| Do you have trouble getting dinner finished | | | | neighborhood family cooks enough to feed |
| on time? Maybe you just feel that it's all | | | | another family in the neighborhood. The next |
| just too much trouble so you stop by the fast | | | | morning, each neighbor involved in the swap |
| food restaurant and pick up dinner on your | | | | gives another neighbor their leftovers. |
| way home. Fixing quick and nutritious meals | | | | Leftovers are great if they're not YOUR |
| doesn't have to be a chore. Here are seven | | | | leftovers! 5. Use your crock pot. Get up |
| ways to make meal planning easier: 1. Do | | | | 10 minutes earlier in the morning and put a |
| your meal planning in advance. Choose | | | | beef roast, onions, potatoes and carrots into |
| simple, quick-to-fix meals for the days that | | | | your crock pot. Add some herbs and spices, |
| you know you will be rushed. Plan a week's | | | | put on the lid, and cook on low for eight to |
| worth of meals and shop for all the groceries | | | | ten hours. Dinner will be ready when you get |
| for those meals on weekends. Having the | | | | home from work. 6. Keep nutritious frozen |
| ingredients on hand, together with a plan to | | | | meals in your freezer. On those nights when |
| use them, will help eliminate the temptation | | | | you get home from work too late to cook, let |
| of picking up a pizza on your way home from | | | | family members choose the frozen dinner they |
| work. Your meal plan doesn't have to include | | | | like best. Many of the frozen meals available |
| anything more than a meat (fish or poultry), | | | | these days are nutritious and tasty. 7. |
| a vegetable, a salad and a dessert. 2. Get | | | | Keep your pantry stocked. Make sure that you |
| help from your family. Choose one night a | | | | keep your pantry filled with staples that you |
| week for each family member and make it his | | | | use every day. Also have enough produce in |
| or her responsibility to plan and cook that | | | | your refrigerator that you can use for a |
| day's dinner. Even children as young as 10 | | | | quick meal. It's easier to figure out what |
| years old can help with meal planning and | | | | to cook if you have the ingredients on hand |
| preparation. If one family member cooks, | | | | for different choices. Planning ahead makes |
| another should be assigned the cleanup chores | | | | it easier to fix those dinnertime meals when |
| when dinner is finished. 3. Cook extra for | | | | you are rushed and won't feel like planning |
| future use. When you have extra time to | | | | that night's dinner. If you keep a notebook |
| cook, make enough food for more than one | | | | with dinners you have planned, you can use |
| meal. For instance, grill extra chicken on | | | | those dinner plans over and over again. Make |
| the weekend and use the leftovers for chicken | | | | a note of the dinners that your family seems |
| pot pie or pasta during the week. If you | | | | to like the best. |
| make lasagna, instead of making one, make | | | | |
| two. Put one of them in the freezer for | | | | You, too, can learn how to cook at |
| unexpected company. 4. Have a neighborhood | | | | LearnHomeCooking. |
| dinner swap. One night each week, a | | | | |