Getting Dinner on the Table Fast!
By Sarah Kruse
Shortcuts are hard to come by when you’re committed to a whole-foods based diet, eating for health or on an allergy friendly diet. Take out, fast food and frozen entrees may save you time or money, but the cost to your health isn’t worth it.
Here are some tips for busy people to get a wholesome dinner on the table quick.
Planning and Prep Work
1. Plan the menu for the week. Not only does this help with grocery shopping, but it eliminates the frazzled “what to do for dinner” question at the end of a busy day. Confession: I personally have a hard time adhering to this tip, partly because I shop at the farmer’s market on Sundays and receive my CSA produce on Wednesdays. Still, I usually jot down a rough meal plan once I have my produce, centering the meal around a fresh vegetable. Friday or Saturday night is usually reserved as stir-fry or soup night (explanation to come).
Depending on your personality and confidence in the kitchen, your menu might be detailed, including main and side dishes, or loosely theme-related by cuisine (Mexican, Italian, Thai, Indian, etc). Or perhaps you prefer to designate Monday night as casserole night, Tuesday as soup & salad, Wednesday as beans, Thursday stir-fry, Friday pizza, Saturday tempeh, etc. How you design your menu doesn’t matter. The key is to come up with a framework that inspires and allows you to plug in easy meals for the week.
There’s nothing wrong with reusing your weekly menus either! Be sure to note the meals that were hits with the whole family, meals that took longer than expected, etc. After a few weeks of weekly menu planning, you’ll have a great collection to reference.
2. Prep ahead of time. This step will vary depending on your menu and schedule. I usually try to clean and cut hardier veggies once I get home from the market if time allows. Just peeling a head of garlic at once is a huge time-saver later in the week! Celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, squash, kale, etc., fare well prepped ahead of time. Plus having cleaned and cut veggies ready to go in the fridge is a great go-to snack for kids. Recruit older kids to help with some of these tasks.
Another option is to do a little prep each night. For example, if I’m chopping onion for a soup I’m making on Sunday night, I’ll chop the second onion at the same time that will be used in a recipe later in the week. Also, I save a handful of each vegetable used throughout the week to use later. By Friday or Saturday, a handful of broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, carrots and kale adds up to a no-prep stir-fry or soup.
3. Have a no-fail back-up meal ready to go for those days when nothing goes right. Having a no-brainer meal ready to go means you’ll be able to give yourself a break and stay on track with your healthy eating. I call these pantry meals, where a few staple pantry items become dinner. For my household, it’s gluten-free pasta, jarred spaghetti sauce and a vegetable (such as frozen spinach). I know everyone will eat it and it’s ready in 10 minutes. I’ll share some additional pantry meal ideas in another post.
Check back for more tips on getting dinner on the table fast in subsequents posts. In the meantime, what are some of your time-saving tricks in the kitchen?
