Making sure a delicious and nutritious meal for dinner every evening can feel like an impossible task. However, with these five tips, it will feel a lot more possible.
Every day it feels like the previous: around 5:30 pm, you look at the clock and realize you have no idea what to make for dinner and no desire or energy to figure it out.
Usually, you end up throwing something together or asking your spouse to pick up some takeout on the way home from work. Frustrated, you wish it wasn’t always this hard to have a good dinner for your family.
Good news is there are actually several easy ways to make sure you’ll not only know exactly what’s for dinner every night. Also, it will be easy to make and tasty to eat as well.
Here are five ways to make cooking dinner ten times easier, allowing you to have one less thing to worry about on your everyday to-do list.
1. Make Big Batches
Making large batches of certain foods one night a week is a great way to make cooking a lot easier. Sometimes it can even take care of your packed lunch as well.
A good idea is to make a big batch of meat and veggies. Especially, since they’re easy to cook in one big batch and still stay tasty for about a week.
Cook four or five chicken breasts along with a separate large pan of different types of vegetables. You can even split the batch to use more than one sauce or set of spices so you can have a little variety day to day.
2. Find Tasty and Healthy Pre-packaged Foods
Sometimes you have to let other people do the hard part when it comes to putting together dinner.
There are many pre-packaged, healthy and easy dinner options that you can just throw in the oven or microwave. Klondike Brands have bags of assorted mini potatoes that would make a tasty and easy side for dinner.
Just add chicken and veggies and voila! You have a great dinner that didn’t make you want to fall over with exhaustion.
There are many other options like this found in your grocery store. If you head over to your meat aisle, some meals will come with the meat, veggies and side together!
3. Make a Menu
Although it takes a little extra effort, making a weekly menu of your favorite meals will remove most of the guesswork and time spent figuring out what to make each night after work.
Take time on a Saturday or Sunday to sit down and plan each meal for each day. You can even plan out the specific items you’ll need each day.
Almost like mini meal prep, before you step foot in the grocery store.
4. Rotate Cooks
Sometimes all you need to keep the pressure off when it comes to preparing dinner every night is to take a break and let someone else cook.
If you have a significant other, spouse, or kids that are old enough to cook, take turns deciding on the menu and who will cook it for each night of the week.
Not only will it improve everyone’s cooking skills, it will give you a much-needed break from kitchen duty.
5. Make the Crock-pot your Best Friend
Crock-pots are one of the best secrets to making an easy but oh-so-good dinner. All you have to do with most recipes involving a slow cooker is just throw all the ingredients in, set the temperature and dinner is ready in a matter of hours!
Nothing will be more satisfying than coming home from school or work and smelling the delicious dinner that took almost no effort to concoct.
When I first became I stepdad I wasn’t very adept in the kitchen – it took me an hour to cook Minute Rice! Cooking is just one of the five skills every dad should learn.
