Making Dinner Easy - Prep Now, Save Time later

If you are anything like me, you love to cook, but by the time dinner rolls around, you are tuckered out and not in the mood for the prep, cooking, and dishes to wash. I cook most of my meals from scratch, and have a few tips on how to make the task more manageable. First, I do a weekly meal plan. This way, I only have to think about what I am making once a week, and I never buy more than I need at the grocery store. This was born out of necessity after one too many $200.00 trips to the grocery store, only to find I had nothing to eat.
Also, I prep in advance. I have to do my dishes by hand, and this can become a monumental task if I do them all at once. I am the type of person who eats, and is done for the day - as much as I try to force myself to do the dishes promptly after dinner so I can wake up to a clean kitchen, it never happens. Instead, I generally wake up and stumble to get my coffee, shoving dishes out of the way in a kitchen so messy and full of pots and pans that it looks like the contestants of Top Chef just completed a quickfire challenge in there.
So my solution has become prepping/cooking in the morning or during nap time, so everything is ready to go for dinner with minimal clean-up. I am far more motivated to wash the dishes I use during the day than I am at 7:00 at night, and it helps me to get dinner on the table in a more timely manner, rather than underestimating the prep time of a meal and having it take 2 hours.
You can cut your veggies far in advance, stored in plastic bags or containers for meals you are making that week, wash your produce when you get it home from the store, check your meal plan so you can pull your meats from the freezer to thaw, etc.
For instance, today I am making chicken alfredo for dinner. So this morning I roasted and cut up the chicken. Now at dinner, I only have to throw pasta in a pot and make the sauce. If I am making tacos, I roast or poach the chicken, then shred it and toss it in the fridge. That way, at dinnertime I only have to re-heat it in a pan with the taco seasoning and serve.
For me, it is much easier to find the motivation to do the prep work of cooking at 11am than it is at 5pm, and it makes the dishwashing fly by.
Here's a tip on food safety: If you forget to thaw your meat the night before, and do it in the microwave, it must be cooked immediately to prevent food borne illness. Please do not thaw meats in the microwave and then put them in the refrigerator while they are still raw.

If you are anything like me, you love to cook, but by the time dinner rolls around, you are tuckered out and not in the mood for the prep, cooking, and dishes to wash. I cook most of my meals from scratch, and have a few tips on how to make the task more manageable. First, I do a weekly meal plan. This way, I only have to think about what I am making once a week, and I never buy more than I need at the grocery store. This was born out of necessity after one too many $200.00 trips to the grocery store, only to find I had nothing to eat.
Also, I prep in advance. I have to do my dishes by hand, and this can become a monumental task if I do them all at once. I am the type of person who eats, and is done for the day - as much as I try to force myself to do the dishes promptly after dinner so I can wake up to a clean kitchen, it never happens. Instead, I generally wake up and stumble to get my coffee, shoving dishes out of the way in a kitchen so messy and full of pots and pans that it looks like the contestants of Top Chef just completed a quickfire challenge in there.
So my solution has become prepping/cooking in the morning or during nap time, so everything is ready to go for dinner with minimal clean-up. I am far more motivated to wash the dishes I use during the day than I am at 7:00 at night, and it helps me to get dinner on the table in a more timely manner, rather than underestimating the prep time of a meal and having it take 2 hours.
You can cut your veggies far in advance, stored in plastic bags or containers for meals you are making that week, wash your produce when you get it home from the store, check your meal plan so you can pull your meats from the freezer to thaw, etc.
For instance, today I am making chicken alfredo for dinner. So this morning I roasted and cut up the chicken. Now at dinner, I only have to throw pasta in a pot and make the sauce. If I am making tacos, I roast or poach the chicken, then shred it and toss it in the fridge. That way, at dinnertime I only have to re-heat it in a pan with the taco seasoning and serve.
For me, it is much easier to find the motivation to do the prep work of cooking at 11am than it is at 5pm, and it makes the dishwashing fly by.
Here's a tip on food safety: If you forget to thaw your meat the night before, and do it in the microwave, it must be cooked immediately to prevent food borne illness. Please do not thaw meats in the microwave and then put them in the refrigerator while they are still raw.