<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n10 minute dinners are my new mantra. In 2020, it felt like we had nothing to do but cook. In 2021, the world picked back up again, pandemic included, and going into 2022, it feels like we have to do everything from before, both during the pandemic and in the normal world before it happened. In teaching, for instance, we’re 100% back to face-to-face instruction, but still required to offer a complete course for students who get stuck in quarantine. So, hybrid school again, only no one’s calling it that. And because they’re not calling it that, they found they could take away the extended prep time we had to pull together the online side of things. So normal expectations + pandemic expectations, but no more understanding or accommodations to help us meet them. And I’m sure it’s not just teaching. Health care workers are probably laughing at my stress levels. In fact, it seems that everyone I talk to is more stressed than even at the height of the lockdowns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But you didn’t come here for the gloom and doom. All of this was just to say that I’m balancing so much that meals are way down the list. I love cooking and baking, but finding the time or the energy to do anything more than the minimum is a struggle lately. Which is why I’ve pivoted to extremely simple foods I can put on the table in about 10 minutes. I already have a few of these at the ready (microwave baked potatoes<\/a>, pita pizzas<\/a>, tomato and feta pitas<\/a>, and taco salad<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n