One time in college, I sat through a lunch hour panel on how to balance your life as a working woman/mom.

It ended up being an hour of tips about structuring childcare and meal planning, which — to my pre-kids, pre-career self — seemed like a waste of time. I wanted to know the key. I wanted to know the magic spell that would give me a fulfilling career and a happy home life.

Now that I’m in the panelists’ shoes, I understand. They couldn’t give me a magic spell, because there really isn’t a spell to make balancing a career while raising a family just magically work. It’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard. But those little tips and tricks? They do make it easier.

In that spirit, here’s my best one: when the week ahead looks crazy, put the biggest pork loin that will fit into your slow cooker on Sunday morning, slather it in barbecue sauce, cover it with chicken stock and let it slow cook all day. When it’s falling-apart tender, drain most of the juices, shred the meat and pop the whole thing in the fridge.

Now you’re only 20 or 30 minutes away from several delicious dinners — tacos, rice bowls, spaghetti with ragu sauce and, one of my personal favorites‚ Chinese-style pork buns.

These pork buns are not necessarily authentic, but using bottled barbecue sauce saves time. You will need to make the dough ahead, but at our house my husband usually can fit that in before he goes to work in the morning.

Maybe that’s another, even more magical tip — it’s all hands on deck when it comes to making good family meals.

Chinese-Style Pork Buns

For the dough:

1 tablespoon (1 packet) yeast

1 cup warm water

4 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

For the filling:

2 cups cooked, shredded pork

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

4 tablespoons barbecue sauce

1/3 cup green onions

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Directions

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the yeast and warm water. Let it sit for a few minutes, until the yeast bubbles a bit, then add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix until the dough starts to form a ball. If it’s too dry, add more water a tablespoon at a time.

Continue to mix until the dough is stretchy and smooth, which should take about 5 minutes. Rub the finished dough with olive oil, put it in a large bowl covered with plastic, and leave it to rise for at least a few hours.

When you’re ready to make dinner, use clean hands to mix all of the filling ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut 16 pieces of parchment paper and lightly rub them with oil. (Cupcake papers will work in a pinch.)

Divide the dough into 16 pieces, and stretch each piece out into about a 5-inch circle. Put a tablespoon of filling in the center of each circle and then pull the edges of the circle up around the filling and pinch to form the bun. Place each bun seam-side down on a square of the prepared parchment.

Arrange the buns‚ parchment and all‚ in the bottom of a steamer basket. They will double in size during cooking, so leave plenty of room. Steam them in batches over boiling water for 15 minutes per batch. Serve with extra soy sauce, hot sauce or barbecue sauce.

— Meryl Carver-Allmond lives in Lawrence and writes about chickens, babies, knitting, gardening, food, photography, and whatever else tickles her fancy on any given day at mybitofearth.net.