Tips for Baking when You Are Short on Time
Hi Friend,
So much has changed in the last week. I don’t know about you, but COVID-19 precautions have rippled throughout our area. Schools are shut down, restaurants are only offering takeout and delivery, and schedules have been turned inside-out and upside-down.
I want to offer you encouragement today. Life can be scary at times, and now is one of those times. But you will be okay. You have been made for a time such as this. Hang in there.
Hope for Families Finding Their Schedule Turned Upside Down:
Families are having to change their routine. Maybe you’re one of them? With kids at home during school hours, parents are trying to balance homeschooling, work, and at-home meal preparation.
While my children are not quite old enough for school, I have been a work-from-home mom and business owner for the last five years. Every day I try balancing spending time with my children, keeping up with my work, and making healthy meals for my family. Do I do it perfect? Definitely not. But over the years, I’ve learned a few tricks to help us eat healthier when we are short on time.
Balancing family, work, and healthy baking is a challenge. It takes preparation and practice.
Five Tips for Balancing Family and Meal Prep:
Tip 1: Plan your meals ahead of time.
Yep, the dreaded meal planning. I have found planning a month’s worth of meals works the best for me. This doesn’t work for everyone. Some people do better with weekly meal planning. I try to buy most everything I’ll need at the beginning of the month, then make a couple of quick trips to the store throughout the month for perishables.
To make meal planning easier:
Use a paper calendar you can look at without getting distracted on your phone.
Try to stretch meals for 2-3 days, and plan leftovers on days that you know you will be short on time.
Start with 6-8 meals you know your family will eat and plan for them first. You can do a variation of them. For example, Mexican food i.e. tacos, taco bowls, rice bowls, nachos, quesadillas. You can use the same ingredients and serve them different ways.
Ask your family for ideas. Heads up, they’ll probably ask for the same food each month, but when they have skin in the game they are more likely to eat.
Once you have your meal plan, it’s not set in stone. Purchasing ingredients ahead of time allows you to jump around in your meal plan if you face an unexpected time constraint.
Tip 2: Choose whole grain dishes that can be cooked quickly.
Have you ever had grand plans of making something and life gets in the way? I’ve found that quick breads, muffins, and biscuits are my best friends… lots of biscuits. They can be prepped and baked while I’m waiting on the main dish.
One of my go to biscuit recipes is Lemon Rosemary Drop Biscuits from Sue Becker’s “The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book”. Drop biscuits are super quick. Mix ingredients and drop them on a baking sheet (or a baking stone for a little crispier biscuits).
Tip 3: Prep ingredients ahead of time.
I like to mill extra flour early in the week, and use it as needed. Doing so alleviates feelings of “inconvenience” by having to turn on the mill during dinner rush. I recommend keeping the flour in the freezer. You will lose a little nutritional value by not using it right away, but it will be handy when you need it. The cold temperature slows deterioration of the flour.
Another trick I’ve learned is to mix dry ingredients ahead of time so all I have to do is add wet ingredients and go. This will save you a little bit of prep time during dinner rush. I keep my mixed dry ingredients in air-tight labeled containers in the fridge for no longer than 4 days.
Tip 4: Get kids involved.
I know this gets messy. I know this slows down the process. But think of all the learning involved. Chemistry, scientific method, fractions, counting, reading, following written and verbal instructions, plus the life lesson of cooking. If you are going to homeschool, this is a way to kill two birds with one stone.
Baking with kids is messy, but the life lessons are worth it!
Tip 5: Give yourself grace.
More often than not, life happens. Sometimes best intentions are just that. Instead of beating yourself up, have a backup plan. It’s okay to have frozen pizza, mac & cheese, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner every now and then. It’s when they become a habit, you run into a problem. If at all possible, I try to store these in inconvenient locations. If they are downstairs in the store room or buried at the bottom of the freezer, I’m less likely to use them as a crutch and more likely to use them as a true backup plan.
While we are on the topic of grace, it’s becoming oh-so-important to fill up your gas tank with positive, uplifting activities. With all the negativity and fear surrounding COVID-19, please take some time to listen to positive music and podcasts, spend time in your Bible, start a joy journal, and meditate on scripture.
We would love to hear your tips for cooking/baking from home while juggling other activities. Please feel free to share below in comments.
You are in our thoughts and prayers!
Best,
The Sieverkropp’s