As I explained last week, doing dishes seems to be something that piles up a lot for me during the week, when I am caught in the whirlwind of work and activities and so on. Another “simple” task that tends to get tricky for me is making dinner. Unfortunately, it also has to happen EVERY…DAY. Who knew we had to EAT EVERYDAY? Ugh.
It’s hard when you want to make fun, healthy, gourmet, complicated meals. Constantly making boxed mac and cheese isn’t very healthy, and purchasing healthy frozen food gets expensive, very expensive. One big helpful hint I have is to simply make a list of dinner ideas during the weekend so you can plan out the meals, especially for busy days. For example, on Mondays I have 45 mins between jobs, and I’m gone from home 8am until 9pm, so I’ve got to eat dinner in those 45 mins. I can’t waste the precious time deciding what I want to make, looking up recipes, checking if I’ve got ingredients, etc. And being a busy day, I especially need good nutrition. Planning out the meal ahead of time makes it so much easier!
Another tip is to make double to save for later. There are many good recipes that can be frozen, and reheat very well, like chili or sweet potato veggie burgers (more on those later). It takes the same amount of time to prep and cook double, and it’s a huge time saver to microwave your own homemade, delicious and healthy food on your busy days.
A third tip is to plan to make simple dinners. You’d be surprised how fast it is to sauté some veggies and combine them with pre-cooked rice and beans. Or chop up some fruit with nuts and dried craisins for a salad. Even super nutritious sandwiches like avocado, tomato, alfalfa sprouts and hummus are quick to make.
Finally, staples are good. Once you have experimented with recipes, you’ll know which are your favorites and be able to make them much quicker because you’ll know how the process goes. I always find new recipes are harder because I have to figure out if it’s cooked all the way? If it’s supposed to look like this? Find those dinner staples, and plan to cook them certain weeknights.
As a recap:
– plan out meals
– make extra for next time, freeze it
– make simple meals like salad, sandwiches, lightly steamed veggies, etc.
– in a strap, stick to staples
– plan, plan, plan! planning is your friend
I recently did a freezer meal thingy, and it’s been great to know I have a bunch of meals in the freezer that are already 75% made other than needing a few fresh ingredients I didn’t freeze with. I HATE deciding what to make every night, esp as a mostly vegetarian in an otherwise meat eating family You got some good veggie recipes??
I hate deciding it too, I try to have all that done before I even grocery shop so the whole week is set. I do have some good veggie recipes that also adapt well to adding meat, will share some next week actually 😉
also have at least 3 colors of food, buy enough fruit to have three different kinds in a day, and it’s ok to just wing it sometimes