We’re all going hard and fast these days, so getting the gang fed needs to be achieved in as tidy a manner as possible. And yes, busy moms keeping their game tidy, saves them time. This is the hack you’ve been looking for! It’s not only possible to create nutritious meals minus the mess, it’s easy, and achievable in multiple creative ways.
Let me reduce your stress with these smart meal time hacks and thoughts for making meals more “time to share” and less “time to panic”. Your mom was right about her “clean as you go” philosophy. But what if you could almost completely eliminate the mess to begin with?
Forearmed Wins, Every Time!
What if you prepared the dry ingredients the night before? What if you focused less on complexity and more on simple flavors (like Italian food, for example)? Forearmed is part of the secret of making your family nutritious meals without the crazy mess and unpleasant stress.
Instead of flying in and out of the pantry in a frenzy, assemble what you need, and get it ready to go. Reserving a kitchen drawer for this purpose or creating an ingredient box that lives on the counter is a good way to keep ingredients organized. Dried herbs, salt and pepper, curry powder, chopped garlic in a container, and other non-perishables standing ready removes the stress!
When dinner time arrives, you’re not the pantry-whirling dervish. You’re the cool-as-a-cucumber food genius, assembling a simple but nutritious meal, neatly and expertly. Just a little forethought gives you mealtime peace of mind. And best of all, the mess you would have made doing things the old way is eliminated! No stress and no mess!
Keep It Simple, SuperChef
A hearty stew or soup is a meal when you keep it simple. Make a big batch of it, then freeze it in meal-sized portions. If you don’t have a deep freeze yet, save for one. The deep freeze has fed a lot of families well for many happy years, providing a way to keep the food coming even when you’re busy. The ability to feed the team well with foods that have been prepared and then frozen has been making home Super Chefs’ lives easier for decades!
Add a hearty bread with butter. If you’re a heart-healthy, nutrition-conscious family, butter alternatives may stand in for the real thing. Either way, homemade soup or stew is a nutritious meal, prepared by you and on hand. Without making any mess at all, you’ve produced (as if by magic) a memorable and nutritious meal for the happy campers at your house!
Keeping Baby Mess-Free (The Impossible Dream)
Let’s be real. This is a baby we’re talking about. And we know the truth about babies, don’t we moms? Indeed, babies are messy little brutes. But you have ways of keeping that baby at least somewhat mess-free and perhaps less of a sticky, food-encrusted trainwreck!
Baby dishware, moms, is worth the price of admission. Keeping the food where it’s supposed to be (and not in baby’s hair), this stuff may seem frivolous but when you observe the dinner time mess it eliminates, you will change your mind.
Nutritious meals for baby, gratifyingly contained: Priceless! And you won’t miss finding the baby’s dinner on the dog one little bit.
The Magic of One Pot Meals
You may think the subject is worn out; tired. Perhaps. But if one-pot meals weren’t the bomb dot com, do you really think anyone would talk about them at all, much less incessantly? I think not! Because this is the only way to fly when you’re a busy mom.
Cut it up. Bung it in the magical pot. Leave it. A lovely meal is ready to eat as if prepared by mysterious kitchen faeries. It simply could not be easier to feed your team nutritious meals, mess-free. Even if you can’t cook your way out of a paper bag, they will love what comes out of your magical cooking pot.
I believe so strongly in these diabolically easy little buddies, I’m going to get you started on some recipes and bright food ideas. Run, do not walk to your nearest purveyor, and get the one-pot solution that solves mealtime mess!
Bust Out the Foil
Growing in popularity among busy moms and people, the foil packet has risen again from obscurity as a champion of family meal convenience. I’m a serious fan of this methodology. Simple yet delicious, the foil packet cooking technique makes it a cinch to feed the family with something nutritious, delicious, and a little “fancy”. That’s a home run at the home game if ever there was one!
Assemble the meal in the packet and put it in the fridge. When you’re ready, all you do is take it out and stick it in the oven. Nothing’s ever been easier than this mess-free alternative! While some may have questions about using a disposable container, there are alternatives to the foil packet, including small casserole dishes. Of course, these alternatives don’t have the same mess-eliminating power! Just saying!
Ready-To-Go Homemade Pizza
And back to the freezer we go for yet another mess-free hack for busy moms. The homemade pizza is so easy to thaw, add stuff to, and bake in the oven. Just pre-slice fresh mozzarella cheese and add fresh basil to the homemade marinara you’ve already spread on the pizza dough (which is insanely easy to make). You’ve got a Margarita pizza to pop in the oven, emerging uber-fragrant and savory. Don’t feel guilty if you cheat and buy the frozen pizza shells. No one will ever know!
A food saver with compartments holds the pizza toppings. You toss just toss them on to order! Then, into the oven they go where they’ll all land, one by one, on the waiting, warmed-up pizza stone. This is one of my favorite mess-free, nutritious meals, especially when adding items like fresh goat cheese, tomatoes, and sage, as well as seasonal vegetables.