Is it OK for a working mom to admit she’s burned out? Well, I am. Not on work or on my child, but on cooking. I’ve been a single parent for the past two months while hubby traveled for work, and I think I’ve done an admirable job taking care of business and my little one. But when it comes time to put something on the table, I’m resorting to hot dogs and frozen pasta bags nearly every night. And when it comes to finding a recipe for Tasty Tuesday? I’m so burned out you can probably smell my charred brain cells through your computer screen.
That’s why I’m grateful I’ve found emealsforyou. It’s a meal planning site that offers recipes, shopping lists and meal plans, and it’s targeted at busy moms. (Check out the badge in the right margin!) I’ll blog more about it next week. But if you want to check out the service in advance, please do! WMAG readers who sign up will get $5 off their membership. Just enter WMOMAG-37 when you register, and it will automatically reduce your membership price to $31.
I’ve been fiddling around on the site and plan to try a few recipes this week. In the meantime, Chef Jake’s given permission to share a recipe or two with you. I’m posting this one because, well, I love Cola, I love a good roast, and I’m intrigued. It’s the kind of dish you’ll want to save for the weekend, since it calls for a three-hour roasting, but I like easy recipes on my weekends, too, so I can spend more precious time with my family. Plus, this sounds perfect for a chilly fall day. And so, without further ado, I give you…
Marisue’s Cola Roast
| 4.5 | lb | beef, roast |
| 0.5 | tsp | pepper, fresh ground |
| 0.5 | tsp | salt, table |
| 3 | tsp | oil, vegetable |
| 1 | 12 oz container | chili sauce |
| 1 | 12 oz can | cola |
| 2 | tsp | Worcestershire sauce |
| 2 | Tb | hot sauce to taste |
| 0.5 | tsp | garlic powder |
Rub beef roast with salt and pepper. Brown in vegetable oil and Drain. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over roast. Bake at 325 degrees for three hours.
Emealsforyou has paired this dish with garlic smashed potatoes, corn fritters and a spinach salad. Yum! To see this meal plan (it’s called “Fall is in the Air”) and others, join up and explore!
9 thoughts on “Tasty Tuesday – October 2, 2007”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I think it is rather expensive for what you get, just recipes and a shopping list, there are websites that will do this for FREE for you.
Cookinglight.com is one of them.
If you are really short on time as a busy working mom… you really should try Dinners Ready. A lot of my coworkers (I have once) use the service and the meals are wonderful.. hey they will even prepare them for you if you don’t have that time : ).
just4ofus… I was just looking at Dinner’s Ready today!! (The tab is still open on my explorer window!) Six two-person meals, which is almost a whole week, for right around $100. I think I’m definitely going to check them out soon. They are just down the road! So they are good?
I found that is requires little effort to menu plan and shop on the weekends. I pull out my working momma cook-books (like 30 minute meals, Cooking Light, Cuisine at Home) and plan out a week’s worth of meals. I post the menu on the fridge and I make a quick shopping trip for whatever ingredients we don’t have. It takes about 30 minutes to plan the menu and an hour to shop.
When I come home, I always know what I am going to make and I know that I have the ingredients to make it.
Yes, the Dinners Ready is good.
They include sides in the price, so it is price and taste better than Dream Dinners.
Check it out.
They will break it down serving/price wise and they have nutrition info as well.
I too think the service is a bit pricy – but I love Dinneraffair.com – my local branch does 12 meals for $120 – serves 4. They give you a lift of suggested sides – some are even prepped and for sale. I keep several in my freezer for those days I’m in a pinch…
I love you blog!! I’ve been lurking and it’s so nice to see a bunch of working Moms with a good grip on reality. So glad I found you!!
Thanks for the tips, all. And we appreciate your kind words, Kate! We’re glad you found us, too.
Just wanted to let your readers know that we have extended the membership period for http://www.emealsforyou.com to 1 full year while maintaining the fee at $36, or roughly the cost of a magazine subscription.
Cooking Accomplished! has been a great find for myself and several of my friends. The concept is simple; you go online, pick the entrees you want and the date you want to assemble them. The difference between Cooking Accomplished! and several other businesses like this in Portland, is quality! The owner is a trained chef. They have a commercial kitchen where all the ingredients are prepped by Shelley and her staff. Many of my friends, prior to joining me for meal assembly sessions at Cooking Accomplished!, admitted to serving and eating frozen or pre-cooked meals several times a week and to dining out two or three times a week. We decided since we are worried about nutritional value and using quality local ingredients we would research meal assembly as a solution to reducing time spent shopping and preparing dinners with the goal of eating healthier. The only assemble-your-own meal company that we found in Portland, that had great selections, high quality local ingredients and prepped all their food in-house is CookingAccomplished! in Lake Oswego. Since I started preparing meals at CookingAccomplished! I’ve also signed up for a couple of great cooking classes. My son attended a kids class as well and he can’t wait until the next one. Shelley has done a fantastic job of creating a quality experience!