Double up

This is a quick public service announcement from The Martha Initiative...

Fall is rapidly approaching, major holidays will be here before we know it, the days are getting shorter and somehow, much busier.  Putting a quality dinner on the table for your family can be more than a challenge most nights...in this house, some nights it is damn near impossible. 

But, there is hope!  And here's my suggestion:

When you are making a meal (especially one that is labor-intensive), double it.  Triple it even.  Freeze the extra dish and you'll have a quick, and quality, meal even when you don't have time to cook.

For example, over the weekend I made macaroni and cheese.  Yum!

I consider this a labor-intensive meal because it takes me, from the time I begin to set out the ingredients to the time I'm pulling the dish out of the oven, approximately one hour.  That's a lot of time, and sometimes this dinner is not an option during the week because I need dinner on the table a lot faster than one hour.  Plus, I have two small kids...all the interruptions would lengthen the process to a full two hours, I'm sure.  And that's just too long to spend on a weeknight dinner. 

So.....

...I doubled the recipe.  It doesn't take any longer to do this, nor does it make any extra messy dishes.  I made two batches of mac & cheese: one for immediate consumption, and one for the freezer to be eaten in a couple of weeks.

In fact, I'll actually be saving an hour of my time and several dirty dishes in the future.  How's that for planning?  If this isn't a current practice in your house, give it a try.  Good luck!