How many times will you cook this weekend?

I feel like I spend a lot of time in the kitchen on the weekends. This is probably because I cook several more meals on weekends than during weekdays: While I regularly make my and my son's lunches in the mornings, breakfast is provided at his school.

I also know that I spend extra time in the kitchen preparing food: Chopping vegetables for salads and prepping mixes for easy additions later on in the week helps me keep my sanity when I come home from work later than I wanted to and still need to get dinner on the table.

Since I like being in the kitchen, I am not upset over this weekend trend. I would probably have a different mindset if I was cooking up to four meals a day.

That's...that's just not cool.

While this is just a survey of British mothers, I think the fundamental issue holds true: The big drivers of extra meals seem to be scheduling conflicts with children's activities and fussy eaters.

While I understand that soccer practices are never scheduled at a convenient time for parents, the fussy eater issue is one that can be helped with enough meal planning. But then the question becomes: Who has time for meal planning?

Well, I do. I took a look at all the time that I spent trying to figure out what to eat and multiple trips to the grocery store and did the math: Planning was just worth it to me in the end. As a bonus: I never get asked what's for dinner.

How many meals a day are you preparing for your family? Tell me in the comments.