Saving Time in the Kitchen

Every homemaker with children will find herself with more to accomplish than she can seemingly do in a day. Which is why I find myself intensely interested in time-saving techniques. This week I was able to pull off some time-saving techniques that allowed me to bless others. I had an ambitious day on Monday (those are sooooo rare for me right now!) and so I made cheddar-chive breadsticks in the bread machine as well as making chocolate-chip cookies for Bible Study. Both recipes made more than we can eat, and in my current state, I usually don't feel like eating tomorrow what sounded good today. It was wonderful that both items were able to stretch for the folllowing purposes:

Cookies:

1. Bible Study

2. Our family's personal enjoyment (especially for this mama who had been craving them!)

3. A bag went into the freezer that I will pull out later this week to put in a Care Basket for one of my aunties who is having surgery

4. A bag went to a friend the following evening (I provided a meal for her since she had a new baby)

5. A bag went to my brother who also got a meal the following day (since he's a 19-year old bachelor who would rather spend his money on bikes and car repairs then on food, I told him for his birthday gift this year he would get a few one-man-size home-cooked meals delivered to him)

Breadsticks:

1. Went with our quick-fix ravioli supper

2. Lunch leftovers for the next day

3. Some went to my friend as part of her meal package

4. Some went to my brother as part of his meal

The following day I was able to make a very large pot of homemade mac n' cheese (my friend's all-time favorite comfort food) and a Heart-Attack Potatoes Casserole. It all stretched to feed our family, my friend's family, my too-skinny bachelor brother, and we had lunch leftovers the next day!

Sometimes people get overwhelmed at the thought of providing food/meals for other people. All it takes is a little bit of advance planning. I knew what I would be making a week ago when I bought my week's worth of groceries and got all the ingredients (almost all of which was on sale) and had a plan in mind to make it all go smoothly. Finding out what the family enjoys is crucial. I was all prepared to have to cook a gourmet meal and stress over it and spend a day in the kitchen and then she told me all she wanted was homemade mac n' cheese!

I was glad it was simple since at this point in my life it's hard to just function normally and keep my food down! (Yes, even with Unisom I'm still somewhat queasy and always extremely tired!) The best part was that is just worked out that my Mother's Helper was here the night I was doing the dinners for people so she was able to entertain the kids while I cooked and feed them while I quickly delivered the meals! Have I mentioned how much I love having a Mother's Helper?

Any one else have any tips this week for saving time when it comes to domestic chores?