Busy Teacher Survival: What's for Dinner?

I don't know about other teachers but this one spends a lot of time running from one thing to the next and then gets home and has dinner to look forward to.  I have to say, I don't mind cooking normally.  However, on one of those days where one kiddo was an emotional mess all day, another one is trying to help you earn that crown in heaven and the meeting after school lasted another 30 minutes than expected, well, it's not my favorite thing to do.  You know you have all had one of those days.  So what to do?  As a teacher, take out every night is not only not healthy, it's not feasible financially.  I have a few things that I have done to help me out.  I plan ahead.  Way ahead.  I make a menu for a month at a time.  This helps in that my family is able to lay out anything that may need to be defrosted and it is ready to go when I get home.  There's not spending an hour in front of the open fridge wondering "What in the world do I cook tonight?"  It also helps me with grocery shopping.  I know what I need when I go to the store every two weeks.  The other thing is also forward planning,  I create freezer meals for my family.  Everything needed in the bag in the freezer.  It gets defrosted and popped into the oven or the crockpot.  We use a foodsaver to seal the meals up but you can put them in ziplocks.  It works either way.  My family loves these.  I have a board on my pinterest account just for freezer meals.  We have many favorites that have been easily converted to freezer meals.  It has been a blessing.  We have only been using these about a month now, but I love it.  Tonight we had mini meatloaves.  It was our normal meatloaf mix but put into aluminum cupcake tins.  It makes just enough for a meal and it cooks much faster than the bigger meatloaf.  It was great!  Even better, your dishes are easier and you don't get your hands dirty.  Check out my board here on pinterest for some other ideas for freezer meals that we have pinned.  Some we have tried.  Others we can't wait to try.  FYI, my family wasn't real thrilled with the beef tips and rice  recipe.  Could be just us.  Well, on to the  next thing a teacher's work is never done.  Until next time....