Seven Ways to Save Time Cooking Dinner

Do you have trouble getting dinner finished on time? Maybe you just thought it was all just too much trouble, so stop by fast food restaurant and pick up dinner on the way home. Fixing a quick and nutritious meal does not have to be a chore. Here are seven ways to make meal planning easier:

1 Make your meal planning in advance. Choose a simple, quick-to-fix meals for the days you know you will be in a hurry. Plan a week's worth of meals and shop for all groceries for those meals on weekends. After the ingredients on hand, along with a plan to use them, will help eliminate the temptation of picking up a pizza on the way home from work. Your meal plan should not contain anything more than a meat (fish or poultry), vegetables, salad and dessert.

2 Get help from his family. Choose one night a week for each family member, and make it his or her responsibility to plan and cook dinner that day. Even children as young as 10 years can help in meal planning and preparation. If one member of the family cook, the other should be assigned cleaning chores when dinner is ready.

3 Cook extra for future use. When you have extra time to cook enough food for more than one meal. For example, grill extra chicken on the weekend and use the rest for chicken pot pie or pasta during the week. If you make lasagna, instead of one, make two. Put one of them in the freezer for unexpected company.

4 Have dinner swap neighborhood. One night each week, the neighborhood family cooks enough to feed another family in the neighborhood. The next morning, each neighbor involved in a swap gives the other neighbors of their remains. The rest are great, if they're not your remains!

5 Use your pot of stew. Get up 10 minutes early in the morning and put the roast beef, onions, potatoes and carrots in a crock pot. Add some herbs and spices, put on the lid, and cook on low for eight to ten hours. Dinner will be ready when you arrive home from work.

6 Keep nutritious frozen meals in your freezer. On those nights when you get home from work late to cook, let family members choose frozen dinners as they are the best. Many of frozen foods available these days are nutritious and delicious.

7 Keep your pantry stocked. Make sure you keep your pantry filled with staples you use every day. Also enough to produce in the refrigerator that you can use for a quick meal. It is easier to figure out what to cook if you have the ingredients on hand for various options.

Planning ahead makes it easier to fix those evening meals when you are rushed and not feel like planning a dinner night. If you keep a laptop computer with a dinner you have planned, you can use those dinner plans again and again. Note the dinner that your family seems like the best.