Dinner Shoppe Success - Shrimp & Pasta

Again, nothing sponsored here! No money or goods exchanged hands. They don't even know I am writing about them.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we were going to try pre-assembled meals from the Dinner Shoppe and, I have to say, we are pretty pleased. The food is tasty and healthy. It also helps spice up our eating habits and introduce new meals to Q. Our only problem is portion size, but that's because H and I are big dinner eaters. We are most successful with having leftovers when the food is a casserole / comes in its own tin.

Overall, a success and we plan to keep ordering from there.

Tonight's dinner: pasta with shrimp/spinach in a lemon sauce. Q requested no shrimp and only H wanted the feta. Took less than 20 minutes, even though it wasn't fully defrosted when I started.

This is NOT a sponsored post: I love pre-assembled meals!

Honestly, this is not a sponsored post. None of the companies mentioned even know that I'm writing a post.

A new year is coming upon us and I know that new years often lead to new goals, including switching jobs. Now, I'm sticking put (I will finish this dissertation!), but I thought I'd talk about a business venture that I have found to be extremely helpful, especially as a work-at-home-mom and one that I think a stay-at-home mom might be able to start as a small business while working from home.

First, I do know how to cook. I want to put that out there. I don't, however, have a very extensive repertoire. My mom started graduate school when I was about 10 or 11 and, as the oldest girl, cooking (laundry, cleaning) fell to me. (Why, yes, I do have 4 older brothers and 2 of them were living at home at the time.) My mostly-Irish family did not have very eclectic tastes and the majority of our dinners were roasts, whole chickens, ghoulash, meatloaf, and various pasta dishes. (Growing up, pasta was always called spaghetti.)  I'll admit that due to all this cooking when younger, I had an aversion to it until I hit my mid-20s, but, even then, I didn't add too many more things to my recipes. Chicken alfredo. Tacos. Yeah, that might be it.

Once H and I moved in together, we tried to blend family recipes and we happily existed on our various staples as well as take-out and eating out.  Fast forward 5 years and we have two little girls, H works full-time, I am writing a dissertation and working part-time. It gets hectic. And then, my sister-in-law suggested Dream Dinners.

Dream Dinner will assemble a meal that takes approximately 30 minutes of prep time at home. We tried it after buying a groupon and, while we felt it was pricey for what it was as well as a little bit of a drive, we did enjoy the variety and ideas for other meals it gave us. On a local yahoo board, we discovered a closer and slightly less expensive company, called The Dinner Shoppe.  After trying them, we have decided to stick with the lasagna/casserole/meals that can be cooked frozen as they require almost no prep time or forethought, which is great when I realize it is 5:30 and I haven't even thought about dinner.  Another tip is to buy the meals for 4-6 people as you either have dinner already for the next night or at least lunch! So now we have our "staples," some pre-assembled meals that are not that much more expensive than buying all the ingredients ourselves, and our crock pot (also a gift from my sister-in-law and another lifesaver). Dinners are mostly sorted in our house!

Any tips or ideas? I know that we could make more over the weekend and freeze them, but we are still trying to get it together to actually do so. We did do that after Q was born.

Activity #1 - Pretend Grocery Shopping/Cooking/Feeding Toys

Alright, first things first, Q and I need to get up earlier. I am going to try and get up by 6:45am tomorrow, so that I can exercise and shower/get dressed before I wake Q at 7:45am.

If I manage to get us up this early, it will give us (after getting dressed and having some breakfast) some time to play before we leave for school at 8:55am. Q's lunch is already made (yea leftovers!). Without further ado, therefore, is our morning 30+ minute activity for tomorrow:

Approx. Start time 8:15am:
Pretend grocery shopping and cooking! 

Q has a toy shopping cart, plastic food and a toy kitchen with pots and pans, but all you really need for this are a shopping bag (can be an oversized purse), food from your own kitchen or cut out pictures of food/store items, and your own pots and pans. I have also given Q an old purse of mine and wallet with some expired bonus cards in them that she pretends are credit/debit cards. First, we'll set up the "store" by sorting her plastic food (veggies and fruits in one area, dairy in another, etc.)  Then, we will discuss the food we are pretending to buy and what we will cook with them.  

(Accessories make everything better.)

Next, Q and I will head over (all of 3 feet) to her kitchen set and pretend to bake/cook them. While the food is “cooking,” we can read a book or play with blocks, but we will remember to go back and check (you know, make sure nothing is "burning")! I will probably – with Q’s help – set the timer on the microwave for 5 minutes. Then, we will pretend to eat the food and feed some to her toys.

(Photo of Q baking and about to feed my old baby doll. H's studly legs are in the backround.)

Obviously, I doubt any of these activities will go as smoothly as written, but I'm hopeful!! When dealing with a toddler, every step in a process is insanely fun to them, because they don't know the difference between work and play. I am planning on capitalizing on that.