Community Blog

My life is great. It’s even better now that I’ve eliminated the kitchen 2-step from my life. There are two things you’ll learn in this article – what is the kitchen 2-step and what are smoosh meals.

What is the kitchen 2-step? It is that painful dance that typically happens about 6:00-7:00 pm each evening. You arrive home from a long day at work, family is hungry, you are hungry and tired and shuffle over to the pantry. You see a lot of items in the pantry but nothing ready for dinner. Then you 2-step over to the refrigerator, open the door and again, see lots of miscellaneous items but nothing ready for dinner. Then you side step to open the freezer and of course that is worse since everything is frozen solid. This dance is repeated a few times in an attempt to combine all the miscellaneous items into something that would be considered a meal, you can’t get it together, you give up and call the pizza guy. Sound familiar?

Or, the late night stops after ball games, dance practice, school events, work and racing to the closest drive thru? Yes, it’s convenient albeit you know it’s not the best food choice for your children, and eating later at night is not optimal.

A friend recently showed me a kids meal from a fast-food restaurant. She asked how old I thought the food was. It looked pretty recent, so I guessed a day or two. I was stunned when she said it was a year old! There was no mold, no decay, no visible signs of deterioration. Makes you wonder what they put in it to make it last that long.

Let’s face it, we are a fast fix society and the restaurants know it. Now, eating out is not a bad thing – it is actually very fun to try new cuisine and atmosphere and our family makes it a point to try new places as much as possible. I think many people are tired of eating out as a lifestyle and would love to stay at home more, eating home-cooked meals. There is nothing more important than the time spent together as a family at the dinner table, it’s a great place to connect as a family before everyone scatters for the evening.

Then there is the current economy, needless to say, we are not happy when we see the gas pump showing $50+ to fill up our vehicles. Since our proverbial bucket of money is still the same regardless of the increases, we have to offset somewhere to take care of the additional costs. And, there is the health factor these days with processed foods and consumer confidence in product quality not being what it used to be.

I love to cook. I own all the top of the line cookware and numerous accessories and would make the Food TV chefs proud with the 300 +cookbooks I have collected over the years. I love to chop, dice, sauté and bake. The reality is that this is something I enjoy doing on my terms, not on a busy day when I get home late and the family is hungry and wants something NOW.

So, what is the winning answer to all of this? Smoosh meals.

Smoosh meals are the busy woman’s answer to “what’s for dinner?”. A simple ziptop freezer bag, meat, canned item or two and seasoning and you are on your way to mealtime freedom! You simply put all of the items in the freezer bag, seal and mix the contents, aka smoosh! We have been practicing this simple meal making method for quite some time. I decided to do a couple of things to share with my customers – 1) track the cost of making several meals and 2) allowing a 30 minute window of time after we got home from the grocery to make the meals. We spent $78 on various meats and canned items at the grocery store and instead of putting all the groceries away when we got home, we left out the items for the meals, got out the freezer bags and assembled 16 meals (all different) in 30 minutes. So, instead of putting away the groceries like we normally do and then have to figure out a time to make meals later, we did it right then and there and we put meals in the freezer instead of “items”. The end result was sixteen meals which are enough for 2 dinners at our home and the average cost per meal for 2 of us was $2.48. We are enjoying variety of flavors, we controlled the ingredients (low sodium, low fat, cuts of meat, etc) and saved a significant amount of money and time. A simple salad or vegetable to go along with the entrée and we were set for the evening! And, to make life even better, these meals can be put in the slow cooker, grilled or baked.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you went to the grocery on a Sunday afternoon, got home and you and your kids assembled a variety of easy meals to put in the freezer. The kids can help write the meal name on the freezer bag and even a funny note. It’s win win for everyone – you have meals in the freezer, the kids helped and will be more likely to eat the meals and most importantly, they will learn to cook and eat at home.

Imagine coming home after a long day to a wonderful aroma of dinner already cooked and waiting for you! Within 10 minutes, you and your family can be at the table enjoying a quality, nutritious meal for a fraction of the cost that you would pay at a fast food establishment.

Picture yourself getting ready for work, getting the kids off to school, etc in the morning and you take out a freezer bag from the freezer, microwave it long enough to loosen the contents and put the meal in the slow cooker for the day. And, you can really keep things simple but using those wonderful liners which make clean up a breeze! The good news is you can take control of the mealtime monster and drop the kitchen 2-step from your every day life.

That’s where I come in. Enter, the Meal Making Strategist, former corporate executive who went AWOL into the wonderful world of entrepreneur! I show people how to save valuable time and money with simple smoosh meals. I have all the tools and resources for you to start smooshing! Leave the dancing to fun ballroom dancing or the great TV competitions. Contact me at www.ezmeals4u.net.