Time Saving Sunday - 2-in-1 Meals

I've introduced a new feature called Two for Tuesday over at my other blog, Growing Healthy Sprouts, to share recipes for two (or more) meals that are made from the same base ingredients. Saving time in the kitchen is always a help to homeschool moms as well, so I thought I'd also share the recipes here.

First in the lineup are lentils, which were made into Lentil Tacos and Lentil Loaf a few weeks ago.

Don't be scared off by the long list of ingredients in the taco recipe - they're mostly spices for the quick, easy seasoning mix and ingredients for the toppings.

Lentil Tacos

 












Ingredients:
3 cups dried lentils
1 onion, chopped
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1 package of natural taco shells (we like Garden of Eatin)
1 cup chopped lettuce
1 cup chopped tomato
Other taco toppings (avocado, olives, etc.), optional
Salsa and/or vegan sour cream

Preparation:

1. Place lentils in a large pot, and add 6-8 cups of water (enough to cover the lentils by a few inches). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes (until tender). Drain lentils if needed, and set aside.

2. While the lentils are cooking, prepare the spice mix (chili powder, sea salt, garlic powder, paprika and cumin) and saute the onion in a little water. When the onions are tender, add the cooked lentils, spice mix and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, stirring often, then reduce heat and simmer until the liquid is absorbed. Using a potato masher, mash lentils well until few whole ones are left. Alternately, you could probably run them through a food processor or pulse them in the blender (just be careful - you want mashed, not pureed).

3. Scoop lentil mixture into the taco shells (make sure to reserve at least two cups for the other recipe), and top with lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream and other toppings as desired.

Sprout Ratings:
Big Sprout - 5 sprouts
Little Sprout - 5 sprouts
Mama Sprout - 5 sprouts
Daddy Sprout - 5 sprouts

On to the Lentil Loaf . . .

Lentil Loaf is one of Noah's favorite dishes, and I've tried several recipes over the years. He's loved them all, but they've been hit or miss for the rest of us. This post inspired me to come up with my own recipe, and I was thrilled when everyone declared it the best lentil loaf yet. Best of all, it went together very quickly since the lentils were already cooked and seasoned.

Lentil Loaf

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked, seasoned lentils (left over from Lentil Taco recipe)
2 carrots, peeled and diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
1 cup oats, coarsely ground
1 tablespoon corn starch or arrowroot powder

2 tablespoons tamari, Bragg's or soy sauce, divided
1/2 cup ketchup1 teaspoon garlic powder

Preparation:

1. In a medium pan, saute the carrots and celery in a little water until tender. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine carrots/celery mixture, lentils, oats, cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of the tamari and mix thoroughly. Place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, and form into a loaf shape.

3. Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl (ketchup, garlic powder and remaining 1 tablespoon tamari) and spread over top of the lentil loaf.

4. Lightly cover the loaf with the aluminum foil, and bake for 30 minutes.

5. Unwrap, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Time-Saving Sunday - Creative Cleaning

We love our weekend family time, but Sunday often becomes my day to prepare for the upcoming week. This will be the day I’ll call upon some fabulous mama friends to share their expertise on how to keep our homes running smoothly and our families well fed while still leaving plenty of time for school. 

Today's post comes from my friend Crystal over at Solidity of Rainbows, who blogs about sewing, cooking, crafts, food, homesteading, farming, gardening, home schooling, urban life, music, saving money and whatever else comes along. The fact that she can do all that as a homeschooling mama of five gives me hope that I can pull it off at least some of it with just my two. Thanks, Crystal!

As a mother of five kids eight and under I'm constantly looking for Time Saving ways to get our everyday chores out of the way as quickly and painlessly as possible. One area we struggle with is room cleaning.

When my kids play they Play with a capital P. We had tried limiting the various toys to only one or two out at a time but it's hard when Playmobil man wants to visit dollhouse and Lego man just can't pass by without joining in. The trains help with transportation. Puzzles become landscapes. The horses on the shelf feel left out and sometimes even bathtub toys want to stop in to play house. I feel allowing them to explore all potentials during play is more important than my self-imposed need for tidy. But then how to tackle the leftover piles of mixed up toys when playtime is over? The blanket order of "Clean your room" becomes a wildly overwhelming prospect to little hands and minds.

Enter in: a hula hoop. Or circle or vaccuum hose or unplugged cord or lay down bunched up towels, whatever you can find that will make a small hollow perimeter. I find roughly 2x2' or 3x3' a reasonable size. Place this over a section of the toys and ask them to clean just that space. Sorting out toys becomes a much more managable task. When the area is cleaned, simply move the circle to another spot. I've found when using this method an extremely mess 12x12 room can get cleaned in under fifteen minutes. And crying, whining are virtually eliminated. Make a game, see who can sort the fastest or by colors, toy varieties, etc. Making it fun encourages the smaller ones to help out as well.

So, don't worry if your child's play gets out of hand. Playing is a key developmental activity for young ones that helps them to act out social situations and role play. Teaching them how to clean up with reasonable parental expectations is just another aspect of learning we all could benefit from. And don't forget -either playing or cleaning- have fun!

Time-Saving Sunday - Advance Preparation

We love our weekend family time, but Sunday often becomes my day to prepare for the upcoming week. This will be the day I’ll call upon some fabulous mama friends to share their expertise on how to keep our homes running smoothly and our families well fed while still leaving plenty of time for school. 

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm in the midst of a new organizational kick with routines, schedules and the whole nine yards. It's an evolution to get there, but already I can tell that I like where I'm headed - I just wish I could hurry up and get to the end already!

One of my new ideas is to make prepping for the next school day part of my evening routine. I've always thought that planning for the next day - laying out clothes, packing lunches, etc. - made a lot of sense, but until recently, my "evening routine" consisted of finishing work at 2AM and collapsing. My solution has been do complete my evening routine before starting work for the night, and although it's far from perfect, it's definitely been an improvement. 

In the classroom especially, having all our resources for the next day out on the table makes it so much easier to get going, even if I'm still a little foggy from lack of sleep. When the kids are a little older, and I'm a little more experienced at being organized, I plan to have them help with preparing for the next school day. 


How do you prepare for your upcoming school days? Daily? Weekly? By the seat of your pants? I'd love to hear some new ideas!

Time-Saving Sunday - Finding a Routine

We love our weekend family time, but Sunday often becomes my day to prepare for the upcoming week. This will be the day I’ll call upon some fabulous mama friends to share their expertise on how to keep our homes running smoothly and our families well fed while still leaving plenty of time for school. 

We've started something new in our house recently - and it works so well I can't believe we didn't do it sooner. The idea came from my friend Regina (wish she had her blog up so I could link to her - hint, hint!) She is full of great ideas and teaches classes on couponing, home management and much more.

As part of our homework from our first home management class, we had to establish morning and evening routines for our house. Now of course I have an idea of the things that need to be done to start and end our day, but having them in my head means there's only one person who knows how/when to do them - ME!

Getting them down on paper (with pictures so Ava can follow along) has been fantastic. The kids run through the list, checking back when the finish one item to see what is next. It's amazing to see them dressed, teeth brushed, animals fed, etc. without me having to remind them 10 times!

The morning routine is so helpful in getting us into the classroom on time, prepared and with housework (dishes and a load of laundry) underway. I made sure the end the list with something fun (reading time with Mommy) to keep them moving through it, and it also serves as a nice transition into school time.
 
Now if I could just get things running that smoothly in the classroom . . . maybe I need a written routine for that, too!

Time-Saving Sunday - Short Cuts in the Kitchen

We love our weekend family time, but Sunday often becomes my day to prepare for the upcoming week. This will be the day I’ll call upon some fabulous mama friends to share their expertise on how to keep our homes running smoothly and our families well fed while still leaving plenty of time for school.

So ready or not, we're finally starting school tomorrow. I feel like I'm leaving a lazy (ha!) summer behind and scrambling to remember how to be organized. For example, getting my kitchen prepared for the week always helps take the stress out of cooking, especially when I'm doing it in bits and pieces around schoolwork.

One of my favorite tips is the Sunday night veggie tray. And one of the reasons it's my favorite is that it's made by my husband, Jim! Seriously though, having an array of veggies washed and prepped is not only great for snacking but also helps tremendously with meal preparation. I'm much more inclined to make salad when all I have to do is chop up the veggies and put them on top of lettuce.

Other kitchen chores I try to get done on Sunday are soaking beans, baking bread and making hummus or whatever spread or dip we'll have for our veggies during the week. This week it's a roasted red pepper cannellini bean dip - and sadly, it's not made quite yet. After all, I still have two more hours until I officially call an end to summer vacation.

Time-Saving Sunday - Blender Breakfasts

We love our weekend family time, but Sunday often becomes my day to prepare for the upcoming week. This will be the day I’ll call upon some fabulous mama friends to share their expertise on how to keep our homes running smoothly and our families well fed while still leaving plenty of time for school. 

A few weeks ago, I wrote a guest post over at Vegan in the Kitchen sharing one of my favorite green smoothie recipes. Since I'm in the midst of vacation-induced laziness (and end-of-vacation-packing craziness), I'm cheating Time-Saving Sunday this week by repeating that post.

With that confession out of the way, let me add that we are huge green smoothie fans - and this is definitely one of our faves! I am decidedly not a morning person, but I have a knack for planning morning activities, which often makes breakfast a hurried affair in our house.

Green smoothies are our go-to breakfast for days when I don’t have much time to make anything (or we don’t have time to sit and eat). They are packed with nutrition, bursting with great flavor and easy to drink on the go. For my kids, anything chocolate is always a hit, and these are great made with strawberries or raspberries instead.

If you use fresh fruit instead of frozen, be sure to add a few ice cubes to cool it off.

Ingredients:
1 cup almond (or other non-dairy) milk
1 large banana
1 cup frozen cherries
1-2 cups packed greens (I used beet greens this time, but spinach, kale and chard all work great)
½ cup roughly chopped zucchini
1 heaping tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground flax

Combine all ingredients in blender, and process until creamy and smooth. This makes enough for one adult as a full breakfast or for the three of us (one adult two kids) if I’m serving it with other things. When my husband is home, I’ll double it to make enough for all four of us.

Time Saving Sunday - Household Help

Nope, it's not as glamorous as it sounds. My latest time-saving experiment has nothing to do with a housekeeper and personal chef. Instead, I've been increasing the amount of responsibility the kids have and making consistent routines for involving their help each day.

Of course, this isn't a novel idea and most of you probably do it already. But for some reason, I had a hard time making the transition from seeing my kids as babies that needed my constant care to recognizing they were old enough to do things for themselves. Plus, I often avoided having them "help" me with household tasks because I knew it would take longer than just doing it myself . . . losing sight of the "long term gain" that they'd someday be able to do it without me.

At a friend's recommendation, I moved all their plates and cups to a lower cabinet, and now they are responsible for putting away their own dishes (plus all silverware, pots, pans and bowls) from the dishwasher. Who knew they would enjoy that??? They are also "rotating" the laundry and helping to fold and put away their own clothes plus the napkins and tablecloths. Finally, we've implemented a great system for making sure all their belongings are put away each night - having a clutter-free house and seeing their clean rooms (and a neat classroom!) each morning when we wake up always gets my day off to a great start.

For now, we're still in the learning process and they need a bit of supervision. But I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel and even now - every once in a while at least - it actually feels like "help".

Time-Saving Sunday - Meal Planning Saves Time & Money

We love our weekend family time, but Sunday often becomes my day to prepare for the upcoming week. This will be the day I’ll call upon some fabulous mama friends to share their expertise on how to keep our homes running smoothly and our families well fed while still leaving plenty of time for school. Today's guest post from my friend Jill over at Vegan in the Kitchen shares how to save time through weekly meal planning.

Gone are the days of being that Mom wrapping up the day’s activities around four o’clock wondering, “What’s for dinner?” Meal planning used to seem like an extra step that would steal away too much of my precious time, but when our family began eating a plant-based diet I found it necessary to have a plan. Once I dove in, I discovered meal planning saves time and money that can be reinvested into my family.

So, let’s get your meal plan on paper. Grab next week’s calendar of activities, a couple of your favorite cookbooks or magazines and make a mental note of groceries you have in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer. You can use a hard copy of your weekly calendar to record your meal plan. Later, post it on the fridge so your whole family will know what’s for dinner, too.

You may also check with your local grocery store for what is on sale. Each week I use Publix’s weekly ad and look for coupon match-ups to help save my family even more money. Going into the store with a list of what I need plus utilizing sales and coupons has helped cut our grocery bill in half.

If you need a cheat sheet for your meal plan, each Sunday on Vegan in the Kitchen, you will find my vegetarian meal plan for the week. They are kid-friendly and mostly healthy, too.

I promise your life will be much less stressful when you have your meals planned. And the next time you are standing at your refrigerator, you will be eyeing your meal plan knowing exactly what you will be taking out to cook come four o’clock.

Jill is a busy homeschooling mom to four great kids who love to eat their veggies. Vegan in the Kitchen provides meal plans, frugal finds and tasty recipes for other busy moms.