Even stay-at-home/work-from-home parent can feel the crunch of the back to school and back to everything else schedule. In a way, as a freelancer, the luxury of a flexible schedule allows me to be less efficient which is a bit of a catch 22 when time is of the essence.

Because we still have our fabulous Lindentree farm share through the end of October, Tuesdays take us on a bit of a wild goose chase up to the farm in Lincoln, back home to Cambridge for a quick change and then into Boston for ballet class, then home by 8:45 or 9:00 p.m., about 11 hours after we originally left the house in the morning.

This schedule means that we are basically on the go from pick up to bedtime on Tuesdays. When I plan ahead, I put some rice in the rice cooker midday and I prep some vegetables from the farm as I put our farm haul away.

Isabelle does her homework in the hammock at the farm while I collect our share and head out into the field to harvest whatever is “pick-your-own” that week. Then, we head home to put it all away, make dinner to-go, change, put up hair into a bun, and head into Boston.

Some weeks, traffic is a little slow, or homework needs a little extra help, and dinner to-go just can’t happen.

The bun is done but the thermos is empty. This week, Applegate sent us some HALF-TIME packs to sample and Isabelle asked to try one for her dinner. So, we swapped out the thermos for an Applegate HALF-TIME pack. I made a quick salad for myself and to supplement the boxed lunch and Isabelle chose the Turkey HALF-TIME pack.

It was such a treat to just grab it and go and not worry about trying to get to South End Buttery before they closed (they close before ballet gets out) thus losing some of my work time which I treasure while Isabelle is in class.  The other option has been to grab dinner after but with a class ending that late every minute we wait for take-out or a restaurant dinner is extra money out of our wallets and extra time on the clock pushing bedtime later and later.  On Tuesdays, time is definitely of the essence.

Isabelle enjoyed her dinner.  She is not a huge American cheese fan, but she ate some of the cheese (sub in cheddar Applegate and she’ll be happy camper), she enjoyed the turkey and crackers and yoghurt, and a few gummy bears for a treat were perfect.  It was easy to prep a few vegetables to round out the meal and I felt like she had a pretty balanced quick supper.

Enter to win your own Applegate HALF-TIME kit here.