Day 9:       Automate Your Meals

 

   It isn’t that men accomplish more then women.  It is that we are bogged down accomplishing the little things while they are out slaying dragons.  We all know they should be doing 50% of the housework, but let’s face reality.  Most men don’t.  And some of us don’t have a guy around to do even 10% of the housework.  So instead of trying to change him (that is a whole book on its own which can really be summed up in two words:  “You Can’t”), you have to automate your systems to free up your time so you can get on to the more important things – like living your life.  Days 9 - 13 will be about automating all the small stuff.  So today, let’s start by organizing your meals.

    I hate to cook because it takes me an hour or two to create a meal, ten minutes to eat it and half an hour to clean up.  The payoff is not worth the time invested.  But that is because I live alone.  If I was cooking for more than one person, the payoff would be in sharing the meal. 

    I am a big proponent of cooking in quantity and freezing extra meals.  I have some plastic containers that are divided so I can put a complete meal into one container.  I also freeze individual portions.  If you can count on a certain number of people for dinner every night, freeze in that portion size.  But most families today seem to catch meals on the fly.  So freezing single servings might work better for you. 

    If you really want to streamline, you can hire a personal chef which is surprisingly affordable.  A personal chef will meet with you and discuss your dietary needs and preferences.  I had a friend who switched from a diet of fast food (he didn’t cook) to meals prepared with organic food by a personal chef.  The chef would drop off meals on Tuesdays and Fridays along with instructions on how to reheat them.  She did the grocery shopping, cooked the meals and delivered.  He threw the containers into the dishwasher and returned them to her clean.  He lost thirty pounds eating food he liked.  It wasn’t diet food.  But it was organically grown.  The big difference was that he stopped eating fast food.  Now, you may not be able to afford a personal chef.  You may not need one.  But do look into the cost of having your meals prepared by someone else.  The time-savings may be well worth it.  And even if you can’t afford a personal chef now, if you want one, you can put it into your budget when you map out your future dream life. 

    Think about how often you pick up fast food just because you are too rushed to cook.  Think about how many times a week you have to stop at the store to pick up a couple of items for dinner.  At the very least, you need to work out a meal calendar so you can keep your grocery store trips to a minimum. 

    So, make a list of the meals you cook most often.  Think about how many times a week you go out or order in.  Think about your weekly schedule. Do you have a meeting one night a week?  Are you shuttling the kids back and forth to activities on certain nights?  Is Saturday spent at soccer matches and you all go out to eat on Saturday night?  First work your meals around your schedule, then plan those meals around what you can cook in bulk and what you can use in more than one meal.  For instance, every Saturday when I was growing up, my mom cooked a huge pot of  home-made spaghetti sauce.  We had some type of pasta and sauce on Saturdays and we had another pasta meal on Tuesdays. 

    I know what you are thinking – who the hell actually makes up a meal calendar?  People who have better things to do with their time than to debate about what they are going to eat every night or to spend more than forty-five minutes a week at a grocery store.  And you have better things to do.  Stop diddling with the small stuff.