The Journal of an Honest Mom

I have been slacking lately. On chores. On my blog. On almost anything, really.

Life has been crazy. That’s really the only explanation I have, and honestly, that’s fine. Life happens.

But today is Saturday, which means it is prep day around here.

Our groceries were delivered around 7 a.m., and theoretically that meant I could get right to work prepping food for the week.

Except I have kids.

And you cannot prep anything until everybody has been fed.

First, Breakfast

Since it was Saturday, I decided everybody deserved a good breakfast. I made eggs, bacon, and biscuits, which quickly turned into breakfast biscuit sandwiches.

Nothing fancy. Just a good Saturday breakfast before we got started with an already-busy day.

And once everybody had eaten, I was officially off to the races.

Or at least I tried to be.

The Reality of Meal Prepping With Kids

Here’s something that doesn’t always make it into the pretty meal-prep posts: prepping food while you’re actively taking care of kids is kind of ridiculous.

At one point this morning, I was seasoning meat while reading a book to one child while another child was asking me to put jelly on his biscuit.

All at the same time.

How did those become one task? I couldn’t tell you.

That’s just what cooking looks like in this season of life.

On paper, prep day sounds incredibly organized.

Make the pasta. Prep the chicken. Get the bread rising. Make the meatballs. Throw something in the Crock-Pot.

In reality, I’m doing all of that while answering questions, finding things, making somebody something else to eat, reading books, cleaning up messes, and hearing “Mom” approximately four thousand times.

It is hard.

And I think I’m allowed to say that it’s hard without wishing it away.

Because I also know there will come a day when nobody is standing beside me asking me to stop what I’m doing and read a book. Nobody will need me to put jelly on their biscuit. They won’t always want to be right there with me while I’m trying to get everything done.

I’ll miss that.

So I can complain about the chaos and still be grateful for it.

Both things can be true.

So, What Did I Actually Prep?

Quite a bit, somehow.

First up was a creamy shell noodle pasta. It’s similar to spaghetti, except I make mine creamy and use shell noodles, which the kids love.

This one earns major points because it works for dinner but can also go straight into a Thermos for school lunch. One meal taking care of two different problems? I’ll take it.

I’ll put the full recipe here on the blog separately because it is incredibly simple.

Next, I started prepping chicken hoagie sandwiches.

I buy frozen hoagie dough from Sam’s Club, so I pulled the dough out and let the rolls proof while I worked on everything else.

For the chicken, I diced chicken into smaller pieces, seasoned it, and baked it on a sheet pan. That’s it.

Later, I can bake the hoagie rolls and keep everything ready. When we need a quick meal, we grab a roll, add the chicken and whatever toppings or sauce everybody wants, and we have sandwiches without having to actually cook dinner from scratch.

And that’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned about prep day: everything doesn’t have to be finished at the same time.

The bread can rise while the chicken cooks. Something else can simmer while I’m working on the next thing.

Prep what you can when you can.

I also had ground turkey left after making the shell pasta, and there was absolutely no reason to put a random container of ground turkey back into the refrigerator and hope I remembered it existed.

So that became Mexican pizzas.

Mexican pizza is one of those meals that feels a little like ordering takeout without paying takeout prices, which makes it a win around here.

Whatever meat I had left after that became taco meat.

Because there is almost never a bad time to discover that you already have taco meat in the refrigerator.

I also made ground chicken meatballs, except this week I switched them up and made a hot honey sauce to go over them. They’re easy to warm up later, which is exactly what I’m looking for when I’m prepping food for a busy week.

And while all of that was happening, I put red potatoes and green beans in the Crock-Pot with a little sausage and chicken and let the Crock-Pot do its thing.

That can be a side dish, or honestly, it can be a meal by itself. You could also change the vegetables depending on what your family likes or what you already have in the house.

The point isn’t necessarily the exact combination.

The point is having food ready.

Not Everything Has to Be From Scratch

I also made muffins for the week.

And by “made muffins,” I mean I opened a package of muffin mix.

That’s it.

No secret family recipe. No grinding my own wheat. No pretending.

They’re muffins.

The kids will eat them for breakfast or grab one for a snack, and making them ahead means there is one more thing ready when somebody inevitably announces that they’re hungry.

That counts as prep.

I also had some bananas that had crossed over from “nobody wants to eat these” into “these are now legally banana-bread bananas,” so those are becoming a couple of mini banana bread loaves.

Prep day isn’t about proving how much you can make from scratch.

It’s about making the rest of the week easier.

Sometimes that means homemade banana bread.

Sometimes that means packaged muffin mix.

Both accomplish the goal.

And Then We Left

Because here’s the other thing about prep day:

The rest of your life does not stop because you decided to meal prep.

We had somewhere to be.

Lowe’s was having one of their kids’ building workshops, so eventually we had to leave the kitchen behind and go do Saturday with our kids.

The older two worked on their projects with Dad.

The younger two were with me.

And by “with me,” I mean we spent part of the time wandering around Lowe’s somewhat aimlessly while everybody else built things.

There were kids everywhere. Projects everywhere. At one point, one of mine was basically underneath a chair.

You know. Family enrichment.

Meanwhile, back at home, there was an entire kitchen full of prep waiting for us.

And strangely enough, I think that’s exactly why doing this is worth it.

Prep Day Doesn’t Have to Be Pretty

I don’t have an uninterrupted Saturday to spend peacefully meal prepping in a spotless kitchen.

My prep day happens between breakfast plates.

It happens while somebody needs jelly.

It happens while I’m reading a book and seasoning chicken.

It happens before we leave for a kids’ workshop and after we get home.

There are dishes on the counter. There is dough rising on every available surface. There are kids under chairs at Lowe’s.

This is what prep day looks like here.

And yes, sometimes I wonder why I’m creating all of this extra work for myself on a Saturday.

But then Wednesday comes.

Everyone is tired. We have somewhere to be. Somebody needs dinner. Somebody needs lunch packed for tomorrow.

And instead of starting from zero, I open the refrigerator.

There’s pasta.

There’s chicken.

There’s taco meat.

There are meatballs.

There are vegetables.

There are muffins.

There is something I can feed these people.

And suddenly, Saturday Me feels like an absolute genius.

That’s why I prep.

Not because prep day is easy.

I prep because the rest of the week isn’t.