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This is the first installment of the series Someone Else’s Shoes. This experience is Working Full Time and Real Foods. Each month my family will be “living a week in Someone Else’s Shoes” specifically to see how real/whole/traditional foods can be adapted to different scenarios. Be sure to read the series information post for more on this.
Working Full Time and Real Foods
Post 1 of this experience– the rules and introduction
Post 2 of this experience– Day 1 a Prep Day
Monday
The plan was to be ready to leave the house by 8:50AM in order to meet the rules of this week’s Working Full Time and Real Food experience.
Before leaving (okay, I didn’t actually leave but was ready to go) I tidied up the kitchen, put the now set yogurt in the fridge that I had started yesterday, made the bed, put in a load of laundry, put brown rice on to soak for tonight’s dinner, put radish seeds to soak for sprouting, put the roasts away that had cooked overnight and packed lunches. By that point I was ready for a nap! Just kidding. It all only took me about 25 minutes. I forgot to mention in my Sunday post that we spent one hour (as a family) doing housework. That was a huge help to have everything looking neat and tidy to start the week.
Breakfast was Baked Oatmeal prepared the day before. Lunch for Joe was leftover chili and homemade tortilla chips (also leftover). Lunch for Christopher and I was the roast venison, cheese chunks, lacto-fermented pickles and carrot sticks.
I did run into a bit of a snag for dinner. At 7:00 (the end of my work day scenario) I flipped the switch on my rice cooker (brown rice that had been soaking all day) and then went on with preparing dinner. Salad greens with Cucumber and Blue Cheese Dressing (prepared Sunday) went together quickly. The precooked pinto beans just needed to be seasoned (salt, pepper, garlic) and warmed up. All was ready for dinner when Joe got home (about 5 minutes early) except the rice. It took almost a full hour for the rice to finish cooking. I guess I never really paid attention before to how long brown rice took. I knew it was longer than white but jeez. So we ate a bit later than I had planned for. I have to say, I love pintos and rice with green salad.
Lulu’s dishes night. Before bed, I took hamburger (tomorrow night’s dinner) and a whole chicken out of the freezer. I also drained and rinsed the sprouts I had started in the morning.
Tuesday
Same as Monday, I did the tidying up and rinsed the radish sprouts. Baked oatmeal for breakfast. Lunches were roast, cheese chunks, sourdough bread, carrots sticks and pickles. Everything worked out for me to be right on time and I leaving the house at the designated time would be no problem.
Dinner was basically planned as a reheat-able meal. Taco bowls. Super easy. Super good. I had the entire dinner ready in 25 minutes. Now that is fast food!
Kiki’s dishes night. I didn’t have much to do in the kitchen. I rinsed the sprouts that I started yesterday morning and set the crock pot out so it would be ready for use in the morning.
Thoughts so far
In some ways, this schedule is incredibly freeing. I don’t have to think about what needs to be done in the kitchen or what needs to be cleaned. Of course, at one point on Tuesday the neat and tidy start we got to the week wasn’t looking as neat and tidy! A 15 minute clean up by the children while I was putting together the dinner helped immensely. Joe pointed out how smoothly things were running and maybe I should do something like this every week. It is nice to be a little extra organized. I do think sometimes I tend to put things off since I’m home and think “oh, I’ll just do that later”. Sometimes later never arrives.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. What do you do to make your time at home after working all day run smoother?
Photo Credit: Cowboy Boots