Mom-Cooking

Once I was in a cooking club.  Actually, two cooking clubs, and one of them kind of broke up and re-formed, so I guess three cooking clubs.  The group of gals got together about once a month, and the host that month would plan the menu for an entire meal (entree, sides, dessert, wine of course) and get the groceries ahead of time, and the whole group would cook and enjoy a meal together.  I remember a particularly good autumn-themed meal involving butternut squash soup and a fruit crisp.  We made sushi, we hand-made gnocchi, we whipped up a Thanksgiving dinner or two.  There was nothing we couldn't do.  Sure, there were times when the cooking part took 3 hours and we were eating dinner at 11pm on a weeknight (cah-razy!), and maybe the Thanksgiving turkey was a little bit raw because we didn't realize that a turkey takes more than a few hours to cook, but it was always a fun, super delicious time.

Fast-forward to today.  These days, I'm mom-cooking.  Mom-cooking is about getting food on the table before someone melts down.  Forget about leisurely strolls through the grocery store or meals that take longer than 30 minutes to prepare.  Select only one dish that requires multiple steps or you're really in for it.  I used to watch a fun little show called Ready Set Cook in which two teams (the Red Tomatoes and the Green Peppers) had to whip up a meal in 20 minutes with $10 to buy ingredients, plus they could use what was in the pantry.  Little did my tween-self know I'd later end up starring on that show every night.

The food itself ends up being pretty repetitive, roast chicken happens at least once a week (cooked by me or El Pollo Loco, because they're fast and they give out stickers), quesadillas are a go-to if I didn't plan ahead, and there are a lot of mashed potatoes and sticky rice being cooked these days.

It's been a few years of mom-cooking now, so it's about time to own that this is how cooking goes now and find a way to enjoy it more.  Plus I have some Facebook friends (you know who you are) who constantly post about delicious dinners they cook for their family and I feel like a huge slacker.  Time will still be a factor, so a wise friend has suggested that I plan each night's meal in advance (she does it on Sundays) and double recipes to have more leftovers.  Cooking on the weekend and freezing meals for the week would help, and I'm eyeing the slow cooker as a way to mix things up but keep the active cooking time to a minimum.

How about you, any secrets to weeknight cooking for kids?