Easy Meal Tips
Meal planning and preparation advice is something I get asked often. It’s because we all have to eat! And if you’re a wife or mom, you likely have people who ask you on a regular basis, “What’s for dinner?”
I’ve talked about this before. Meal planning used to be something I really struggled with. I now have it as a regular part of my Weekend Routine and it gets easier each time I do it.
I really do enjoy a delicious meal and I love serving nutritious meals to my family. But I do not love spending hours in the kitchen. If you saw a photo of a meal I prepared posted on Instagram, you can be assured that it is a simple and easy meal to prepare. A few times a year I might want to try something new and take a bit longer in the kitchen. But I fall in the “under 30 minute” category just about every evening.
At the bottom of this post I’ll add a few recipes that we love.
Here are 5 tips for Easy Meals.
Grill. Grilled meats are delicious and easy to prepare. HERE is a grill that is inexpensive and easy to use. There are tons of videos on YouTube on how to quickly become a master at the grill. The biggest tip I have on creating a delicious meal with a grilled meat is to marinate the meat overnight. We love pork chops. Pork chops in the oven can be dry and chewy, but a pork chop that has been marinating overnight and then grilled is tender and juicy. Add a salad and a veggie and you have the perfect meal in less than 30 minutes!
Crock Pot. Find easy recipes that your family enjoys that involve a slow cooker and make them permanent staples on your meal rotation. Taking 10 minutes in the morning and having dinner waiting on me when I get home is my favorite! Chili, red beans and rice, and beef roast are probably our favorite crockpot meals.
Rotisserie Chicken. We purchase our rotisserie chicken at Costco for only $5, but just about every store has it and has it on sale one day a week. Go ahead and grab a few next time you see if on a great sale!
I take this home and pull the meat off the bone. One large chicken will give us 2 meals. Determine what works for your family and divide it into bags or containers for the freezer. I always have rotisserie chicken in my freezer and I can create a multitude of meals with this main ingredient.
A few of our favorites are: (some of these have links to the recipe)Chicken and rice
Chicken Orzo (I use rotisserie chicken to make it faster)
Any pasta, any sauce, any veggie, add chicken
Chicken nachos
Chicken tacos
Chicken and veggie soup
Salad with chicken
Keep convenient meals in your fridge/freezer. Sometimes life doesn’t go as planned. It’s raining when you wanted to grill. Your meeting went over and you have less time to prepare dinner. By keeping things that are quick to prepare in my freezer, it keeps us from grabbing the phone and calling our favorite local pizza place. Trader Joes and Costco have some of our favorites. These can be healthy options, but we usually have a frozen pizza on hand as well.
Have a leftover/potluck night! Recently we had a crazy day and dinner plans had fallen through. We had leftovers in the fridge - cheese quesadillas from lunch out the previous day and roast from dinner that Sunday. I heated up the roast and some quick rice for my husband. I added some roast to the cheese quesadillas for myself and my son and cooked a quick box of mac and cheese for my little girl. It was a potluck night for sure! But the only food I actually had to cook was the box of Annie’s Mac-n-cheese. It kept us from wasting food and from ordering a pizza.
Many times we shy away from leftovers for dinner because there aren’t enough left for an entire meal. Make it a potluck night and have everyone choose what they want. You will save time and money!
Dinner planning and prep doesn’t have to be stressful. Eating at home is typically so much healthier and affordable than eating out. Add meal planning to your Weekend Routine and challenge yourself to eat at home this entire week! I know you can do it!