“Mom, what’s for dinner?”
The four little words that I despise! I won’t lie, I do not like to cook. I am not good at it, nor do I care to be good at it. But apparently it’s important for my family to eat. Eating out is very expensive, especially when you have a family of six kids! That means I must cook. Ugh.
Over the years (what honestly feels like a thousand years in cooking time) I have learned a few shortcuts. And I LOVE cooking shortcuts! If you’re like me and despise cooking, I hope these shortcuts help you as much as they have helped me.
Shortcut #1 - Plan a Menu
Planning a menu makes me only think about cooking dinner ONCE a week rather than seven days a week. This makes the other six days much more pleasurable! I actually bought a magnetic menu board that is on our refrigerator so every single person in the house can easily answer the dreaded mom question of “What’s for dinner?” And just like that, the kids stopped asking me this question at noon every single day of every single week of every single month of every single year.
Shortcut #2 - Online Grocery Shopping
Online grocery shopping is an absolute lifesaver! Seriously. If you haven’t tried it, you are missing out. I didn’t jump on this trend as soon as it emerged. I like being in control and felt like the shoppers wouldn’t select the correct items. One day I decided to try it and that is the day my grocery shopping habits changed forever! Not only am I saving lots of time, but I am saving lots of money since I’m no longer roaming around the store adding things to my cart that I don’t need, like cookies. I am also saving my sanity. With six kids, that means I never go to the grocery store alone. And when kids go to the grocery store, they always ask for a gazillion things they don’t need.
Shortcut #3 - Instapot
I purchased our Instapot earlier this year when I found a great sale that I couldn’t pass up. I have been hearing about how great these magical cookers are, but was honestly scared of it blowing up and burning my family with scalding food. A tad irrational I know, but those scary stories get posted on Facebook and they must be true, right? But the price was right, so why not give it a try! Let me tell you, that thing is one fantastic invention! It saves so much time with cooking and cleanup and everything we have made in it has been delicious. Just last night I made a tender roast in just 90 minutes with literally three minute of prep time which consisted of removing the packaging from the roast and opening a few cans. No other pots or pans were used either which made clean up a breeze!
Recipe: Lazy Mom’s Roast
Buy a roast, any cut you’d like. Buy two or three cans of Campbell’s Beefy Mushroom Soup. Remove the packaging from the roast and put the roast into the Instapot. Open the cans of soup and pour them over the roast. Use either two or three cans, enough to cover most of the roast. You can add some water if you’d like, but I prefer it with just soup. Cook in the Instapot for 90 minutes. Let the steam release naturally. Enjoy with mashed potatoes and your favorite vegetables.
