At the beginning of the month I had to smile at the new habit because I already have this one down but I wanted to share my experience and hopefully give other Flybabies some ideas.

Let me start with saying, I hate cooking. It isn’t that I can’t cook, I can but I just don’t enjoy the process and as a result, rarely enjoy the fruits of my labor, it is a task that needs to be done to survive. Needless to say in my preFlyLady days I would do everything to avoid it, this meant my freezer contained lots of processed instant ‘meals’ and the local take away were on speed dial, even knew our address by the sound of my voice. This, I realize now was very sad and expensive (both financially and health wise).

Then I found FlyLady, after getting routines in place and getting my home in order, I was still put off Meal Planning because the thought of cooking every night is not something I wanted to do, my inner brat kept whining. It was only when we had to replace our fridge freezer that I became very ashamed,putting all the expensive processed food in there made me feel sad, I was failing myself.

At that moment I vowed to change, I may hate cooking but I could work
something out, like with the rest of the FlyLady system, I could tweak this to work for me. I got my light bulb moment while shining my sink that evening, sitting on my shelf was my slow cooker along with a large bag of tupperware (all the plastic containers from the takeaways I hadn’t taken to the recycling), this was my answer, I would batch cook.

Now I only cook 3 days a week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday but what we eat is healthy and home made, I went through my cook books and found a dozen recipes that we enjoy and eat on a regular basis and started that weekend, prep everything and throw it in the slow cooker and get on with my day, in the evening I portion it up and freeze it, result is basically a home made, healthy meal that just needs either putting in the oven or in the microwave, I got a second slow cooker to make larger batches and in the space of about 6-8 weeks I had it, freezer full. It has 5 shelves and I work on a four week rotation (meals are eaten within 4 weeks), each shelf is one week and I label everything. at the side of the fridge is a loose leaf file that has the meals for each week written on it. Sunday, along with my batch cooking I will always do a roast, left overs are prepped and eaten on Tuesdays and Fridays (date night) is always cooked fresh, and done together.

As part of my evening routine I make packed lunches for the following day’s lunch, that way it removes the temptation of calling somewhere fast foodie and it’s healthier too, I even do this when we are not working the following day, it gives us flexibility and I know we are eating well.

I even make snacks too, no crisps or junk in my house.

I still hate cooking, that is something that won’t change but at least my way I don’t have to do it every night and we still have wholesome food, I’m have more time to myself and more money in my pocket too, I found that since I planned meals I can just do an online shop (also stops me adding things as I go round the store), I get my meat weekly from my local butcher, same with my veg from the farm shop and dairy & bread gets picked up as and when required. There is even more space in my bin since I’m not wasting food by buying things and letting them go out of date.

To others, there is always a way, it’s all about finding the right path for you.

Flying in the High Peak, UK