.
While I do not necessarily meal plan in a strict way, I do meal plan loosely in my head and write it down into my planner. {I use a good ol’ fashioned planner, not a digital one.} I also have a list written in the back of my planner with our dinner ideas written down. On a day when I cannot find dinner inspiration, I can refer to my list … look up chicken and think, “Oh yes! Mexican chicken! We loved that one!” and find a way to use that meal in the next day or so. If there are leftovers one day and daddy will call and say we are working late, I know it will be a leftovers night. Mostly, however, we are cooking a new meal every day.
My husband has a very un-settled work schedule – he can hope to be home, but if he gets a call, he cannot come home. He can pull up the driveway, wave hello to us and get a call all in the same minute, reversing his car back out and away he goes. I cannot plan dinner around him, but I do try to plan a bigger meal when he is home. That being said, I plan a dinner regardless if he is to be here or not. After all, there are still nine other people who want and need to eat supper! We are all quite hungry at the dinner hour.
My tips for meal planning would be this:
* Always know what you are going to cook the night before. Get your meat out of the freezer and thaw it overnight.
* Start your meal prep in the morning. Do not let it go past lunch time or you will be wondering all afternoon “What’s for dinner?” During the summer, I have more time to work in the kitchen than when we are homeschooling. The summer hours allow me the luxury of prepping dinner with a deadline of about 10 a.m. During school days, it might be a bit earlier so I can get the dinner plans out of my way.
* Use your crockpot! It is a lifesaver! I actually have two crockpots now and I love having two. While we are at church, I can have corn on the cob cooking in one and a main meal, such as poppy seed chicken, cooking in the second pot. It is very helpful. In the fall and winter months when the cookstove is running, I use my cookstove as a crockpot and save electricity.
* Write a list of your main meals and put it somewhere that will help you when you are without dinner inspiration. You will look at the list and realize there are lots of options for ground beef and chicken – and find your family’s favorite and go from there.
* Seasonally can or put up your side dishes ahead of time. We know we can have corn, green beans, peas, cabbage or squash all throughout winter. It is a great help. We also eat our beets as a side dish. This takes the thinking out of wondering what goes with the meat and potatoes or chicken and rice … our spaghetti sauce and many other options are canned at home, as well. It makes a huge difference in the work load down the road.
*Have a well stocked pantry. It is not helpful to run out of rice or potatoes or herbs and spices. Stock your pantry and stock it well. Pasta, your homecooked pasta sauce and a helping of your canned zuchinni {don’t forget to can it this summer! Add it in to soups and stews or pasta sauces to bulk it up, not to mention boost the vegetable intake} in the sauce can make a heart meal in a pinch. Just grate some fresh Parmesan on top and your children will be delighted. If possible, purchase your main ingredients in bulk for larger families.
* Personally, I skip the fancy meals that are trendy and cook good ol’ fashioned meals … one you might find in an old farmer’s wife cookbook … meat, potatoes, vegetables, chicken, rice, gravy, vegetables … lots of healthy butter and a dash of love and you are ready to serve your family dinner.
Here are a few dinner suggestions, just for the fun of it. Most of these, if not all, may be made in the crockpot.
❤ Spaghetti, homemade pasta sauce with salad (in season or vegetables that are in season) and homemade bread –
❤Roasted chicken with scalloped potatoes and green beans
❤Lasagna (one of my favorite’s!) with seasonal vegetables and bread
❤Shepherd’s pie with bread or salad
❤Poppy seed chicken casserole with rice and vegetables
❤Creamy curry chicken with rice and vegetables
❤BBQ chicken and mashed potatoes
❤Parmesan chicken and rice
❤Roast beef, mashed potatoes and Yorkshire pudding (a favorite) served with vegetables in season or canned beans and pickled beets
❤Sloppy Joes with vegetables and homemade bread or buns
❤Sweet and sour meatballs with steamed rice and seasonal vegetables
❤Chicken pot pie with homemade pastry and bread
❤Adobe chicken with rice or tortillas and melted cheese
❤Baked beans and rice served with sour cream and nachos
❤ Chili with melted cheese and rice and homemade bread (yes, we eat a lot of homemade bread!)
❤ Zuchini parmesan with salad or vegetable side
❤ Homemade pizza
I hope this gives some good ideas for the dinner hour. How do you handle meal time with your large or small family?
by Gigi
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