Today was a full day. I knew it was going to be full in advance, so I was ready to tackle the challenge ahead. I needed to get my 4 year old to his preschool by 6:45 for his 7 PM preschool graduation, I needed to get dinner ready to eat by 5:15 to accommodate dinner guests for the purpose of a church meeting for my wife and our guests that would precede the graduation. AND, I wanted to go for a run after work, from which I get home at around 3:50ish every day (I generally want my runs to be at least 6 miles).
Whatever did I do? I got organized, planned ahead and got it all in, relatively smoothly.
The night before, I thawed out a whole chicken, seasoned it and placed it in a slow cooker with some water at the bottom and put it in the refrigerator. I measured out brown rice, seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder and I placed it in a sealed container and left it out on the counter. I measured the water and put it and some olive oil in a pot and put the lid on t for the rice (every step taken now will save time later). I then prepared the frozen peas by opening the freezer and touching the bag... yep, still frozen... then closed the freezer door. I even got out all the serving utensils, plates, napkins, and silverware.
This morning I woke up, put the slow cooker out and set it to low (the low setting should cook the whole chicken in 6 hours), then I ate my breakfast and went to work. Upon returning from work, I turned off the slow cooker (more than 6 hours later), then I dumped the premixed rice into the water, covered the pot and started the water to boil. I got ready for my run. Once the water started to boil, I turned it down to a simmer and bolted out the door.
When I finished my run and my stretching, I came inside, showered and changed and started to pull apart the chicken, placing bones and skin into my broth pot and the meat onto a serving plate. I added water to the broth pot and started a simmer, pulled out the frozen peas and quickly steamed them and put the rice in a serving bowl, then put the peas in a serving bowl. Prepped the table, ate with our guests (who were completely oblivious to everything I just wrote), enjoyed our time together, then parted company. Went to and enjoyed the preschool graduation and, well, finished the broth, prepped for tomorrow's lunches, bathed, brushed, prayed, and bedded the boy, and wrote a blog entry.
Now, of course, I've got some dinner ready for another day, either Tuesday or Wednesday. I've posted before about prepping meals days in advance and still believe that if you can get into a rhythm of doing this, it will make your life a lot easier when you are time crunched. If you have room in your freezer or an extra freezer, you can prepare weeks in advance. Just make sure you label what it is and put a date on it. Homemade frozen dinners are great, but with no preservatives, they don't last forever.
Thanks for reading and God bless!
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