Behind every kid who reaches school on time is a mom who is rushing to pack their backpacks, tiffins and getting them ready. But imagine this, you wake up happily without the anxiety of getting late, you have their backpacks ready, you know what your are going to pack in the tiffin and their uniforms are ready too. Sounds like a dream for mothers right? And it gives you bonus five minutes of sleep. When you plan your morning routine with kids, it gets easy to and there is no rushing and chaos in the morning.

The main area I have experienced and seen the morning struggle is in the kitchen. Preparing breakfast and packing tiffins happens to be a energy draining drill if not planned well. After making some little changes in my morning kitchen routine on the days kids have school, I have seen a tremendous relief it gave me. I was not rushing, kids got ready on time and they were well fed throughout the day. Infact, I was ready to get to work once they left for work. Tweaking a few things in the kitchen is what I have been practicing and these are some hacks which have worked well for me. You can customise them according to your liking as well.

1. Prepare a meal plan.

I can not stress enough on how important it is to have a meal plan. You will have all the ingredients for the recipes and you know exactly what to cook when. This reduces the hustle of planning the breakfast and tiffin everyday.

2. Assign a table/area where you keep all things ready for the morning.

Keep kids tiffin boxes, water bottles on that designated place a night before and you won’t have to run in the morning to find the lid of the tiffin box.

3. Follow the half cook a night before method.

Things like boiled potatoes, chopped vegetables, flours taken out in measuring cups, etc helps alot in reducing the cooking time. Keep them ready a night before.

4. Opt for one pot breakfast recipes.

Upma, poha, quinoa, oats, smoothie bowls are good option. Not only its nutritious and keeps kids full, its easier to prepare and saves a lot of time.

5. Invest in kitchen gadgets.

Investing in kitchen gadgets which are efficient cuts off your time in the kitchen. A simple vegetable chopper, a powerful mixer grinder can save you some precious morning minutes.

6. Be calm while you are at it.

Things done in hurry usually fail. Try to be calm even if you got late and do whats important first. You can pack on the go sandwich for them for breakfast which they can have while reaching to school.

7. Mind the Milk.

I can not count the number of times I have had bad days because of milk spillage. Cleaning the stove after milk spillage snatches the precious time and it leads to wastage as well. I corrected this by pouring milk in a big vessel and using a wooden spatula over the mouth of the vessel. Electric Milk boilers are also useful and boils milk quickly.

The ease these simple changes have bought in my morning hustle is so relaxing. I get to do things with enough time at hand, I don’t feel anxious and I don’t feel drained out at the start of the day. To know how I plan and pack my kids school tiffin boxes and for more such tips and tricks check @teenycookbook.