Sometimes making EVERYTHING from scratch can be a challenge, especially when life gets busy and realize that you probably should have eaten dinner an hour ago. Here are a few tips I've discovered really help make life easier when you don't cook from a box.
-Buy (or grow if you have a garden!) fresh vegetables, cut them up, blanch them and then freeze them. This takes a lot of initial prep time, but once it's done it's much easier to grab what you want from the freezer right when you need it. It cuts down on prep time when preparing certain meals, or when you decide you'd like a side of vegetables.
-Make extra food and instead of eating leftovers for days on end, freeze it! My kids will not eat leftovers, but when I freeze the leftovers I can pull them out on days that I don't feel like cooking or don't have time to. All the sudden, it's not a leftover anymore, it's a new meal that you haven't eaten in awhile.
-Collect recipes and make a list according to categories and put it up on your fridge.
An example could be:
-meals that don't require turning on the oven (for hot days)
-meals in under 20 minutes
-meals for when I'm super motivated and want to make something spectacular and don't want to spend money going out to eat
...stuff like that...
-Making freezer meals ahead of time is also always a great idea. When I feel like treats, I like to make cookie dough, form it into individual balls and freeze it for whenever I feel like eating a fresh cookie (but to be perfectly honest, the dough rarely makes it to the oven because my husband and I usually eat the dough before that happens!)
In conclusion, making everything from scratch takes a lot of planning and preparation, but just like everything, once you get used to it, it gets easier and more enjoyable. You could try a gradual decent by starting with one meal a week and going from there. Either way, I believe that food is to be enjoyed as well as being an essential part of life. Happy cooking!
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