8 Tips for Making Dinnertime Easier

 

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1. Plan…but just enough

We all know that taking time to plan your meals really cuts down on that “oh my gosh it’s 5:00 PM and I have no idea what to make for dinner tonight!” stress. So why don’t more of us do it? I think we tend to get too detailed. We think we have to plan out every single recipe and side dish for the week, at which point meal planning becomes more stressful than that “oh my gosh it’s 5:00 PM” feeling. 

Keeping it simple it the trick to meal planning that really works.  For example, you might try and plan for several dinner “categories” (like a pasta night, a chicken night, a fish night) and then at the same time aim to have several side dishes on-hand that can mix-and-match with your various entrees.

This post over on Simple Mom has lots more great easy meal planning ideas.

2. Make a recipe binder

Having a set of simple, go-to recipes organized and in one place makes it easy to walk into your kitchen and whip something together. Conversely, flipping through cook books after a long day of work, trying to figure out if you think you have the right pans/ exotic ingredients/skills to make certain recipes can be incredibly frustrating.

So take a Sunday afternoon to print our or photocopy all your favorite easy recipes. Then, fill them into a binder, using divider tabs to organize them into different entrée and side dish categories. Make notes about what side dishes and vegetables go well with what entrees.

3. Balance your workload

If cooking an entire meal seems like too much some nights, then try making an entrée from scratch but then serving it with a store-bought refrigerated side dish, like Reser’s Sensational Sides Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Macaroni & Cheese, and more.

4. Mise en Plase

Getting everything before you start cooking makes the process go so much more smoothly—there’s nothing more frustrating than needing to flip something that’s just about to burn only to realize you don’t have a spatula handy.

Before you start, gather together all the ingredients, pans, and utensils you’ll need so you don’t have to stop to look for anything. Chefs call this mise en place, or “everything in place.

5: Check off ingredients as you add them

Tick off each ingredient as you add it to ensure you don’t leave anything out, which is a surprisingly easy thing to do. (Especially if you’re also trying to help your kids with their homework and talk to your partner while you make dinner!)

If you don’t want to mark up your recipe, just use a slip of scrap paper to cover the ingredients as you move down the list.

6. Let someone else do the prep work

Make use of the wide variety of fresh, pre-chopped vegetables, ready-cut fruit salads, and bagged lettuces that are available in most grocery stores.

I used to think that it was silly to buy pre-chopped veggies and fruit—but guys, am I ever a convert. Not only does it save time, but it helps me add more fruits and veggies to my diet; when I’m tired and I don’t feel like prepping produce I have a bad habit of skipping it altogether.

7. Organize your kitchen

If you dread cooking because you feel like you never have what you need, then it’s time to clean out your kitchen. Get rid of clutter and all the pots, pans, and utensils you hardly every use. Same goes for old spices and expired pantry goods.

Then, take an evening to get everything organized so it’s convenient; for example, make sure that cooking oils are in a cabinet by the stove, and so on.

Make sure to give your fridge the same treatment. If yours is a bare-bones model like mine, you might buy a couple small plastic trays to keep fruits and condiment jars from disappearing (and expiring) at the back.

8. Invest in a few good tools

While you want to ditch all the kitchen gadgets you never use, you want to invest in a few good tools that will make cooking easier, like a food chopper or processor, a sturdy cutting board, and at least one decent sharp knife.

How about you?

What do you do to cut down on mealtime stress? Please share your tips with us in the comments!

Posted by Lacey