Getting Organised
Was it tears of sadness or joy for you as you packed your kids off to school or day care this term? For me it heralded in a new stage, one I would have to be super organised to pull off. Juggling my days styling and packing baby hampers for Little Kisses, as well as sourcing all the very best baby gifts for newborn babies and new mums, on top of ensuring the family continues to be nurtured with good food and routines, there was certainly no room in the week for winging it!
If you've found yourself struggling to cope with all you need to achieve in the week, maybe you’ll find these tips below useful. It may even free you up to tick off some of your New Years Resolutions. I am back to reading novels and stressing less and laughing more!
Before the new week begins, give some thought to the 5 week-night meals ahead. Write it up on a whiteboard in the kitchen as a guide, so you are not thinking about it when you are tired at the end of the day. I use these amazingly handy white board sheets that stick to any glass or wall surface and are reusable www.magicwhiteboard.com.au They are also great for writing up the weekly schedule of each household member. You’ll be able to identify in advance where the potential stressful moments might be and put things in place to avoid a meltdown moment.
I am in love with www.homefreshorganics.com.au for it’s amazingly good value and quality produce. Not to mention being delivered to your front door! You can customise your fruit and vegetble box for family preferences plus add meat and dairy. Using the major supermarkets online service for dry goods and household necessities plus home fresh organics means better food planning, less wastage and time saved by doing it all online.
When doing a bulk cook up, consider par boiling the pasta and rice as well. Add the par boiled pasta to your bolognaise and par boiled rice to your curries, portion them out into zip lock bags or Tupperware containers to create several ready-made meals that only require reheating.
Par boil a large batch of vegetables too. When required, take them out of the freezer and pour hot water over them and they are ready to go.
A power snack lunch box idea that works well for any age child, is a ‘cheese box’. It is fun and nutritious. Vegetable sticks, hummus, olives, a wedge of cheese and crackers. Kids love it!
Change the shape of your children’s food during preparation. You know yourself how much nicer it is to have a sandwich out. Often it’s prepared differently making it far more appealing. Sandwich fingers can be a graduation from bite size squares for the littlies.
Have fun with the food prep. I caught the muffin surprise game of my sister-in-law. Make a batch of muffin mix adding berries to half the batter and banana and choc chip to the other half. You can have fun talking to your child at pick-up time, asking which muffin flavour they got today.
Involve the children in the lunch preparation. It helps their buy in to healthy eating and eliminates any disappointment. ‘I’m packing you an apple for morning tea so you will have sparkly white teeth’!
Use up what is left over from the lunch box for afternoon tea, a piece of fruit maybe or a cheese stick? After that they can have a treat like an ice-block. This encourages them to eat what you give them rather than always having new food options available.
Have a casual self-serve night like ‘Taco Tuesday’ or home made pizzas (prepare the mince and dough ahead and freeze) everyone can help with the assembly.
This blog was created or shared for the enjoyment of visitors to Little Kisses baby gifts and baby hampers www.littlekisses.com.au
