Having a very hard time staying TF with new job--help!

[MamaEli]

I've recently gone back to work full time teaching a very demanding group of children. DH stays home with the kids, and turning on the oven is a major accomplishment for him. We (I) were just getting going on TF, somewhat slowly.

However, now I'm not home to make the sourdough bread, cook stocks, spend a couple of hours in the kitchen. I'm exhausted when I get home, and have resorted to pasta and jarred sauce more often than I'd like. We've missed the cut off date for our milk coop twice now, and driving down to the egg man hasn't happened in three weeks.

Foods I've found easy to do and fast and family pleasing include beef stew, salmon chowder, eggs, burritos, and rice and beans.

So, if you work outside of the home and are eating TF, how do you manage? What do you plan ahead? What foods are your mainstays? I'm working on surviving---I need help planning and accomplishing!

[TzippityDoulah]

I can't answer all your woes... but one idea - yu can buy eggs a few weeks worth at a time. they keep for a long while just fine.

can you spend a halfsaturday (or whatever your day off is) cooking some freezer meals

and maybe just try for now to be 50% NT? I mean if you can't swing it all at one time, don't get too discouraged! I've been doing this for 2-3 years and i"m still getting the hang of making it all work out. I'm finding my short cuts slowly but surely. and i still supplement with certain things that aren't perfectly NT. even if you have 5-7 meals a week that are NT it's be an awesome start and you'd be eating better than 99% of people in America! (try to think of the possitives like that)

[nicolelynn]

I work FT (but don't have DC yet so I can't complain toooo much, but work does keep me away from home about 9 hrs pr day), so this has always been a struggle for me. I rarely have time to make veggie ferments and soak and dry nuts faithfully. But one thing I do prioritize if making stock on Saturdays. I am dairy free now so need the minerals, and have digestive issues so need the healing power of stock.

Plan plan plan is my lifesaver. Some days it is just brown rice pasta with pre-made sauce and ground beef, and a quick salad. I just try to eat as best I can. Brown rice pasta is still far better than white, I get marinara sauce made w/o hfcs and with olive oil instead of soybean oil, and whisk together a quick ACV and olive oil dressing to toss greens in, rather than store-bought canola-oil based dressings.

I, too am trying to do a big cooking Saturday once per month. Then I can batch cook not only TF friendly casseroles and chili, but also portioned out brown rice, other grains and beans. So when I get home from work (if I plan ahead and I have thawed it in the fridge) it just takes 5 minutes to heat the brown rice on the stove rather than 40 minutes to cook it. Right now we have roomates (a total of 4 adults and 3 children in a 1400 sq ft home) so there is so spare room in the freezer. Need to get a freezer when we can afford one.

I do managae a little extra prep on Saturdays. I try to at least make stock, start a batch of fermented veggies every couple of weeks, cook a batch of beans for use in chili, soups and such, etc.

Also, I plan snacks. I eat one about 4:00 at work so I am not starving and irritated when I get home and it's 6:30 before I have dinner made.

That said, we're committed to eating from scratch and not eat out since we had to slash our grocery budget in half. So once in a while I do resort to white rice or something since it is quick to cook. I'm also a big fan of Trader Joe's full cooked chicken sausages. Just heat up and serve with a salad and dinner is ready on 10 minutes. Still better than eating out or packaged food.

[Shakti77]

About the sourdough bread, you don't really have to make bread to get the benefit of all the natural yeast and fermentation. Think sourdough pancakes, sourdough muffins, cookies etc... which require less time. I'm a newbie as well and have just started making my own soaked yeasted bread.. And I want to try sourdough bread next but it scares the heck out of me. So I plan to get a starter going (This seems daunting enough to me) and then use the starter (a cup along with other liquids) to soak my pancake batter overnight... Soaking and sourdough - both NT techniques in one easy method.

- If pasta and jarred sauce work for you, then maybe you can use the crockpot to make your own sauce and freeze it for later? Think canned crushed tomatoes for saving time.

- Burritos freeze well

- Brown rice freezes well.

- Even cooked beans freeze well.

- You don't have to be home to cook stocks, beans etc. Think crock pot.

Here are some tips for NT newbies.. It helped me. Maybe it would help you too. Think baby steps!!

[Zenzero]

I don't work but do have one DS who keeps me busy and sometimes I find it hard to get things done so can imagine it must be really hard when you are out of the house all day.

Some great advice above so I just wanted to add something that sprung to mind when I read your post...what about trying the no-knead bread that has been mentioned on here.

I've done it a couple of times with both sourdough starter and conventional yeast and it was great both times and really no effort/hands on time required...just forward planning.

HTH...best of luck!

Linz x

[ryleigh'smama]

I make stock every weekend. We bought 1/2 cow, so we have good meat in the freezer. Plus pastured chickens. That does help, cause we can just walk out and grab something. We made a routine out of Saturdays for Farmer's Market, it ends up being a nice outing. I eat a lot of leftovers for lunches. Or salads with meat on top. I usually do a lot of fermenting one day a month. I have to admit, I eat raw almonds. I don't get it together enough to soak and crisp them very often, so I figure raw almonds are still a better choice than lots of other things. Soup is good to make and then take with for lunch, or have a couple of nights a week. The crockpot is my friend. You can do it! It might not be perfect, but still good. I have my morning routine of CLO, and BO. I cook eggs in CO and take them with me cause I can't eat BF that early in the morning. We buy 3x18 eggs at a time so we don't have to remember too often, plus we eat a lot of eggs. That's all I can think of right now.....

[Teenytoona]

I WOHM FT too. Mr Toona is a WAHD, but he doesn't really follow/get my TF leanings (yet) and does much of the cooking. Fortunately, he's a big fan of roasts. So, on my time off I try to supplement his cooking. I must second the person who said: crockpot! That's the go to way to make stock, IMO. But, I have only one and use it for my sauerkraut making, so it's basically every other week - sauerkraut/stock. I am going to attempt starting a sourdough and then baking the bread from it. I'd like to get off store bought breads. I think this might become a nightly thing for me, as I must have my weekend mornings to clean (otherwise, I get lazy).

Really, as a previous poster said, plan plan plan. I also think a great idea would be to take a Saturday once a month and just cook like a fiend. Make alot of convenience foods and have those in the freezer for when you're just walloped good. Or make double batches of everything when you do cook and freeze the extra (less intensity in one day).

I've only once soaked and sprouted beans. I don't know if that will happen again, as it takes up alot of space. So my theory is, like others have said, you do what you can.