Good Food Takes Time

I'm generally pretty limited in the time I have at home.  I get home about 4:15, and I go to bed before 9, with no time of my own before work to speak of.  In the roughly five hours I do have at home, I make/help make and eat dinner, clean up the house, deal with household bills, relax, and usually watch a movie with *B* or run to the market.  More recently, I've taken up tutoring again, and *B* started another class toward his masters, so we have even less time per day.

The loss of time due to these new activities pale in comparison to the amount of time it takes to make dinner these days.  Since we decided to eat more healthfully, it takes a full hour longer to prepare a meal.  Though I will say, our meals are far more gourmet than ever before.  Just some of our menu for this week: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, Green Lentil and Couscous Salad, Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Roasted Parsnips with Pears and Hazelnuts, English Pea and Ricotta Tart, and many, many others.

The upside is that these recipes generally make 6-8 servings.  We have about 5 servings (after a meal for two and leftovers for *B*'s lunch the next day) that make it into either the refrigerator or the freezer.  As I type, we have at least four containers of chicken soup, three of broccoli and cheddar soup, and five of the butternut squash soup.  I'll have some leftover green beans with walnuts for dinner today, given that *B* will be off at class all night.

So we've learned that while it may take a fair amount of time to make these wholesome, nutritious foods to begin with, we end up with tons of more healthful fast foods when we're running short on time later.