There are many ways in which I could be a more virtuous wife, but the point I'll focus on is verse 15. "She rises while it is still night and gives food to her her household and a portion for her maidens." Humm...I don't have any maidens. Might be easier to be wonder-wife with some extra hands to help. But I digress!
I think that the thought here is that the virtuous wife plans meals ahead, even if just for the day. When it comes to meals, the people in the house know that mom has a plan.
This will look different for different moms, but for me, I like to plan meals a least a week in advance. I prefer to have meals planned for a month. That may sound difficult, but I find it so much easier to plan and prep as much ahead of time as possible. That insures fewer dishes to wash each night, and NO nights of spontaneous eating out because there wasn't time to get supper ready.
Here are some of the things that I do to help with this.
1) I always have biscuit dough in the fridge. I will make a batch of dough, bake half and refrigerate half. My crew loves having a steady supply of biscuits, since they go with virtually any meal and are good at any time of the day. My mother-in-law gave me the recipe that I use, but I do not know where she got it from. I know that the recipe was not her own, so please forgive me for not knowing the original source!
Yeast Biscuits
1 pkg yeast (if you buy yeast in bulk, use 2 1/4 teaspoons)
2 cups very warm water
1 stick of butter
4-5 cups self-rising flour
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
Dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar into 2 tablespoons of water. In a large bowl, melt butter into warm water (but the butter into little pieces first). Beat the egg into the yeast mixture. Add the yeast mixture and sugar to the butter water. Beat in one cup of flour. Add the rest of the flour one two cups at a time, then knead on a floured surface until able to cut biscuits (adding more flour as necessary). Wrap half the dough in plastic wrap and store in the fridge until the next time you want fresh biscuits. Roll and cut the other half. Bake at 400F for 10 minutes.
2) I like to prep and freeze ahead. A great source for learning how to do this is "Once-A-Month Cooking" by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg. For a person who is just learning how to freeze meals ahead of time, this is a great resource! Even if you are not crazy about all the recipes (some are great and some are "ok") you get the drift of what will freeze well, and how much preparation can be done ahead of time. Once you've used this book a few times, you will find the courage to freeze your own recipes! Note: You can reuse freezer bags by simply washing them out with hot, soapy water. If you use a permanent marker to label your bags, that can be wiped off with fingernail polish or rubbing alcohol. I do not reuse bags that had raw meat in them, however.
3) I like to make master mixes for things like cornbread, granola, pancakes, cakes, etc. The kind of things that can be bought in a box mix, but are just better if it is made from scratch. "Make-A-Mix/Over 300 Easy Recipes for Every Meal of the Day" by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward, and Madeline Westover, and "More With Less" by Doris Longacre are wonderful resources for this. Note: You can always bake a cake and freeze it in portions suitable for your family. The same concept applies to cookie dough.
4) I like meals that don't cost an arm and a leg to make! "More with Less" by Longacre and "The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook" by Erin Chase are two of my favorites for this concept. Chase's book also teaches how to coupon, which is a skill I covet to learn! I can't wait to dive into the process of learning how to use coupons effectively!
5) I bake my own bread. I know that bread is not all that expensive to buy from the store, but I just really like making it myself. I find kneading to be very therapeutic, and bread making in general to be very rewarding. This could be because of the aroma of fresh baked bread is so delicious, and my husband and daughter LOVE bread just out of the oven. My absolute favorite book about bread making is, "Breads and Coffee Cakes with Homemade Starters" by Ada Lou Roberts.
Hope that is of help to you! Happy planning!
