Challenging Week: Second Update

You may remember in a recent post I mentioned that we had a challenging week with baseball games, evening meetings, and late afternoon doctors appointments. Here's how the end of the week turned out.

Wednesday -- I had a dinner meeting, so Kathleen and Peter went to a nearby Chinese restaurant. Peter loves the way they prepare broccoli, so we never worry about whether or not he will have a balanced, nutritious meal.

Thursday -- I made spaghetti and meatballs, a family favorite (and the recipe is included in an earlier post). The trick was, Peter had a 4 p.m. doctor's appointment, which would last for an hour. And the doctor's office is about 20 minutes away from home. How was I going to pull off this meal with those time constraints? By planning ahead! I made the tomato sauce earlier in the day, refrigerated the amount we would need for dinner and put the rest in the freezer. I also started the meatballs by making the meat mixture, forming the balls, placing them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and then refrigerating them. I even got a head start on pre-heating the oven by using one of our oven's special features. So when we got home, all I had to do was start the pasta water, pop the meatballs into the oven and heat up the sauce. Even with a crazy afternoon, dinner was on the table 5 minutes earlier than usual!

Friday -- Peter had a baseball game starting at 6 p.m., so we needed to eat an early dinner. Once again, planning ahead saved the day. We had a broccoli and potato frittata (the recipe is also included in an earlier post). The potatoes were left over from Monday's dinner and I steamed the broccoli earlier in the day. With all that advanced work already done, getting dinner on the table was a snap: I just needed to complete the fritatta, make a salad and we were ready to go!

What made having everyday celebrations during this challenging week possible was planning ahead. Instead of panicking when at diner time wondering how I was going to get dinner ready in time, I looked at our family calendar over the weekend and planned accordingly.

Crazy days don't have to kill everyday celebrations. It's possible to make it happen!