Sunday meals feel like they should be large and filling, yet easy to prepare and clean up afterward. Here are my tips and two recipes to make your Sunday meal easy!

Have you ever taken a few moments to realize the time-savers that we enjoy in our homes today? Slow cookers, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, microwaves, etc. All of these time-saving appliances take up residence in most homes today. We take for granted the items that we have available at every local Walmart.

Many thanks to Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser for sponsoring this post to quickly prepare and clean up the perfect Sunday meal. As always, all opinions are mine alone. #ScrubCloth #CollectiveBias

But, what about yesteryear? I love to listen to my Mom talk about her Mom’s cleaning schedule. It didn’t vary much at all. Gram knew what she was doing each day of the week. I sometimes yearn for those days. Back in the ’50s when life seemed so much more simple . . .

Monday was wash day
Tuesday was ironing day
Wednesday was her day of rest unless something special needed to be done
Thursday was laundry and clean the upstairs
Friday was ironing
Saturday was clean the downstairs day

I don’t have a set schedule like this. I wash clothes when the hamper is full. I iron when my hubby is out of work shirts. I clean when there is a need for it. And my home shows it.

.Many times, I have to iron 2 weeks’ worth of shirts because I haven’t taken the time to do this job. Or the floor should have been mopped days ago and still hasn’t happened. 

Add in that I am a homeschooling Mama who also works from home. And life becomes a bit more complicated. In many ways, a set schedule would be easier.

Since I see the tremendous benefits of meal planning, I decided that I need a housework plan as well. I’ve come up with a cleaning schedule that I can fit into my busy life. You can print your own schedule here. It’s blank so that you can customize it to your life.

Monday is laundry day, no matter how full the hamper is. And iron!
Tuesday is clean the refrigerator day, sweep, and mop.
Wednesday is wash the sheets and towels day, hanging them out on the clothesline.
Thursday is clean the bathroom day
Friday is laundry day again.
Saturday is no housework day!

I do wonder what more my Gram could have accomplished with the time-savers we have today. Think about the benefit of having a Crock Pot alone! They were released in 1971, 6 years after my Mom had become a wife and mom herself.

Or, how about the cleaners that we have today? Items like my new favorite scrubbing dish cloths from Scotch-Brite® that help wash away the messes so much easier. I can imagine Gram standing at the sink wishing for a simple product to scrub and yet not scratch the baked-on, caked-on foods off of her dishes.

In light of all of the new kitchen time-savers that we have available today, why am I so focused on a dishcloth? Now that I have found dishcloths that also scrub, I no longer have to scrape the side of my slow cooker with a knife. I can do the entire clean up with one dishcloth. This saves me time and my fingernails!

Sundays are my day to make easy meals. I want to make big family meals that we’ll all enjoy, but I don’t want to spend the entire day in the kitchen. This is where my slow cookers come in.

One of our favorite meals is BBQ Chicken Tenders and Broccoli Cheese Rice. Both of these are cooked in slow cookers. And both of these dishes make a real mess.

BBQ sauce, when heated, seems to become like glue in a slow cooker. These scrubbers make clean up a breeze!

You’ll find these recipes at the end of this post.

Using my slow cookers saves me time in the kitchen so that we can enjoy a bit of rest and downtime as a family.

Here are the simple steps to quickly prepare BBQ Chicken Tenders:

Cut the boneless, skinless chicken breasts into tenders.

Coat the tenders with a mixture of flour and spices.

Brown the tenders in oil (using this cast iron pan from my Gram’s kitchen makes me smile.)

By browning the chicken tenders before placing them in the slow cooker, you’ll end up with whole chicken tenders instead of shredded chicken.

Remove the tenders to a plate.

Add your favorite BBQ sauce to the slow cooker, then add the tenders, cover with more sauce. Cook on low.

To make the Broccoli Cheese Rice:

Cook rice and chopped broccoli until just tender.

Add a block of cream cheese, stir to combine.

Add milk

Add shredded cheese and seasonings.

Pour into the slow cooker. Cook on low.

Do you have a cleaning schedule? I’d love for you to share it with me! And don’t forget to grab your free printable cleaning schedule!