Soccer practice. Music lessons. Work. School. Appointments. All of these take up so much time that it can be difficult to find the time to eat healthy meals together as a family. When it takes an hour or more to prepare dinner, it seems much easier to get your family’s food on the go. But drive-through eating is not conducive to “family time” and it can wreak havoc on your health. The good news is that there are ways of providing your family with a healthy sit-down dinner without spending a lot of time on preparation. All it takes is some strategic thinking.
The Weekend Food Warrior
Dedicate a few hours one weekend a month to cooking up large quantities of food. It is not much more work to make twice as much as you would usually make. If all you do is cook up two chicken dinners and two beef dinners, you will have four ready-made dinners to serve when you are in a time crunch. Each meal can be frozen. When you are ready to eat, just microwave a casserole or put it in the oven.
You can make each dinner unique by changing the recipe a little. If you cook up enough beef stew for two meals, you can add biscuits to one and bake it in the oven before freezing. Another idea is to cook up large quantities of hamburger at once and freeze it as it is – just crumbled burger. You can thaw it in the microwave while you make the rest of the meal. Chop up vegetables and put them in storage bags for easy meal prep during the week. If you want to go all out, get the entire family together on the project and spend the day making enough dinner food for the entire work week. Before you start, make certain you have enough storage containers and plastic freezer bags.
Other Ideas for Fast Meals
Buy pre-made pizza dough and toss on your favorite toppings. With a jar of pizza sauce, some pepperoni and shredded cheese, it will not take longer than half an hour from start to finish.
Buy up cold cuts, sliced cheese, your favorite sandwich vegetables and submarine rolls. Put out the ingredients along with condiments and let your family make their own subs.
Throw all the ingredients for beef stew into your crock pot in the morning, set it to “low” and turn on the timer for a delicious pre-made meal that will be ready when you walk in the door in the evening. There is nothing faster than “done”.