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Balance Cooking and Working at HomeFiled Under: Quick and Easy

“I can bring home the bacon – fry it up in the pan . . . ” but should I really have to?  It seems that when you choose to work from home, most people (often including your spouse) don’t get the concept that you are actually working.  They expect you to continue to run the household as a full time job even though you are working full time.  This seems especially true when it comes to meals – it’s easier for you to do the cooking since you are already at home.

Trying to manage three meals a day and squeezing in work use to stress me out.  Then my oven died.  That pushed me into complete panic, for about a day.  I was forced to re-discover my crock-pot, microwave, and toaster oven.  It was one of the best bad things that has ever happened to our home.  Not only did I get a new oven, but I got some stress free recipes that help me balance home and work.

Now, many of my more hectic morning start with dinner prep.  I pour everything into a crock-pot (with a liner for easy clean up) and set it on low.  At the end of the day, dinner is on the table and the mess cleaned up before the whining can even start.

There are still those days when things get out of control and we end up eating sandwiches (or the kids’ favorite, cereal) for dinner.  For the most part, the crock pot has made me the greatest work at home chef in the world – to quote my oldest son.