How We Break Bread

I feed my family the same meal four times a week and they love it.  No, seriously... they do. You see, I get home at 5:00 PM Monday through Thursday each week.  In order to squeeze in all of our after work activities and dinner, I needed to find a way to feed my family fast (in a healthy way, mind you -- no TV dinners or fast food) so that we have more time to do other things and less time is spent slaving away in the kitchen so to speak.

So that's when I decided to feed my family like I would feed an army... literally.  Each Sunday, I make the main course - this week, it was cheese and broccoli soup.  I make a large enough portion to provide enough servings for dinner, Monday through Thursday nights.  I store the main course in our refrigerator and then simply heat up what we need each night and make any side dishes as necessary during that process (e.g. salad and whole grain bakery bread).

Here are a few examples of what we've been eating lately for dinner:

• Week 1: BBQ Grilled Chicken with Vegetables (e.g. asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.)
• Week 2: Diced Sweet Potatoes covered with a Meat Spaghetti sauce with Salad or Vegetables
• Week 3: Chicken and Vegetable Stir-fry with Brown Rice
• Week 4: Homemade Soup with Salad and Bread (bread is often optional)
• Week 5: BBQ or Baked Pork Chops with a large Green Salad
• Week 6: Crock Pot Spaghetti with Vegetables or Salad (or both!)
• Week 7: Homemade Chili with Salad and Cornbread 
• Week 8: Tacos or Taco Salads

(Please note: we don't always eat all of the above meals or all of the above meals in that order.  Sometimes I add things to a meal listed above, or take away from them.  I just wanted to show a glimpse of how we roll.) 

You may wonder if we get sick of the meal eating it four nights in a row.  Yeah, sometimes we do.  But the beauty of this method is that we don't eat that meal again for a very long time... or sooner if we like.  Sometimes I use a crock pot, sometimes I spend a little time on Sunday meal prepping... but it works for us.  And any time I can give myself and my family the gift of time I'm a happy camper.