Save Loads of Time Making Supper

Thanks to Gloria Steinam and the Feminist movement, you and I feel no pressure to greet our husbands home from work with a hot meal in a skirt, heels and pearls.  We don't care if our hair is perfectly coifed.  We don't feel that a meal is incomplete without the influence of a potato. 

But, we still feel pangs of guilt if we don't come up with some idea for supper for our families.  We may resent this guilt from time to time, feeling like our maternal forebearers are shaking their ghostly fingers at us and lecturing us about our "wifely duties".  We think, "Why have I never heard the term 'husbandly duties'?"

Still, we are forced to reason that since we are the ones at home, it's only fair that we assimilate dinner most of the time, if Baby lets us.  It is awfully hard for our husbands to make a good meal while driving home from work and don't tell your car insurance company that he's tried!

If you've struggled to make something nutritious for your family, something that didn't involve a phone call and a tip, try these solutions:

Freezer CookingIf you haven't heard of this concept yet, you've been storing your head in the freezer.  The idea is that you can take a weekend out of your month and cook up some great freezer-friendly meals that you can simply re-heat later in the month.  You can also simply make double or triple the recipe during the week while you're making that night's dish and then freeze those extra portions. 

Something that I've been meaning to try for some time is to compile some recipes that I enjoy and getting a group of four women together, giving each woman a recipe.  We'd each make the recipe multiplied by four and swap dishes.  That way, we'd put in the same amount of effort into that whole freezer cooking concept but come away with different dishes instead of the same lasagna over and over again!  It would be important to make sure that everyone agrees on the recipes and that the cost and/or effort required is close to equal.  To ensure this, everyone could rotate making chicken every month (costly) or rotate chopping up fresh ingredients for later meal cooking (effort).

For more information and recipes on freezer cooking, click here. 

Advance PrepTry taking an hour or so out of a day to prep some commonly used ingredients and freeze or refridgerate them.  I like to roast garlic and then put it all in a plastic dish in the fridge.  I also mince garlic and freeze 2 cloves in individual dollops in plastic wrap.  You could use a mandolin or food processor to help chop veggies.  Make some commonly used sauces like a thai peanut sauce that you can use on chicken, veggies or wraps.  Make your salad dressings and store them in the fridge. (Personally, I rarely use store-bought salad dressings as they are usually way to sweet and full of low-quality fat.  A fresh dressing is quick to prepare and even better if you do it in advance!)

Or, get Dream Dinners to do this for you.  They will prep all the ingredients needed for some high quality meals and then deliver them to you!  What a luxury! Note to you entrepreneurial spirits:  Dream Dinners is a franchise opportunity!

Another franchise of a meal prep biz is Pass Your Plate.  The difference with this one is that YOU show up to prep your meals!  They do the shopping. They do the clean up.  Niiiice.

There's plenty more in the USA.  Just do a Google search for "meal preparation" or "meal prep".

So, far the only similar businesses that I've found in Canada are Mise en Place, in Calgary and Frescos in London. 

Also, a great idea for a girl's night out! Kill two birds with one stone.... or something less violent.

Have Theme Nights for DinnerDoesn't it make sense to limit take-out nights?  Take out is expensive and fattening with high levels of sodium and sugar.  That's why it's soooo good!  So, reward yourself after a hard week by sticking to Friday Night Take-Out (or Delivery).  Go online to your favourite restaurants and view the menus.  Have your family pick their favourite dishes and have that information ready every Friday so that you don't need to waste time asking everyone what they want.  Gee, you might as well have made supper from scratch with the time that it took them to make a decision!

You could also have a vegetarian night.  Vegetarian meals are often easier to make, less expensive and healthier.

A couple of times a month, why not have a breakfast night?  Make an egg dish and provide different ways to dress it up.  For example, you could make scrambled eggs and and have some bacon and onions cooked for sprinkling on top, salsa and pita wraps for an egg sandwhich, or some artificial crab and shrimp and herbs.  Make a quick spread of toppings.

"Hire a Chef"If you have more money than time, why not try a meal catalog?  DineWise is an innovative company that has created some gourmet choices for dinner that you mix and match from their online catalog and then microwave.  Large portions, healthy ingredients and yummy concoctions make this so far beyond those pet-sized portions from your grocer's freezer.  They have low sodium selections, diet selections, to name a couple and all are 100% guaranteed.  Wow.  I wish this service was in Canada!

Where I Go For Recipes and TipsEpicurious is my main grab.  Get past the annoying pop-ups and you'll find a wealth of great gourmet, yet easy recipes.  What's really fabulous, though, is that people will review the recipes and say if it worked well, if there was enough this or too much that and these are usually "foodies" who know good food, so I trust their opinions.  My all-time favourite cake recipe (though, not really applicable to our "time saving" topic here) is the Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Cake with the White Chocolate Cream Cheese Lemon Icing!  It's dense and moist and easy with a complicated taste. 

The site is also great because you can search for things by ingredients or by meal.  And you can store recipes in your recipe box.  (If you're looking for casseroles, though, this is not the place to go.)

Cooks Illustrated is the definitive resource for cooking just about anything, just about any way.  They are "America's Test Kitchen" and anything you could need to learn about cooking, you will find here.  It's also easy to navigate.  (And anyone who wants to buy me a magazine subscription for Christmas, boy, I sure would love that....)

Random Little TipsMy 7-year old son has a thing for Rachel Ray so I watch with him.  I've learned some good little tips to use in the kitchen: 

• I love her idea to have a "garbage bowl"!  I'm always walking back and forth to the garbage, trying clean up as I go.  Why not have a bowl on the counter to collect all your scraps and then just visit the scrap trap once? 
  
• Use your frying pan as a mallet.  It's easier to find than your less oft used mallet, easier to clean, and evenly thins that meat.
  
• Use a bottle of wine or vinegar as a rolling pin.  I've always done this out of necessity.  I finally got a great pin, though from Michael's intended for rolling cake fondant.  I use it for other things too.  It's nice and wide and has no handles. 

Here are some must-have tool suggestions from Rachel Ray that I absolutely agree with. (Except for the scraper.  I just scrape from my cutting board with my knife.)

Oh, and I have to squeeze this cute, handy little doodad in.  In one swift move, you can cut off the crust from your child's sandwich, making lunch prep that much quicker, especially great if you have to make sandwiches for more than one child, or if you're doing them in bulk to freeze.  It's called Good Bites Mini Bites crust remover. Love it! 

Got some additional kitchen tips or easy, healthy recipes that you swear by?  Email me!