Food Preparation Simplified

I'm always, ALWAYS looking for ways to simplify details of our daily routines.  The other day Angie posted how she organizes her groceries in an attempt to simplify meal time. 

I, immediately, ran to the store to buy some plastic totes.

The idea is that you group together all the ingredients you need to make a meal.  Pre-cut all veggies, onions, etc.  Grate cheeses, dice meat, wash veggies.  Everything that you can do ahead of time...do it.  Then place all ingredients along with the recipe card for that meal in the front of the tote, and stick them in the fridge.  I can fit four of these totes in my fridge. 

I'm partly excited about this because it will simplify/quicken my time spent in the kitchen in the evenings...especially Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings when our nights are filled with trying to fit in homework, supper, clean up, music lessons, baths.  And I'm also partly excited because when Ava got sick earlier this year, and when E's grandma passed away, I was rushing around trying to prepare a couple meals for the days I wouldn't be home.  I'm thankful enough that my family comes to help during those times...I like to make things as simple for them.  So, that's where this idea comes into play.  Everything needed for one supper meal is in each of these totes.   All they have to do is pull out a tote, follow the recipe card, and viola....they have an easy meal. 

Normally, Friday is pizza night at our house.  The kids love stuffed crust Digornio's...and we generally rent a family movie, or have a fire and eat pizza.

However, Breanna decided to dump an entire bottle of nail polish on the living room and kitchen floors while I was in the bathroom.

Bright pink at that.

So, I was scrubbing away with nail polish remover when the kids mentioned they were getting hungry.

I looked at the clock and thought, 'Crap...it's almost SIX!  What am I going to make that's fast?'

oh yeah, I have THE TOTES.  And one of them contains all the ingredients to make Wheat English Muffin Pizza's

I wrapped two baking pans with aluminum foil, laid each half of the English muffin down, put the toppings on, and popped them under the broiler for about 8 minutes.

I don't have pictures of all the steps, because I was more worried about throwing them together as quickly as possible so I could get back to scrubbing the carpet.

Here's a picture of the finished product though.

These were SOOOOO good.

The kids asked if we could have them again on Friday.

For the kids, I just make cheese.

For Chris and I, I used a tsp of BBQ sauce as the sauce, crumbled bacon, grilled chicken, onions, diced peppers, and mozzarella cheese.

The best part...I got the idea of these off of a video from Food Network, and the hostess (not sure who she is though...I've never seen her before) said three of them contain the same amount of calories as a LARGE slice of pizza, so you are getting way more food for the calories.

These will definitely be made again at our house.