Now THIS is an idea you can get behind, right?! You might remember that Ma Ingalls baked on Saturday, not Wednesday. Wednesday just happens to be the day that works best for us – you’ll have to decide what day works the best for you. Basically, this is a Kitchen Day more than a Baking Day.
Why did she bake on Saturday? Well, I think there are probably two reasons for that:
- Baking makes the house hot – best to get it all done in one day for the whole week.
- Most women did their Sunday preparations the day before so they could have a day of rest on Sunday.
What to do on Baking Day
You have two main focuses on Baking Day:
- Baking (obviously)
- Cleaning
It’s a good idea to choose a crock pot meal for this day so that while you’re focusing on other kitchen activities, you have dinner cooking away beside you.
However, if your focus that day is for batch cooking or freezer cooking, you could simply make one extra meal for that evening. For me, it just depends on my particular focus for that Kitchen Day.
Cleaning Tasks
I make bigger messes than my kids. My husband sometimes calls me “Grace” for a reason. Because of that, and because I spend a majority of my day in the kitchen (resolving the, “Mommy, I hungy” (also known as hungry) syndrome my kids have), my kitchen needs some TLC on a regular basis.
Here are cleaning tasks to focus on during Kitchen Day:
- Wipe down appliances
- Clean out one drawer and one cupboard
- Wipe down all the counters and backsplash
- Clean the kitchen windows (my window over the sink is perpetually dirty)
- Clean out the fridge and dust the top
- Scrub the sink
- Mop the floors
Some of you might need to mop more than once a week, based on the traffic in your house. Once a week works well for me because I can “spot mop” on other days if I have a big spill…which I do – regularly.
That sounds like a lot, but you could quickly knock that out since you’re doing it once a week. It takes me less than an hour to do all those tasks. But, I do wait until it’s nap time/quiet time to mop the floor. Because for whatever reason, when I’m mopping, it sends out a smoke signal that the kitchen is ready for foot traffic – even my dog comes to investigate.
Baking/Cooking tasks
On this day you can rotate what you choose to focus on. You could focus on:
- batch cooking (cooking large batches of things at once, like beans, bagels, or spice mixes)
- freezer cooking (making meals to put into your freezer for days like Cleaning Day)
- baking to your heart’s content
- snack preparation
- chopping veggies
I try to only bake two days of the week, especially in the summer. For me, those days are Wednesday AND Saturday. On Saturday, my focus is breakfast for the upcoming week, and on Wednesday my focus is on things like breads that we need for meals.
Can your items really keep for a week? Sure! In the summer, you might want to take extra measures, like refrigerator or freezer storage. For the most part, we don’t like refrigerated bread, so I freeze any extra I might have and then we thaw as needed.
Things like muffins and rolls will keep fine at room temp for a couple days and then you can refrigerate them for longevity. They reheat fine – and really, butter covers a multitude of sins.
That’s it!
That’s all there is for kitchen day, but as we all know…baking can morph and take up more time than we think. I try to start my process in the morning after breakfast, since we are schooling in the kitchen. I can chop, bake, and prep while my kids are doing independent work and I’m watching them.
If you HATE baking and cooking, you still need to be able to have a day when you can focus on what’s going to be eaten for the next week. Maybe that means meal prep and snack prep – but whatever it is…it’s something that HAS to be done. Because, you know – people get hungry and stuff.
How can you take Baking Day and apply it your your family’s needs?
See other posts in this series:
- Wash on Monday
- Clean on Tuesday
- Town on Thursday
- Office Day on Friday
- Get Ahead on Saturday
- Chores to do Daily
- Chore FAQ
- Each Day Has Its Own Proper Chores
- What Would Ma Ingalls Do?
- Embracing Your Inner June Clever
My prep is bagging snacks, cutting veggies, and fruits for the next couple of days. Wednesdays are payday for me, so this works well. I also have worked in the food industry for 12 yrs and those habits carry on today. If my kitchen isn’t happy, neither am I!!!!!
Amen to that!
My prep always includes cutting a bunch of carrot sticks. And I love the default plan of just baking a dozen muffins each week to have for breakfast or snack. Thanks for the tip!
I LOVE MUFFINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is all.
I love this! I’m going to start picking a kitchen deep clean task – great idea! I think I have two baking days…. Because we go thru a lot of food:) but I love making a double batch of waffles – they freeze and reheat in the toaster oven so well. And also pizza dough – my kids favorite dinner – so it’s always good to have a few balls of dough in the freezer.
Do you have Jessica Fisher’s freezer cookbook? Because girl – there is a recipe in there for Honey Lemon Flax Waffles and it is AMAZING! It’ll make you slap your mama.
For whatever reason, my appliances get so dirty (even when I’m not using them!) What products get grime off really well?
Welp, I’ll be straight honest. I use a Mr Clean Magic Eraser for the win. But, I’m totally the opposite of a crunchy mom.
I would not have thought of that! I’ve tried many cleaners and my appliances are still sticky. I’ll give it a go! Thanks!
Well, I’ve heard from a little birdie (cough) that it also works well to get soap scum out of the bathtub.
I LOVE a product called Krud Kutter for the kitchen. Buy it in the paint dept. (not cleaning aisle) at Walmart. I cut it with water 5:1 in a spray bottle and also have a spray bottle of full strength for big messes. Cuts grease like nobody’s business. Your counters just feel smooth to the touch. After i follow with vinegar and my kitchen sparkles!
Great suggestion! I’ll look for that when I’m there next! Thank you : )
I love it that you give suggestions to those of us that don’t bake. I am on the GAPS diet (or at least supposed to be) so grains were tossed a long time ago. A crock pot sits on my counter daily with bone broth simmering. But thank you…I think meal prepping today is a great suggestion!
We to are on the GAPS diet here to support our son (and it’s easier then cooking multiple meals) and I use this day to make bone broth, roast veggies, make muffins, hard boiled eggs, soups, roasted meats to have ready, and lots of other things. I don’t make all of those things each time…just 2-3. But I love it! This day saves my sanity! I change the day up according to how the week schedule is. But it’s a MUST DO DAY! Nice to know someone else is doing this diet that is a Stacey follower.
Hard boiled eggs is such a good one to make in advance! They keep for a good while in the fridge.
It’s a def game changer so it’s so nice to know you are adapting for him. If I’d only known with my children. Along with the mthfr gene, and pyroloria I deal with, this diet could’ve made a difference with a lot of things. So good for you!
Food talk is my love language.
I have found that certain bread recipes naturally seem to keep better. I was using a recipe for whole wheat bread made from freshly ground wheat berries, and it would only last 5 days (in the pantry) before it became a science experiment. If I made a sourdough bread from a starter, it would last for about 9 days (in the pantry).
I use the Bread Beckers basic dough recipe with lecithin and mine keeps a very long time that way. 🙂