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