Cheryl on the Web

Today Tim and I both worked until around 7pm, then he got on our exercise machine and I took the car to the grocery store. While Tim was running 3 miles in our livingroom to a DVD of Motley Crue, I planned and bought 5 days worth of food in 30 minutes flat. When I got home, I got on the exercise machine and Tim unpacked the groceries and cooked dinner while I showered. We ate dinner at around 8:15pm and still had the whole evening before us! That’s what I call life on the run.

So what, you might ask, do people who work 50 hours a week cook in the evening?
Nothing fancy, that’s for sure! And to make it more difficult, half the time we don’t know in advance what meals we’ll eat at home, our social life is that active :) Today before I left, Tim couldn’t tell me with certainty if we would eat any meal at home in the next 4 days! (Of course, I told him I would eat all those meals at home which means he probably would too, but it remains to be seen.) So today, all the meals I bought are good for at least 6 days, most for 2 weeks:

• Spaghetti with canned bolognese sauce and canned green beans
• Bratwurst with instant mashed potatoes and canned carrots
• Fresh chicken legs with BBQ coating and frozen cauliflower in cream sauce
• Breaded fish (frozen) with frozen “king’s” vegetables in a light sauce
• Pasta with green pesto sauce and pine nuts, with apples as side dish

The advantage of buying meals like this is you can eat whatever you feel like, without having to eat a meal before something goes bad. I’d figured we’d eat the chicken tonight but Tim wanted spaghetti, so that’s what we had. Of course, if I’d known we would eat the spaghetti tonight I’d never have bought canned bolognese sauce, but hey, that’s the price of flexibility! What are your quick meals for people like us “on the run”? :)

p.s. We tend to make up for our instant meals in the weekend where we’ll cook meals that take hours like meatballs or lasagne or casseroles - don’t think we always eat like this! I’m itching to make cinnamon rolls this weekend just to feel closer to home in America.