Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

While meal prepping on the weekends saves a lot of time for many working parents, not everyone has the time to do so.

My husband and I both have careers that require long hours of work, and weekends are packed with kids' sports and activities. Sundays come, and there is hardly time for laundry and cleaning... and wait… the kids' closets, didn’t I just organize that a week or so ago?

It's never ending...

It's tiring...

Then, mentally, I am still thinking of the project at work that I need to submit...

Then comes supper!! What are we eating today?

Isn’t that a constant battle? Asking each family member meant different responses from "I don’t know" to "anything?"Or something extravagant that I got no time to cook, of course.

And you end up eating a buffet of all the left over foods or better yet order in! You know how much that costs??

At one point we were at a stage where we hardly had time to cook and would order in regularly for a family of five! No, I didn’t have so much money to spare, but I also didn’t have the spare time to trade as I was working long hours being a newly minted Manager at work after working for years on this promotion.

So, I started talking to a colleague at work whose kids are now adult professionals. She shared how busy it was with soccer and other games when her kids were younger and weekends were also super hectic.

I asked her what worked?

She said she never had time for weekend meal planning, either. But what she did was to cook tomorrow’s food a night before.

So what she would cook in the evening is what they would eat tomorrow!

I started testing the idea but it felt exhausting at first! Do I focus on what they I need to work on today first or worry about tomorrow?

I realized what I lacked was planning the week out. If I can’t meal prep, at least I should have an idea of what to eat over the week. That has helped me streamline my grocery shopping list, which, by the way, is also more convenient now through online shopping and pick-up service!

But, like anything, that is new it took adjustment. The idea made sense so I kept at it!

1. Weekend Planning — I started meal planning on what we are eating throughout the week. I shopped accordingly.
2. Cooking a Day Prior — I cooked it the night before, so one day ahead not one week, which would be ideal if our weekends weren’t so packed.
3. Bigger batches — I also started making bigger batches of meals good for lunches or next day supper. I would also freeze it if needed.

So now, each day, I feel more relaxed as even when I am running late, I know supper is heat and go! One change that helped de-clutter my evening and removed the stress was just re-arranging my food preparation schedule. With this minor change, kids are still able to do homework, play, relax, attend activities, and sleep on time!

New things could be scary but testing an idea that makes sense is not a bad thing. Always think about: What’s the worst that could happen? What is there to lose? What if it works? What if it makes my life easier?

In my case it did. We do not need to bend over backwards always, sometimes a small tweak helps.