One important key factor is meal planning. You can't fly by the seat of your pants, you really do need a plan. It's not that hard either. While you're sitting at your kids soccer practice, you can do your menu planning. I like to plan for two weeks at a time, based on my husband's paychecks. While you menu plan, start your grocery list at the same time. If you KNOW you have something, write it down anyway. I have thought I had plenty of something only to find out TOO LATE that I didn't have as much as I thought, if I even had any at all. Just the other night, I ran out of ketchup when I went to make sloppy joes, all because I didn't check how much was left when I planned my menu! You don't have to be at home in your kitchen to menu plan and make your grocery list.
Now, when you get home and have time, go down your shopping list and mark off what you have or don't need more of. It's fun to actually watch your list shrink before you even get to the store. Then, if you need to look up the recipes for the meals you planned, do that and write down any ingredients you need from those. We usually keep a running list on the fridge so when we run out of things, we add them to that list so the next time we make a list we don't forget those items.
Ok, so now you have your grocery list, and your menu, right?
When we get to the point we are busy every night of the week, I try to be as creative as possible. There is nothing wrong with doing sandwiches for dinner, although I personally wouldn't want them every night of the week. Some quick and easy meal ideas are:
Soup (this is great, especially when it starts to cool off outside)
Any crockpot recipes (crockpots are wonderful things. We have two of them!)
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