Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

Creating Some New Fall Routines (and Drinking Awesome Coffee While I Do Them!)

· by · Leave a Comment

Thanks to Starbucks for sending along some seasonal flavors and products. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. My girls have been back in school for over a month now, and yet I am continuing to struggle with the hours of 3-5pm everyday, trying to fit in preparing a healthy meal for my family, making sure all Darah’s homework gets finished (including 20 minutes of me reading to her…we are loving all the Disney Fairies chapter books), and dealing with the emails that seem to pour in during the late afternoons when marketing and PR folks are trying to wrap up their to do lists at work.

I seem to get it all done, but I also seem to completely wear myself out, so that by the time Tim walks through the front door at about 5:15, I am ready to take my plate of food upstairs and go hide in my room. Which I often do. And this is not how I want my dinners to go, friends. Burning the candle at both ends of the stick just isn’t working.

So…I decided to get that whole “once a month cooking” thing a try. I spent a little bit of time each day last week physically and mentally preparing. And to help me keep my mood elevated and not give up before I started, I enlisted a little help from my Starbucks friends.

starbucks fall 3 Isn’t that Starbucks fall tumbler just the cutest? It was my constant companion, filled with the fall blend K cups, as I selected recipes an created my shopping list and cooking strategy. I treated myself to a Starbucks VIA Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) as soon as I got home and unloaded my once a month ingredient haul. And it certainly was a haul; you’re only seeing about half of it in the shot!

starbucks fall 1
In order to make the very most out of my tiny kitchen counter space, everything that ordinarily lives there had to be removed, including my precious coffee maker. But I knew that was going to be the case, and I was prepared, with some Starbucks Iced Espresso waiting for me in the fridge. Have you seen these in grocery stores? You can find them right next to the cold coffees. I reached for it frequently through the morning, early afternoon and yes, even the evening, as the slog of this work continued on.
starbucks fall 2

In the end, two of the recipes were ruined by the wrong ingredient being used and one recipe couldn’t be made due to a shopping list oversight. I’m not going to lie, you guys…it was hard, sort of awful, incredibly time consuming (they aren’t kidding when they tell you that you will be cooking ALL DAY LONG) and at this point, I’m not really sure it was worth it. With that said, though, I did make a heck of a lot of food that is now waiting to simply be thawed and reheated, and as I make use of these dishes during those crazy busy weekdays, I may start to feel as though the pain was actually worth it.

I’m glad I tried a new thing. I’m still not sure that I’ll ever do it again. But I do think trying out this system has pointed me to a routine I DO want to get into this year: finding one freeze ahead recipe each week to make for my family. We can eat half of it on the day that I make it, and enjoy the other half of it on a busy weekday later on. Making one freeze ahead meal each weekend is totally doable and I can see how it will make a difference. And maybe, just maybe, once a month I might be willing to make 4 recipes at once. But not 10 or 12.

My weekend was rough, friends. But the coffee was on point. Gotta find those silver linings (or in this case, pumpkin spiced linings). 😉

Have you tried once a month cooking before? I’d love to hear about your experience! And what are you rockin’ in your coffee cup during this most wonderful time of the year? Is it pumpkin flavored or do you have a different #coffeepassion?