Time Savers

The day of mourning is upon us: Today is officially the last day of summer for Sr. and me.

“Whaaat?!?! How can this be?” you ask. Great question. I have no idea. I am heartbroken.

Not really. But it is a little sad. I will miss the puppies immensely and will have to let go of my addiction to 1) Netflix, 2) Sleeping until 8 am (ok, 10), and, of course, 3) Thursday garage sales and endless projects.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll still do all these things. But the weekend will become my happy thought.

This year, however, we’re changing a few of our routines to make week nights equally happy. That will require a little flexibility and a *gasp* a little work on the weekend. But we got this. Here’s what we’re changing in our lives so that we’re not working for the weekend.

1. Cooking and freezing meals for the week on Sunday

I love to cook, however I detest cleaning up afterward. Ahhh. Needless to say, after coming home from my exhilarating exhausting job, I don’t always feel like cooking. But we gotta eat and a girl can only eat so much takeout/cereal. Last year, we would cook about 3 times a week, eating leftovers or with family members (and occasionally eating out) on the other nights. That means we spent at least 3 of our week nights preparing meals and cleaning up the kitchen after the tornado we finished cooking. Thankfully, I have a very helpful husband who enjoys to cook with me. But we would rather spend our evenings with the puppies. Or watching The Office. Or anything other than cleaning up. So, we devised a plan. We’re now preparing all of our weeknight meals on Sunday evening to either refrigerate or freeze for the rest of the week. Here’s how much time we’ll save:

Last year’s meal prep time:

1 dinner: Usually 30 minutes prep, 20 minutes clean up, plus the time is takes to eat. One night, Sr. seriously said to me after dinner: “Now that that’s out of the way…” Yeah. And I totally got him. Don’t judge.

So we’re looking at at least 50 minutes for one night. Multiply that times 3 and we end up with almost 3 hours (Hey, Jack: I don’t teach Math) spent during the week. This may not seem like much (because it’s not) but it’s more about the looming “Now I have to cook dinner and wash dishes and compost and fill the Brita and blah blah blah” that hangs over me every evening when I get home. I hate that feeling. Again- love to cook, but really, let’s be honest: I just love to eat. I need a personal chef.

Anyway, this week we made the following to refrigerate or freeze:

Mushroom, onion, cannellini, and quinoa salad (inspired from this recipe). We keep the quinoa in the fridge and then serve it on a bed of spring mix. Hahaha. Bed of spring mix. Sounds fancy, really it’s just lazy #boxedsalad #amiright

Delicious

Whole wheat and spinach pasta with mushrooms and broccoli and a cauliflower sauce (inspired from this recipe)

It took us 1.5 hours to completely make and clean up from these meals. Now, I can come home and not have to worry about cooking. Such a relief. Seriously. Again, don’t judge.

We’ve also started making our own whole wheat bread. I got the recipe from this wonderful site, but modified it using a commenter’s suggestions for wheat bread (the original bread calls for white flour- which I love- but my hippy hips don’t).

Whole Wheat Homemade Bread

2 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour

2 cups water

1 3/4 t. salt

1/2 t. yeast (it really doesn’t matter what type- if you get the “Active” kind, it mentions mixing with warm water and what not- disregard this. Jut mix the yeast right on in!)

Add flour, salt, and yeast to a large bowl and mix until combined. Add in water. Mix until it looks rather disgusting and there’s no more extra flour left on the bowl. Completely cover with plastic wrap and store on your counter for 12-18 hours (overnight is great!).

Here’s what your bread will look like after 12-18 hours of rising.

When you’re ready to cook, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Once preheated, place your cast iron pot in the oven for 30 minutes to heat up. While the pot is heating up, pour your bread mixture (which has now significantly risen) onto a well floured surface. With flour on your hands, shape the bread mixture as pictured below. Once your pot is preheated, place the bread into the pot- do NOT grease the pot. It will not stick. Promise. Cook the bread for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Enjoy. It’s delicious.

Gross. But sooo good when cooked. Sr. ate some of it raw. That really was gross.

Remember! Don’t grease your pot! It doesn’t need any oil/spray/butter.

So. Amazing.

Yep. And it cost less than $1 to make and lasts for a week.

2. Meal planning/grocery shopping

Since we’ve been married, Sr. and I have planned our meals and done ALL of our grocery shopping on Sundays. I kinda HATE going to the grocery store (really, spending money), so we try and buy everything we’ll need on that one trip per week. It takes a few minutes to plan out the meals, but it’s not too bad. I made a super long list of meal ideas a while back and I always use my Pinterest “Main Dish” board for inspiration. The excellent thing about doing all the meal planning and shopping in one day? We save money. We don’t buy extra things. Awesome.

3. Preparing puppy breakfasts the night before

This saves maybe 1 minute, but whatever. If you’re like us, you need EVERY DANG MINUTE in the morning to make it to work on time. We saved old salad dressing jars and use them as puppy food “measuring cups.” Each night at puppy dinner time, Sr. fills up the jars (one for Finley and one for Riley) so that they’re ready to be poured into bowls the next morning. This saves a sleepy Sr. from having to measure it out of the dog food containers each morning when time is like a gem- super precious.

4. Cleaning schedule

I tried this last year and failed. Lame. It’s going to work through this year because it just is. Because we’re going to be amazing. Duh. So we’ve designated certain days for certain chores. Here’s the list we currently have agreed upon:

Every day before hitting the sack: All dishes washed and away, sweep, straighten rooms

Monday: Bathrooms

Tuesday: Dust

Wednesday: Mop floors, vacuum

Thursday: Clothes laundry

Friday: Linens laundry

Saturday: Yard work and swing day*

Sunday: Food prep for the week, mail organizer 

*Swing day chores alternate each week of the month. I got the idea from swing days from this awesome cleaning post. Here’s what our swing days will look like:

1st week: Wipe out pantry, fridge, and freezer

2nd week: Clean inside windows

3rd week: Clean baseboards

4th week: Sweep and de-spiderweb (yep. that’s a word) porches (Ummm…that may be a husband job….)

What do you do during the work week to save time? Seriously- gimme some ideas!