Believe it single-dads!  The crock pot (or slow-cooker) is your friend.  I have not found an easier way to have an excellent home-cooked meal. 

I don’t need to tell you about how busy our lifestyle is.  We are always rushing.  We wake up get ourselves together then try to get the kids dressed, fed and moving.  We gather up school bags, homework, and lunches then run out the door with kids in tow.  We zip to school and/or daycare and drop the kids off then drive half-crazed to work.  We settle at the office and take our first deep breath of the morning before dealing with the everyday stresses of employment.

Later, as the clock nears quitting-time and our stomach growl with all the vigor of the cro-magnon man, we start to think about dinner.  We rush to get the kids from daycare, school, or a friend’s house fighting mind-bending traffic the whole way.  Our stomachs now growling with the intensity of a rabid pit bull.  What do you do?!  McDonald’s again?  KFC?  Mac & Cheese?!!  Dear God no!!  Pull yourself together!!


Remember how you planned ahead last night?  You packed the kids lunches, laid out their clothes, and gathered their school things.  Good man.  Now, add just one more simple step that really shouldn’t take you more than 10 or 15 minutes (I do this after the girls go to sleep).  Get out that slow-cooker and prepare you meal for tomorrow night (I actually picked up a new, stainless-steel one at the local Target store for $15 and it works great).

Grab the necessary items that will make up your culinary masterpiece; there are slow-cooker recipes all over the internet.  Dump the required savory bits into the crock pot, cover and place in the fridge for the next morning.

The next morning, somewhere between yelling at the kids to get their shoes on and feeding the cats, take that crock pot out of the fridge and saddle-it-up in the heating container (I should note that I almost always use the “LOW” setting and let me dinners cook for close to 12 hours before eating).  Now, continue on with the rest of your insane morning schedule.  But know this, master-of-the-morning-rush:  Tonight, the aroma of a fine, home-cooked meal will greet you and the kids at the door (and chances are good that it will cost less and take less time then a call for a delivered pizza).