This week I want to talk about real life people. I realize that looking at bloggers lives and what they post makes your life seem not as perfect as what theirs appears to be. “Gosh, their child is always happy!” “She is the best mom. Always so fun and patient!” “Their home is always perfect!” “Every meal they make looks like it belongs in a magazine!”  (This includes instagram and social media too.) As you know, I post mostly about cooking. It is my passion and what I love to do. Do I post about it to make you feel inferior? NO WAY! I actually hope to encourage you to make one of my recipes to share with those you love. I truly believe that sharing meals brings people closer together. And brings great joy!

But… you say, “I don’t have the time to cook. You seem to be able to do it all.. but I just can’t.” First of all, yes, I do make cooking meals or baking treats a priority in my life so I make time for it. Trust me… If ever there was someone with no spare time.. that someone is ME! So how… how in the world do I have the time to make dinner for my family most nights of every week?

That’s what this post this week is all about. Showing you how I do it and how you can too… if you want to. Trust me… I am no superwoman. 

Ok… so lets take the day I decided to make chicken noodle soup for dinner. It was a cold day and I thought it would be the perfect meal for my family. It also happened to be one of the busiest days of the week (so a perfect example). Kids to take to various activities all afternoon into the night. So how did I pull it off and mind you…. make the noodles from scratch for the soup too? Taking 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there and finally 15 minutes before another pick up. Let me explain. 

I literally had 10 minutes at home in between dropping off one child to their activity before I had to take pick up another child. I simply put the ingredients for the homemade noodles in my food processor and mixed them up. That took less than five minutes. Then I left the lid on and let the dough rest while I was off again!

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When I got home, I had 20 minutes in between pickups so I rolled out my noodles and hung them to dry. I still had a little time before I had to leave so I started my soup by chopping some vegetables and threw them in the pot with some chicken, water and seasonings, turned on the stove and I was off again. It is amazing what you can do with 20 minutes!

Before my last pickup I was left with fifteen minutes (See… I don’t live in my kitchen like you think!). I took out the chicken, shredded the meat, checked the seasonings and put the noodles in the soup. Put the soup on simmer and off I went again. When we all got home… the house smelled wonderful and my hungry kiddos got a healthy, meal I felt good about serving them. 

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On a side note, once I made homemade noodles there was no going back. My kids fell deeply in love and as you read above it didn’t take a lot of time. I can spend way more time looking at my social media feeds on my phone! It all depends on how you choose to spend your “spare”time. May sound crazy, but it really wasn’t. And in the end… my house was calm and happy! 

There you go… a day in the real life of me. Crazy, busy and real. And yes of course there are days where there is literally no time to make anything. Take out is real too. Especially if it is Mexican!