Organizing Your Time-If there’s a will,There’s a Way

I have been asked many interesting questions throughout my years of being an active successful Tupperware Manager, author of a cookbook, and busy Mother, B”H.  The number one question is “How do you fit it all in”?  I am sure that many people reading this article can offer more great tips to add to this article.  I will share some of the ways I have been able to juggle my busy life to include finding the time to write this article!

Menu Planning

If you have a family with children old enough to express their food likes and dislikes, have a monthly family meeting. Take a calendar and make out a general menu for the month.  You probably have certain days you prefer to serve Dairy meals and Meat meals.  Have each child share what they would enjoy eating on those days.  It makes great sense to prepare recipes in which they can assist you in the food preparation.  A recent survey has shown that children will most likely venture to try new foods that they had a hand in preparing.  You never know when one of your little ones will start enjoying a new healthy vegetable simply because they helped select it and helped with that recipe.

Shopping List

List all the ingredients you need for all the recipes chosen.  If you have my DVD Recipe Organizer, you would choose the recipes, press print Shopping List and your list is printed in seconds!   When shopping in a large supermarket, it helps to know the store’s layout so you can zip right through it and not waste any time.  Think of the time of day to shop.  Eat BEFORE you go.  I find that the store is less busy during lunch or dinner time.

Buy in Bulk

Try buying your staples in bulk.  It helps to share a membership in a large superstore, with a family member or close friend. These stores usually give out two membership cards.  This way you don’t have to always go alone, plus you will save money on the year’s membership.

Prepare and Freeze Food

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If your menu will include chopped meat, buy a large quantity of lean chopped meat.  You can divide up the meat based on different recipes utilizing it.  My family enjoyed meatballs, hamburgers or meat lasagna.  Therefore, I would make two different meatball recipes.  Sweet n Sour and Italian Meatballs are both favored by my family.  The problem I always had, was half my children preferred one over the other.  Therefore, I had to make BOTH and freeze them so I always had enough for everyone.  Flash freezing is the best method to ensure your food has a great taste every time you take it out of the freezer, and reheat it for your family. I could remove four meatballs or twenty and not worry about over-defrosting and wasting what wasn’t eaten. These two recipes are in my cookbook and DVD organizer.

If your children enjoy eating pancakes, don’t buy the store bought variety. You don’t need the preservatives.  Make your own, puree strawberries; add it to the mixture, and when done, freeze them.  Store in aTupperware Freezermates Large container for perfect storage.   Your children will have a fruit at the same time.  The same can be done with French Toast. Use your leftover Challah bread, make it and freeze it.  Pop it in the toaster during the week for quick breakfasts.

Freeze Leftovers for a Smorgasbord Dinner

There were many times I had a four hour window for dinner!  Some children ate at 5PM.  That was my first shift. The other children, all came home at different times depending on their after- school activities that particular day.   Therefore, I would take all the food not yet served and store them in a Tupperware microwave container, put it in the refrigerator for a family member to take later that evening. This worked well, especially on the nights I was already out holding a Tupperware demonstration when they arrived home late for dinner.

Many times, after returning from my evening out working late, I would discover two of these containers not even touched, since they ate at a friend’s home. I transferred those containers to the freezer since they were also freezer-proof.  After several weeks of this occurring, I would easily have Smorgasbord Dinner one night and not cook at all!  All I had to do was get takeout from “Mom’s Diner “! In the freezer, were-all the microwave containers with perfect food inside, that were not eaten on the day I made it fresh.  Everyone was happy because there were such a great variety of food choices for dinner.

Label

Most importantly, remember to label everything you store in your freezer.  “First in, is first out!”   You don’t want UFO’s-unidentified frozen objects!? Rotate your food and you will always have food ready for your family that is healthy and nutritious.

A great recipe to prepare fresh or to freeze is my Herbed Meat Loaf. Double the recipe and you will always have an extra meal ready, when you are tight on time to cook fresh.