There comes a time in a mother’s life where she is having a particularly hard week and there is no grocery trip in sight. I have been there myself too many times. However, if you are prepared for it by having your pantry fully stocked, making meals will seem a lot less daunting. I consider [...]
Oct 202010
- Wouldn’t it be nice if you had food prepared before you got home from work or if you simply had a few steps completed in the dinner-making process? Well, this can easily be done with some planning on your part. Here are a few of my own ideas and how I have saved time in the kitchen.
- Always make plenty of leftovers and use them. Do not allow these to sit in your refrigerator untouched wasting both food and your precious time. Send them as lunches for your husband, reheat them for quick dinners, or use side dishes again pairing them with a new main course. You can also modify the leftovers. For example, if you have leftover mashed potatoes, you could add sour cream to them and top them with chives, roast garlic and add it to the potatoes, or make meatloaf but use the mashed potatoes for the center of the loaf. As you can see, with a little creativity you can make your side dishes something brand new with very little effort.
- Be adventurous in the kitchen, but be realistic. Trying new recipes is great, but realize your limitations as a cook and as a mother with a limited amount of time. Many times I have attempted dishes in gourmet cooking magazines that have turned disastrous and have caused me a lot of tears. Try new things, just try them on weekends where you have more time and try to avoid trying them when you have guests coming over. Nothing is more embarrassing then serving a dish that is inedible or having no dish at all to share with your guests. Try to learn from my experiences- everyone has limitations and you know what yours are.
- Cut your vegetables and fruits before you start on cutting meat, poultry, or fish. This will save you time because you will not need to wash the cutting board before cutting the meat.
- Make sure your pantry is always stocked. Nothing kills the cooking moment like not having the ingredients on hand that you need. Much of this can be prevented if you do your menu-planning and grocery shopping well.
- Wash your dishes as you prepare them will save you on clean-up time at the end. Make sure that your dishwasher is empty and ready for dirty dishes and fill as you go. By doing this, you can really relax at the end of your dinner.
- Use an egg slicer for slicing mushrooms- it saves a lot of time.
- Use an empty salt shaker for dusting powdered sugar on baked goods. It will dust more quickly without the clumps. You can also keep flour in a salt shaker to dust pans quickly- just store this right in the freezer.
- Prepare “special” meals for the family on the weekends when your spouse can help you with the children. This is the perfect time to try those gourmet recipes you have been dying to try, but just haven’t had the time.
- Enlist your helpers. I know that this can be messy, but let the kids participate in preparing the meal along with your spouse. By allowing the children to aid in the dinner-making process they will probably eat more of it and have a lot of pride in themselves because they helped you prepare it. This might not save on time, but it just might help get you that Mom of the Year Award you have been dying for.
- Boil your pasta and steam your vegetables at the same time. If you buy a splatter guard for your skillet, you can simply rest this on top of your boiling pot of pasta and throw your vegetables on top. Tada! Perfectly steamed vegetables and pasta using one pot.
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Picky EatersIt is hard enough to menu plan for your family with family members who will eat just about anything, but try to plan a menu around a picky eater. Trust me, it isn’t fun! Not only am I blessed with a son who is extremely picky about his food, but I was doubly blessed because [...] |
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Picky Eater Dinner IdeasIf you are the mommy of a picky eater, menu planning can be extremely tough and discouraging. I would like to offer to you, however, a few dinner ideas that you can prepare for your family that can take some of the monotony out of your menu and satisfy even the pickiest of eaters. Chicken [...] |
One Month of Slow CookingI have always been a big fan of using my slow cooker. I became a bigger fan, however, after the birth of my second child. I no longer had the luxury of spending lots of time prepping ingredients or flipping through the cookbooks to come up with our dinner. I honestly had no idea how [...] |
Mixes & Convenience FoodsHave you ever run out of an essential ingredient to your cooking? I know that I have done this many times. It can be particularly frustrating when you happen to be in the middle of making a dish and can’t proceed until you hit the supermarket. Wouldn’t it be great to have a few recipes [...] |