Same Food, Different Times: Why Making Meals Ahead Isn’t Cheating

I used to believe that being a good mom meant cooking every meal from scratch the moment we were ready to eat it. Fresh pancakes on Saturday morning. Chicken salad made right before lunch. Everything prepared in the moment, served warm from the stove. Then reality hit: four kids, homeschooling, a baby who doesn’t care about my cooking schedule, and the simple truth that some days I barely have energy to think about what we’re eating, let alone prepare it from scratch. That’s when I discovered something revolutionary: making food ahead of time is literally the same as making it the day we eat it. Same ingredients, same love, same…