Back to School

Whether you're running home from work, driving the carpool circuit or picking up one child at play rehearsal and the other across town at the end of their cross country run, the start of school means that there's less time to cook dinner than there was just a few short weeks ago. However, there are a few things you can do so that you can walk in the door and have dinner ready in no time.

Cook your grains ahead and freeze them. We all know that brown rice is a healthy way to go, but it takes nearly 40 minutes to cook, which tucks it neatly out of quick-dinner range. However, you can make a large pot of rice (quinoa, barley and millet also freeze nicely), pack it into freezer-safe containers and just microwave it for a few minutes just before you're ready to eat.

Use your slow cooker. Pull that old crock pot out of the closet, basement or wherever else you have it stashed and fire it up. You do a few minutes of prep and it will spend the rest of the day working for you. While soups, stews and chili are the classic slow cooker meals, you can also use them to roast whole chickens, braise cuts of meat or get a good simmer on your spaghetti sauce. Check out Flylady's slow cooker page for a whole bunch of recipes and tips.

Smaller pieces cook faster. If you are the type to do your dinner prep over the weekend or the night before, take a few more minutes and cut those pieces just a little smaller. I had a friend who would often cut chicken breast into small pieces when she brought it home from the store, pour marinade over it and freeze it. In the mornings before she left for work, she'd just remove the packet she wanted to cook that night, pop it into the fridge (in a bowl to catch any melt) and it would be ready to go when she got home.

Veggies don't have to be complex. Remember your basics. Steamed broccoli or cauliflower are easy. Just break apart the florets and toss them in a pot with a couple of inches of water at the bottom. Cook for 5-7 minutes until they are fork tender. If you want to get fancy, a quick sauce of mayo and lemon juice drizzled on top is easy to whip up.

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Today we've been focusing on what to send for school lunches, what to send it in, and even what to do when the kids finally leave. (Bob, you are brilliant!) However, in my experience, there are certain food items that I've found are better served at home than sent to school. Feel free to agree, disagree, or add your own to the list.

Food that needs to be heated
Whether I was planning to send leftovers from dinner or products like canned food or Easy Mac, I was thrilled for all of about two days when I found out my daughter's school had a microwave. What I didn't bother to find out was that the kids only had 35 seconds each to use it. Obviously, this isn't enough time to heat most items, let alone cook something. Though this may vary slightly from school to school, even if they do have a microwave available, I suggest to avoid sending anything that needs to be heated or your child will spend half their lunch hour waiting in line just so they can eat something that is only slightly warmed up.

Remember that commercial for Staples, the one where the parents are taking their kids shopping for school supplies and they're smiling and dancing to "The Most Wonderful Time of The Year?"

It's that time of year.

I have a good friend who has a young boy, and she's really happy he's back in school. This has nothing to do with a parent not loving their kids, it's just that when a child (baby, tween, or teen) is home, I'm sure it can just completely rule your life and not give you any breathing room (I'm not a parent, but I can imagine). I picture balloons falling from the ceiling and the liquor cabinet unlocked the moment the kids are on the bus.

So, parents, let's drink and celebrate!

We're focusing on kids going back to school, but that doesn't mean we have to ignore the "big kids" who go back to work.

For those of us who opt to pack a lunch and eat at our desks rather than socializing with our co-workers over lunch at the cafe on the corner, Workplace is a convenient way to take your food and eat it too. The set is a personal plate, bowl, cup and utensils, all snugly wrapped together in a placemat that will protect your desk from whatever soup/sandwich you brought from home. Of course, keeping crumbs out of your keyboard is another story.

Available from Vessel for $29.

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Last year I picked the 8 best school lunch items I remember from my school days (admittedly, a long time ago). But what about the lunches that a lot of kids hate? Here are my choices:

1. Mystery meat: What exactly was this? I'm trying to go through my mental Rolodex and I can't remember. Was it meatloaf? Salisbury steak? I'm not sure, but it just seemed to be this mass-produced glob of grayness topped with lame gravy. The days I saw that this was the lunch were the days I just had something to drink and maybe a bag of chips.