This series was designed to help you one step at a time; sometimes, as moms, we can be overachievers and want to accomplish it all right then and there. However, we learned that it does not quite work out that way over the years. When you are a mom, things happen out of our control with the kids. I am here to share that just like we teach the kids, baby steps I will share with you. Have patience and grace with yourself and start incorporating some of these new techniques into your life. If you mess up one day, it’s okay. Tomorrow is a new day!
Now let’s begin this week. I will share one tech resource to simplify your life!
Let’s agree that a mom’s life can be crazy. There’s no shying away from it. Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, a working mom, or even a work-from-home mom – you’ll find yourself BUSY. There are doctor’s appointments to plan, grocery shopping, meals to prep, laundry to wash, and SO MUCH MORE.
Let’s start with Meal Planning– how to simplify it!
Okay, we got a few seconds to ourselves with our kids keeping themselves busy this morning until their light turned green and we were dressed. How do we tackle that laundry? For days that I can’t handle doing ONE. MORE. THING.
Now that laundry is done, it’s time to plan! I have so many great resources here! While I used to use HomeChef and other at-home meal prep services, I found that it cost me a bit too much and wasn’t ideal for our growing family. If you are the type who likes to have a Meal Prep day, I suggest checking out Prep Dish. You choose your weekly menu and get a grocery list crafted just for you. Once you get all the items, Prep Dish will give you instructions on prepping your meals in just a few hours. While some free sample menus on the site are worth checking out, they also have a free 7-day trial. After that, they have different subscription levels with varying price points.
Now, Prep Dish isn’t for me because instead of having recipes already selected and one big cooking day, I like to cook recipes I choose and on my terms. I am typically chopping an onion randomly at 8 am or making burger patties at 3 pm. To get by in this current season, I’ve found it most helpful if I am doing small cooking tasks here and there throughout the day so that my meal is ready by 5 pm. It works for me, so what I use is totally different! It’s called Plan to Eat and has been nothing short of life-changing!
There is a desktop version and an app, and once you sign-up your get a Free 30-day trial. After that it’s $39/year but $19/year if you purchase on Black Friday. Once signed-up, it may be a little overwhelming, as it’s just an empty “warehouse” – but you can upload recipes from ANYWHERE. They have tons of scraper tools to help you do that, and I went ahead and started with recipes I already had pinned on Pinterest. It cuts all the fluff out of these blogs posts too, just saving the ingredients, amounts and instructions. You have to do some work building your database of recipes, but once you do, they have an amazing meal planning calendar where you just select which meals you want on which days, and then here’s the best part – there is a “Shop” button. When you click it, it creates you a grocery list, adding up the same items across recipes, for everything you need. You can choose to adjust the list, add in other items and print out a copy, or you can do what I do – which is send the recipe to Instacart (or other delivery partners) via their Grocery Delivery Beta.
Then, it actually BUILDS your grocery cart! It allows you to change items, delete them, and more. But, this has simplified my meal planning down to about 15-30 minutes per week, and I meal plan weekly. I simply choose the recipes, review the shopping list for any adjustments, send to Instacart, do a double-check again to make sure I like all the selections and then schedule an order. I do this every Friday and get grocery delivery every Monday.
Getting a Quick Meal on the Table
If you don’t meal plan, or aren’t up for it, you can still get groceries or alcohol delivered using Instacart, Shipt and many other delivery services. If you are looking more for how to get a quick meal on the table, and not groceries exactly, try searching for “family meals” or “family bundles” on Doordash or Ubereats. So many restaurants have family meal offerings now, and I’ve ordered everything from “Make Your Own Burrito” from Tijuana Flats and Moe’s to “Make Your Own Pizza” kits from Blaze Pizza for the kids. Most BBQ places also offer great family meal deals.
You got this! Stay tuned for more tech resources like this coming soon!
