What's For Dinner?

As the school year starts along with it comes homework and lots of activities to juggle.
By dinner time many of us are tapped out and don't want to think about preparing a meal for our family. Often on busy nights it's easiest to grab food to go or go out to eat. While eating out provides convenience it also offers lots of unhealthy choices and can be expensive when done frequently. Here are some tips to help you stay on track with eating at home while balancing all the craziness that comes with kids weeknight schedules. 

1. Meal Plan
By taking a little time on the weekend to sit down and make a menu for the week you can end up saving yourself time and energy at dinnertime. When planning a weekly menu, make a list of all the ingredients you will need for each meal so that you only need to grocery shop once to have all you need for the week. I find it helpful when meal planning to look at my calendar for the week to see what activities we have on what nights so that I don't plan a labor intensive meal on a very busy evening. I have recently started posting our weekly menu on a chalkboard in the kitchen so that my family can see what we are having for dinner each night. That has put an end to the nightly question of "What's for dinner, mom?"

2. Keep Ingredients For Your Favorite Meals On Hand
If you are not someone who plans their meals in advance this is a great tip for you. By always having ingredients for the meals that you make the most on hand at all times you save yourself the hassle of trying to scavenge together something from your pantry at dinnertime. Pasta, spaghetti sauce, rice, cream of chicken soup, taco shells and canned beans are regular staples in my pantry. It is also helpful to have frozen veggies in the freezer. There is nothing worse than going into the fridge at dinnertime to find that all of your veggies are rotten! The more ingredients you have on hand the easier it will be when dinner time rolls around. 

3. Keep It Simple
There are no awards for the amount of time you spend making dinner. It doesn't have a be complicated. Sandwiches and soup with some cut up fruit and veggies is a perfect dinner especially on a busy night. In fact, my family loves when I buy sub sandwich buns and they can have subs for dinner. Yes, you could just go to Subway instead but you save a lot of money and can make your sandwiches healthier when doing it yourself. A regular meal in our house during the Fall and Winter is tomato soup and grilled cheese. It's quick and easy and perfect for busy nights. 

4. Use Your Crockpot
I don't know the exact origin of the crockpot but am fairly certain that it was invented by a busy mom. There is nothing better then coming home after an exhausting day to know that dinner is already prepared. By taking a few minutes in the morning or even preparing some ingredients the night before, you can have a complete meal by dinnertime. I love using my crockpot on those nights when we have practices right at dinnertime. Whether it's a roast chicken, pot roast, pasta or soup your crockpot is the perfect item to use to keep you eating at home even on busy nights. 

5. Use Your Leftovers
Often leftovers get shoved in the back of the fridge only to be thrown away a week later. If you find that you have a lot of leftovers, use those to feed your family on nights when you don't have time to cook. To take this a step further, you can use some of your leftovers to create a new meal. For example, if you make too much pot roast you can grind up the leftovers in a food processor along with some BBQ sauce to make BBQ beef sandwiches. If you have leftover chicken breasts, use them for chicken tacos or fajitas. Leftover corn on the cob? Use it to make a corn chowder or add it to pasta with some bacon and parmesan for a yummy twist on spaghetti.  Leftovers don't have to be boring especially when you can find new ways to present them. 

6. Cook In Bulk
Cooking extras can help you save time during the week. When browning meat for spaghetti or tacos, make extras to throw in the fridge or freezer for another night. If you are going to grill on the weekend, grill some extra chicken, burgers or hotdogs to have during the week especially on a night when you know you won't have time to cook. Making a casserole? Double the recipe and put one in the freezer for later.

I hope you find some of these tips helpful. Most importantly, give yourself grace. Sometimes eating out or grabbing dinner on the go is just a fact of life but when you can, plan ahead and dinnertime can be a less stressful time of the day.