Summer vacation has its highs and lows with, normally, more than enough going on. Many families’ nutrition levels fall drastically – with the food budget edging up at the same time – through the summer months. Who has time to cook? Truth be told, not parents.
Keep the budget down and the nutrition level up by cooking ahead of time and making efficient use of your freezer. For those of you not already in the know, I introduce the concepts of Freezer Cooking, leading up to the granddaddy in this category, Once-a-Month Cooking.
Stashing food for a nearly effortless, shopping-free heat up is the perfect stress-reducer for vacation periods, expecting parents, anyone pre-surgery or planning to deal with any other time consuming event. The idea is to plan carefully, do one big shop, then spend a day cooking and storing enough food for a week or even a month at a time.
There are a number of advantages to this system, including the reduction of shopping trips – thus a reduction of potential impulse purchases. Over vacation, this also reduces (or may eliminate) the number of grocery trips done with children and all the hassles that entails. Additionally, when coming back from a trip, a day at the beach, or just coming off a difficult day-long marathon of sibling rivalry at its best, you can still have a fairly effortless, budget-friendly, healthy meal at the ready.
Without plugging any particular site or cookbook, give a few searches of “freezer recipes”, “freezer cooking”, “once a month cooking” and “OAMC”. If you have any dietary additions to those titles, add them and you’ll still have a variety of results from which to choose. Healthy, whole foods, vegetarian, gluten free, low fat… it’s all there.
In addition, spend some time cutting up cucumbers, carrots and peppers. These veggies keep for a number of days, cut up and kept in a closed container, in water, in your fridge. Perfect for snacking! Make a dip and keep it right next to that veggie box and you have a ready-to-go munch just waiting.
Will you need to grab breakfast on the run? Whip up a few batches of whole grain, fruity muffins and add those to your freezer stash. Take out only what you need, and let them thaw the night before. You have a car-friendly breakfast, ready in a nanosecond!
Hungry children are whiny, fighting children (adults too, actually!), while fueling families up on good-for-you food cuts the complaints and the fighting down to a possibly handle-able minimum. Pre-planning on the food front is very well worth the investment and is guaranteed to make the summer months go by exponentially easier!
Aviela is a multi-tasking, public-speaking, work-at-home mother of six decently-adjusted, mostly happy children.
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The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog contributor’s. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Writers may have conflicts of interest, and their opinions are their own.
The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog contributor’s. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Writers may have conflicts of interest, and their opinions are their own.