How it works

Here's a typical weekday, which illustrates how I ended up with the "make ahead meals" concept. My daughter and I get up around 7:00. We eat breakfast around 8:00, finishing around 8:45 or so. Shortly after that, I go into the kitchen to make dinner. Sometimes it's a casserole, sometimes it's a hunk of meat or a soup in the crock pot, and sometimes, if I literally have five minutes to throw it together, it's chicken with some bottled marinade thrown over the top.

I've been doing this for about 15 months now, and it still seems a little odd to be making dinner at 9:30 or 10:00 a.m., but I'm sure it will eventually feel perfectly normal! I put whatever I've made in the fridge or the crock pot and write baking instructions (if necessary) on a white board that is hanging on the fridge.

After lunch, I go to work and my husband is home with our daughter. At the appointed time, he puts whatever it is in the oven. He doesn't preheat and he doesn't let the Pyrex sit out of the fridge for a while to take the chill off, and everything always turns out just fine.

When I get home, I change my clothes, fix whatever sides we're having (more about that later), and then we eat. Usually we're sitting down to dinner within 15 minutes of my coming in the door.

Once in a while, he gets distracted and forgets to put dinner in the oven. For these occasions, I keep some super-quick convenience foods on hand, such as potstickers or those really nice frozen pasta meals you can get in the grocery stores now. Sometimes we eat those. Sometimes I just make a run to Burger King or Taco Bell. Depends on how we feel and what the budget looks like.

I have to say, sometimes I miss grilling, sauteeing, and skillet meals, but I save those for the weekend so they aren't lost all together!