15 Ways to Make Dinner Easier
For most moms, dinner can be a problem. It`s something that just sneaks up on you when you`re busy trying to work and keep the kids happy. Dinner issues are certainly not unique to work at home moms, but when you add a home business to the mix, it really gets hairy and I speak from experience when I say having hungry kids on your hands is NOT the ideal way to plan a meal.
Over time, I`ve been experimenting and researching ways to make things work better for my family in this department. We certainly have our nights when mac and cheese comes to the rescue, but for the most part, we`re managing to get quite a few proper sit down dinners. Here are some tricks that I`ve found to help dinner become a less stressful event:
1. Set a time and stick to it. You know how hard it is when you`re feeding the toddler and baby at 5:30, the teenager at 6 and the husband at 7:30? Well, put a stop to it. Growing up, we had a set dinner time, 5 pm, no matter what. If you didn`t eat at that time then you had to figure something out or eat leftovers. It really makes it a lot easier to set a specific time, too because you`ll know exactly when you need to start getting things ready.
2. Get everyone involved. Even small children can help set the table and having them do this will keep them busy in those minutes before everything is quite done and everyone is getting whiny. Older kids can slice bread, mix up some orange juice or stir something on the stove.
3. Set a timer. If you constantly find yourself looking up ten minutes before dinner and freaking out, trying to figure out what you can possibly throw together in 10 minutes . . . set a timer and make sure you have enough time to get it done.
4. Outsource. Kids that are 8 and up should be capable of putting together a meal, no matter how simple. Have your kids take one meal a month, one that they are responsible for planning and shopping for. It`s not much, but you`ll have a night or two less to worry about!
5. Prepare everything. Shopping day is usually a bit of a loss anyway, right? You usually end up doing other things and don`t get much work done. So turn it into something productive by preparing some of the food. A few examples:
- Put chicken or ribs in marinade
- Chop onions, tomatoes, etc. and store in Ziploc bags or sealed containers
- Wash veggies and fruit before storing
- Tear lettuce up for salads, store in bags.
- Pre-cut stirfry veggies
- Grate cheese
6. Set up first. By getting out all the food you need, as well as pots and pans, you`ll be able to move faster. Sounds chaotic, but it really does work! And if you have all the food cut up first, you won`t ever burn the onions because you were slicing beef!
7. Dress it up. There`s just something about having everything look nice that makes dinner a more pleasant event and therefore, easier. Take the time to put a tablecloth on the table, or some nice placemats. Add a vase of flowers. Arrange the food nicely on the plates and add a a sprig of parsley for decor. Everyone will look forward to the meal and it takes seconds to do.
8. Freeze it. One of my all-time favorite freezer meals is burritos. I cook up a couple pounds of ground beef and onions, grate a ton of cheese, chop a pile of tomatoes and make them assembly-line style, wrap in foil and put in a bag to toss in the freezer. When something happens to mess up plans for the evening, I`ve got something quick and easy to thaw in the oven. You can do this by doubling recipes and freezing half or just spend some time making several meals worth of food at one go.
9. Keep it simple. There`s no need to serve a huge, five dish dinner to your family. Stick to super simple things, a one dish casserole, pasta and a side dish, etc.
10. Collect recipes. If you`re tired of making the same old thing all the time, it really helps to have some recipes that are tried and true. To tell you the truth, I rarely make recipes from cookbooks because they often don`t turn out, but finding things that other moms recommend usually works very well. You can find some great, easy recipes and cooking tips over at Gourmet Mama, to get you started.
11. Keep it clean. Maybe most people don`t have this problem, but for me, I often end up leaving certain pots to soak in the sink because they have stuckon food. And then, when dinner time rolls around, I have nothing to cook in . . . so I opt for something like takeout. Making sure your dishes are done will make it easier to make dinner!
12. Use tinfoil. No, it`s not very environmentally friendly, but tinfoil can be your best friend. Line your casserole dish with it and you won`t be scrubbing cooked-on cheese later. Just pull out the tinfoil and rinse the dish. Oh, and if you want to reuse the tinfoil, just crunch it all up into a ball, food side in and use to scrub dirty pans, sinks, etc. It works just like steel wool.
13. Keep staples on hand. If you always have the ingredients for a handful of favorite dishes, then you`ll be ready to toss something together at the last minute and on those occasions when your husband you forget to pick up the eggs in time for dinner, you can still eat something decent.
14. Keep veggies around. How often have you opted for pasta and a canned sauce because you just didn`t have anything fresh around? Even frozen veggies are better than none at all, so keep some in the freezer so you can add them to a soup or toss them in a stirfry.
15. Get a crock pot. This is on my wish list. Those things are awesome! You can literally set everything up in the morning before you get distracted by dirty diapers and clients and it will be ready and piping hot by dinner time. Also great if you have to be out of the house all afternoon.
What are your fabulous tips for making dinner an easier affair?
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I LOVE my slow cooker! It’s one of the essentials in my kitchen!
What sort of meals can your 8 year olds put together, just out of curiosity?
My kids aren’t 8 yet, but my 3 year old can scramble eggs already (with supervision, of course). 8 year olds can easily make pasta, lasagna, pizza or boil vegetables, I know I was quite capable of cooking a simple meal at that age. It’s all a matter of what you teach your children and cooking is a skill that they will put to good use in years to come.
Great ideas. Time to dust off the crockpot!