Stress-Free Supper

Ever since Sophia was born, I have dreaded making dinner. It seemed like it was the one thing I could never accomplish, because it took too long.

Cleaning is no problem. I can do a little bit here, and a little bit there. If Sophia gets bored and starts fussing, I can abandon the project and come back to it later.

But meals don't work that way (rather, they don't work very well that way). So for a few months, I was barely making dinner, much to Art's displeasure. I am sorry to say that we had many arguments about it.

Then, a couple of months ago, my friend Sozan came across a blog (I'm sorry, I don't know which one, or I would link to it) where a group of moms solved their dinner dilemmas by getting together and making all their meals for the entire month. I think they must do this over the course of one weekend.

I thought this was a neat idea, but not very practical for someone with limited freezer space, living in an apartment. I'm sure these women have deep freezers where they can store all their pre-made meals.

However, Sozan had an idea to do a modified version of this that would make dinner preparations a little easier. She suggested spending several hours chopping up the vegetables that I use on a regular basis, and freezing them in Ziploc bags. My freezer may not have room for entire meals, but it definitely has room for pre-chopped veggies.

So one evening when Art had already left for his night shift, I pulled out my cutting board and a chef's knife and got to work.

And Sophia helped!

Sort of.

Mostly she just threw things on the floor.

[By the way, why do they sell celery in such large quantities? Are there people out there who actually use that much celery in a short space of time? I swear, we'll have enough to last us a year.]

Anyway, I managed to keep Sophia pretty entertained (we only had to take a couple of quick breaks). And in just a few hours I had chopped enough carrots, celery, green peppers, red peppers and onions to last a couple of months!

The payoff has been huge! Making dinner is SO easy and quick now, because I don't have to spend time chopping vegetables (that part often takes the longest). I can just pull them out of the freezer while the meat is cooking, and something like lasagna or meatloaf comes together in a snap.

So if you're a busy mom (and what mom isn't busy?!) and you're looking for ways to speed up the dinner-making process, this is one way to do it. I am able to make several healthy and delicious dinners per week, and it takes mere minutes. Art and I are much happier, and Sophia? Well, I think Sophia is working on busting out some teeth so she can partake in these yummy suppers.