4 meals in about an hour

For the past few weeks, I've been doing something new. I've been cooking 4 meals all at one time to have later in the week.

Why?
Well, I used to cook supper after lunch when Allyssa was doing homeschool and David, Jr. was napping. It worked really well. I would do everything except heat it up. I would either pop it in the oven or the microwave a few hours later and supper would be hot and ready at 5 o'clock. It was perfect...until I added another kid to the mix.
With three kids, well...it didn't go as smoothly, and frankly, I didn't want to cook after lunch.
I read about a lady who has been doing this for a while, and decided to give it a shot.

How?
I decide in the morning what three meals I am going to make, if I need to boil eggs, and if I need to grate cheese.
Anything that needs to be thawed, is gathered after lunch. I don't actually start cooking until the kids are in bed. My kids all go to bed at 7pm. None of them are asleep at 7pm, but that is when I start. The older kids might come out a few times, but I send them back to bed. Kaytlin, well, she cries a lot at bedtime, so I'm in and out of her room several times during the hour that I'm cooking.
I still manage to get stuff done, so I do it anyways. The way I figure it, I have no guarantee that she will ever be sound enough asleep to work for a continuous hour, but I do have the guarantee that she can't climb out of her crib. If I waited until she fell asleep, I would never get up off the couch to actually do it.
I also cook on a night that my husband works nights. I have a lack of motivation to work on nights that he's at home, even if he's working from home. Choosing a night when he's not here works best for me.

What?
What in the world do I cook?
I cook the same thing that I would cook otherwise. Here is how:
If it is a pasta or rice dish, I cook it completely, start to finish except for oven time. Noodles cooked. Meat cooked. Sauce prepped. Mixed together. (Bake it on the day we eat it!)
If it is a casserole with a biscuit top (like upside down pizza) or made in a biscuit (like lasagna cups), I mix the casserole together, but do not mix the biscuit topping together or put it in the biscuits. I prefer my biscuits fresh, so I wait these until the day of.
If it is a pot pie, I make the inside, but put it in the crust the day of.
We rarely have "hunk-of-meat" meals, as I like to call them. If we do, I thaw the meat in the refrigerator and make any sides. This week, we're having ribs one day. I made homemade mashed potatoes and put them in the refrigerator.

How do I get it all done?
That is tricky. The biggest challenge that I have is that I need my big pot twice. I have enough burners for everything, but not enough pots.
I cook two pounds of meat in my HUGE cast iron skillet at once.
I use pre-cooked chicken (boiled off the bone leg quarters). I cook this on a different day. I cook 10 pounds at a time, in the crockpots. I then separate it from the bone and freeze it in meal-sized portions.
Since I'm boiling lots of eggs and noodles (perhaps two batches of noodles) most of the time, I run out of pots. I get one thing going in my big pot first thing, so that it is done soon enough to wash out my pan and get a second thing going.

Even with going in to give Kaytlin a pacifier several times, I still manage to get done in an hour or an hour and 20 minutes on a bad night. I know that is a lot of time in the kitchen, but since it is all at once, I don't have to do it later in the week. Most meals that I make I can simply put in the oven or the microwave and don't have to do anything else.

What do I do if I am a "hunk-of-meat" momma?
Do what works for you! If you can marinate your meat all on one night, do that! If there is a meal that can be totally cooked in advanced, do that! The goal is to have the prep work done and as many meals done as possible. If you simply can't cook the meat in advance for flavor/dryness, that's okay! Prep it as much as you can!

Where do you put it all?
In the refrigerator! I pack it in. I chop up the eggs and store them in Pyrex dish(es). I use as many dishes with flat lids as possible. I have a leftover night before the cooking night to empty out the refrigerator.

I hope this helps! This week we are having ribs (not cooked, but thawing) with mashed potatoes, Lasagna Cups (I make mine with cream cheese, meat, and other alterations), Taco Lasagna (layered taco; mix beans, salsa, corn, sour cream, seasonings, and meat; layer corn tortillas, cheese, and meat mixture), and Burritos (I didn't put them in the tortillas).

Enjoy!