A Little Intro

Hello!

I wanted to give a little background on me and what I'm attempting to do here.

My name is Jessica and I am a working mama. I have two small daughters. My oldest is 3 and my youngest will be a year old in just a few weeks.

There are a lot of days that just getting them picked up, home, fed, bathed and in bed seems overwhelming, on top of the other things that have to happen: laundry, cleaning, cooking, groceries, the dog, etc.

What makes my life a little easier is having a plan for meals during the week and if I can get them cooked ahead of time, that takes such a burden off in trying to feed to small, tired kids before bedtime.

Essentially this is me trying to find some personal accountability and my hope is that in providing a source of planned meals, shopping lists and cooking plans for others, I'll do it myself.

The goal is a weekly menu of kid friendly, easy, mostly healthy recipes (with some comfort food thrown in) that you can make ahead of time and either cook the day you need it, or cook ahead of time and eat it through the week.

In addition, some cooking tips and instructions for prepping ahead of time, which I do Sunday afternoon's during the glorious two hour window of afternoon nap time for my girls. Although, my oldest is a 'helper' and loves to cook with me, so I do sometimes save some things for her to do with me as a post nap activity.

Here are a few things that I consider essential and will frequently reference:

A really big crockpot (6 quart). 

A rice cooker (I hate making rice on the stove).

A steamer.

These are not gourmet meals. Some nights it's marinated chicken, rice and a steamed veggie, other nights it's a casserole, and there will be a lot of crockpot meals. Mostly they're not fancy although I might throw one in occasionally if it was something the girls were willing to eat. This is not intended to be a place for fancy dining, this is every day stuff. Green bean casseroles, chili's and really fast soups that don't take a lot of work. I use several meal sites including allrecipes.com, food.com and a few others that are readily accessible including other blogs that I follow. I very rarely make up my own recipes but should that happen, let me know what you think!

For those who have time for fancy meals and lots of prep, I am envious, and I miss those days where my husband and I would plan a 'date' and cook together. I'm sure those days will come again and at that time I'll miss the hectic schedule that is a part of raising babies, but I think we're a ways off from that right now.

Thank you for visiting