Save Time and Eat Well
by Sally ~ May 26th, 2009. Filed under: time savers.Keeping up with your busy life whether it’s going to work or working at home, taking kids to all the places they need to be, running errands and everything else can leave you less than creative when it comes time for lunch or dinner.
Cooking Light magazine has a wonderful resource on their site called the 20/20 series. Every two weeks they give you 20 recipes that take 20 minutes or less. Eating well is so important to our health, energy, and creativity, it pays to find ways to fit that into your schedule.
One thing I have been doing that helps a lot is to make a menu plan each week, depending on what’s on the calendar. Our schedules actually get more difficult in the summer to plan dinners because we all play tennis and have games and practices on different nights.
Another time saver is to try and plan meals where you can use the ingredients in a different way for another meal or making extra to freeze for another week. So you may chop vegetables for a stir fry one night and chop extra that go in a salad for another night.
I am also a big fan of making enough of a meal to have it early in the week, and repeat later in the week. Some people hate leftovers, but I don’t mind and it saves a lot of time.
I enjoy cooking but most nights I don’t want to spend a lot of time preparing dinner! So, I’m often on the lookout for shortcuts. What are some of your favorite short cuts without resorting to fast food take out?
October 8th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I like to make a big pot of chili on Sunday, then eat it in different ways throughout the week to keep it interesting. The day I make it, I just bake a nice loaf of bread to go with it. The next day I eat it, I will spread it over chips, top it with cheese, and bake it a bit to make it chili cheese nachos. If I still have some left, I will pop some corn muffins in the oven and eat it over those another night. The corn muffins are just from one of those mixes, and the bread is the refrigerated type. The chili is the most time-consuming, so I do that on the weekend when I don’t mind cooking. And this time of year, who doesn’t want the house to smell like a big pot of warm chili?
October 8th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Kelly – great ideas! I agree with you on making something once and leveraging your time while eating something wonderful. I just made chili this week because it’s been cold so I may try one of your variations. Thanks!