Diffusing the Dinner Hour

We all know that familiar hour.....the dinner hour!! Somehow, it continues to show itself each night, placing the continual demands on the busy moms and dads of this world. Hungry mouths are asking, "What's for dinner?" and "When are we going to eat?" while hungry toddlers are pulling on your shirt or begging mercilessly at their high chair, "Mommy, eat!"

You get the picture. Loud and clear, I'm sure.

And of course this happens towards the end of the day, when all of us are most frazzled.  The doorbell rings with a neighbor kid trying to get you to buy a coupon book, another salesman is calling to come shampoo your carpet for free in hopes of selling you a vacuum that you really have no business buying, the dog is barking at innocent people just walking on the sidewalk...and yet the tummies keep rumbling for a hot cooked meal! What's a mom to do??

We've found that stocking our freezer with some freezer meals has been the best way to take care of this dilemma, and diffuse some of the stress that comes with this time of the day! A quick breakdown of some of the pros and cons of freezer meals:

Pros:

1. Very little dinner prep - just pop it in the oven and wait!

2. Stress is greatly decreased - you know what's for dinner, and it's nearly finished before you begin

3. More time for family time in the evenings instead of time wasted on meal prep

Cons: 1. Certain meals just don't freeze well

2. You can begin to feel like you're on a rotation of the same types of meals

3. You have to plan a time (weekends usually) to make "freeze ahead" meals

For me, the pros outweigh the cons. We don't use a freezer meal every night, but to know that at least 2 or 3 times a week I could pull one out is helpful...and a huge relief! What do you do during the week or weekend to help diffuse some stress?