Making life a little easier

This weekend I was having a conversation with some friends about how some people tend to make things harder for themselves. I think that we all do it from time to time. I really don’t need to know WHY. That’s a couch session for another day. I would rather explore how NOT to. Is it necessary to clean the shower today when I really don’t have time, just because it’s on my list? I can shut the shower doors until I have time to do it within the next couple of days. What impact will it actually have on my life if I do not leave the house to run any errands? Do I need to plan dinner every night? Well, we do need to eat every night but there is nothing wrong with leftovers, ordering pizza or a meal makeover. I have found that if I actually sit down and plan some meals for the week it inspires new ideas and frees up time for me personally in the long run. These are all fabulous ideas so let’s put it to the test. My goal is to do a bit more prep and a lot more relaxing.I like to do a lot of cooking on Sundays to get a jump start on the week ahead. This last sunday I roasted a bunch of chicken breasts and made blueberry muffins (yes, from a box!) I also made a version fo a Caprise Salad that we all like to munch on. I like having this on hand so that I can stick to my diet without much effort. I eat it on a green salad with a few whole wheat, salt and pepper Pita Chips and that’s a great lunch. I cooked a pound of pasta and put it in the fridge so that we could mix it with the Mozerella Tomato Salad or eat it hot with the left over Spinach Pesto from the week before. I bought uncooked pizza dough at Winco (I buy this at Trader Joe’s as well) so that we could have bbq chicken pizza one night. And look! My chicken is already made! I think that one night this week we will do burger night. I buy Potato Buns for the girls (Jeff & I aren’t doing much bread these days), ground beef for Ella, take a turkey burger patty out of the freezer for Page & thaw two Salmon Patties from Trader Joe’s for Jeff & I. Everyone’s happy. Cook some regular fries and some sweet potato fries and put out the burger fixins so that everyone get’s their burger how they like it and that’s dinner. What else? How about some shrimp? Already cooked prawns to eat in a shrimp cocktail or on a salad. Cold Ramen Salad? Sauteed Scallops with yellow rice and asparagus? Pulled Pork? Get some ideas down on paper and get to work. Set aside a couple of hours to make some things ahead of time in the kitchen for the week ahead. Let’s make life a little easier. In our own kitchens at least.