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"Doing" Sunday Dinner
One of the biggest reasons we ended up eating leftovers or sandwiches for lunch on Sundays was how long it would take to prep and cook and put Sunday Dinner on the table.I love my Momma’s Sunday Dinners but there’s a reason why we almost always end up eating a “snacky supper” because we don’t end up eating dinner until 2ish pm. That’s a late lunch and cuts into the napping time when you calculate cleaning and talking a 4 year old boy into actually closing his eyes and laying horizontal.
In other words I found it taking too big a chunk of my day, I didn’t enjoy it.
In fact, I resented it.
Which is why we ended up eating sandwiches on Sundays.
Not the Sunday Dinner of my childhood.
We spend, on average, 3 hours at church in the morning, including drive time. We are usually getting home around 12:30 pm. We need to be leaving home at 5:15 pm to be back at church for evening services etc which means we need to start getting ready to go at 4:50 pm. So you can see my reluctance to be eating Sunday Dinner at 2 pm. Because I KNOW I will not be resting- I’ll be spending time before dinner prepping for dinner and time after cleaning up and getting the last doo-dads of my lesson together before the evening youth meeting and there goes my Sunday afternoon.
I have also found that in the trying to make Sunday Dinner a celebration for my family and trying to fit into the 2 pm complete-dinner-at-the-dining-table mode left me feeling more than a bit grim and grumpy. It was not my picture of Sabbath Rest.
Not even close.
I was quite resentful of it all.
Not a good way to run your Sunday.
And so sandwiches and leftovers was a better fit for us- food tastes better, even if it’s just sandwiches, when everyone is happy and peaceful (that’s biblical! Proverbs 17:1).
But lately I’ve been wanting a bit more celebration in our Sabbath Rest.
I wanted a Sunday Dinner instead of lunch.
Thank the good Lord for the crockpot.
And for helping me to let go of that picture in my head of the perfect Sunday Dinner with the perfect set table, perfectly prepared food, and perfectly behaved family (notice I didn’t just say “perfectly behaved children” because, lets face it, I create just as much trouble as they do at times.)
Once I let go of perfection I felt that I could actually accomplish this goal of Sunday Dinner (not lunch).
I had a few crockpot recipes on hand that I really liked and have been searching and researching and adding to my file folder. I realize that it is okay to have 4 or 5 great crockpot recipes and just rotate them and since I haven’t taste tested all these recipes yet we may find we’ll narrow it down to 5 great recipes.
I’ve also noted that some crockpot recipes do not respond well to speeding up the cook time from 6-8 hours on low to 3.5 hours on high. I’ve also noted that you can often start out with frozen meat instead of remembering to thaw it the day before. So noted and moving on . . . .
I prep what needs prepping Saturday nite- setting out the crockpot and non-perishable ingredients. With a yummy main dish in the crockpot, I keep the side dishes simple- steamed veggies or a greens salad and/or homemade bread. Whatever I choose I make sure the side dish cooks up in less than 10 minutes.
As soon as I walk in the door, I’m slipping on my apron and setting the table.
I’ve noticed over the last 3 Sundays (we only just really started this crockpotting Sunday Dinner experience), anyway- I’ve noticed that we are sitting down to eat within 15 minutes of coming through the door.
That’s incredible to me!
A real Sunday Dinner that is finished and cleaned up by 1:30 pm.
Plenty of time for a quiet nap.
ZzZzZzz . . . . . .
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8:59 PM, 2008-Sep-30 .. Posted by AnonymousI frequently visit http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ I think it's a great resource for crock pot ideas. Check it out!
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1:23 AM, 2008-Oct-1 .. Posted by AnonymousI am glad you are able to enjoy your Sunday meal again. I dont know if you have the time to prepare something on Sat to just heat up on Sunday?
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