I f you seem always on the go but still value making homemade weeknight meals, these dinner preparation tips will be a huge help. Plan – As with most things, planning is the most important step.
Some people seem to have it all together and plan their menus a month at a time. If that’s too much effort for you, try planning your weekly menu and referring to it to write and organise your grocery list as you’re thinking up meal ideas—reserve slow-cooker recipes for easy and delicious casseroles, roasts, stews, and soups for busy nights.
PREP – Once you get home from your grocery shopping excursion, defrost meats, if necessary, then cut, marinate, and precook them for use throughout the week. The same goes for your veggies and starches. At this stage, you can also season, slice, and dice your vegetables. And why not go ahead and prepare your rice, pasta, and potatoes?
After you’re done with this stage of the prep process, organise your ingredients for easy access when you’re ready to whip up each meal. Try stacking storage containers or bags of pre-portioned meats, vegetables, and spices for each meal together. For example, if you listed kebabs on your menu, put your steak, peppers, onions, and mushrooms — or whatever you like — on skewers, then douse them with marinade and store them in a shallow, covered container.
BUY PRECOOKED – One way to maximise your time without compromising the home-cooked taste of your dinners is to buy precooked ingredients. Don’t have time to roast a whole chicken? Grab a rotisseriebaked chicken from the deli. When your recipes call for chicken, slice off as much ready-to-eat chicken as you need and integrate it into your dish.
Rally the Troops— Now that you’ve checked your food items, here are a few ways to make dinner preparation a family affair. Call in the kids and your partner and decide who will be responsible for what. Even the least culinarily inclined family members can help set the table or take items off the stovetop or out of the oven when the buzzer sounds.
CLEANUP – First, you’ve probably heard this or said it a million times: Clean up as you go. Have a bowl handy to hold food scraps — this can reduce trips to the garbage can or disposal. Wipe countertops and wash cookware and utensils as soon as you’ve finished with them. You may even want to consider investing in multipurpose cookware, the kind you can use to prep, cook and store food. This way, you can place your pot of leftovers in the refrigerator, then reheat it using your stove or microwave without the fuss of using and washing more prep bowls and pans.