7 Dinner Cooking Tips To Kill Weeknight Stress

7 Dinner Cooking Tips To Kill Weeknight Stress

Here are 7 Dinner Cooking Tips To Kill Weeknight Stress.  Not only will these help you to feed your family easier, you will do so without the stress you would normally have. Recent studies have shown that the pressure to cook a meal for your family is beginning to cause added stress to parents lives. While we continue to stand behind the ideal of having family dinners for communication, as well as for better health (less take out), we want to alleviate some of the stress involved in doing so.

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7 Dinner Cooking Tips To Kill Weeknight Stress

Prep Veggies In Advance: 

Instead of slicing your onions, peppers, carrots and other veggies at each meal prep, do it all at once when you come home from the grocery store.  Most vegetables can even be frozen ahead of time for easy use in the future.  Buy things like bell peppers and onions when on sale and slice, dice and chop then portion for future meals.  Simply label and date and toss into your freezer.  All you have to do is pull a bag and drop into your skillet instead of standing over the cutting board for half an hour.

Use Freezer Meals: 

Whether you prepare meals in advance that are fully cooked, or simply bag the prep together and drop into a slow cooker or casserole to bake the evening of your meal, this is a great way to be ready at a moments notice.  Having all the prep work done ahead of time saves you so much stress in the evenings.  Invest in (affiliate) quality freezer bags or storage containers and always date and label so there is no confusion later on. Here are some freezer meals ideas for you.

Use A Slow Cooker: 

Nothing helps save more time, and even money, than a (affiliate) slow cooker.  Whether it is a pot roast, chili, soup or roasted chicken you decide to make, these are great for saving time on week night meals.  A quality slow cooker can cut your cook time down to only 2-3 minutes of prep, making this one of the best dinner cooking tips.  Just set the heat and leave it all day while you work.

Get The Kids Involved: 

Let your kids help cook or reheat foods to take some of the burden off of you.  Many tweens and teens want to get in the kitchen and this is a great way to get them started.  Have everything prepared so all they have to do is throw together in a pot or casserole dish and heat.

Go Semi-Homeamde: 

Embrace things like rotisserie chickens or frozen meals on occasion.  While warm, hearty and satisfying, it is also made by someone else.  Add your own twist with quick and easy seasoning and side dishes.  Shredded rotisserie chicken with a bag of organic frozen veggies and a baked potato is a great hearty meal on the cheap and healthy side.

Have Hot Sandwiches: 

Nobody said you can’t enjoy sandwiches outside the classic lunch box fare.  Grab your favorite luncheon meats, a whole turkey breast, chicken or beef roast.  Slice the meat and serve on toasted bread with melted cheese and all of your favorite condiments.  A bit of toasted bread and melted cheese will go a long way toward making it feel more like “dinner” instead of a lunch item.

Have Brinner: 

Breakfast for dinner (aka Brinner) is one of the most fun and easy ways to make a meal in minutes.  Pancakes and waffles or biscuits with ham, bacon, sausage and eggs are fun, easy and yummy.  Even a quick omelet or breakfast quiche can be a fun and tasty way to feed your family easily in the evening.  Just remember that some breakfast treats should be eaten sparingly due to fat and sugar content.

Don’t let the stress of having a family dinner overwhelm you.  The point is to feed your family healthy nutritious meals while spending some time communicating with them.  Sometimes that means a sandwich in the car on the way to practice.  Other times it means a bowl of chili in front of Monday Night Football.  Make sure the bulk of your meals are nutritious and work on building your relationships outside of just the dinner table.  Put into place these dinner cooking tips to kill weeknight stress, and you’ll be sure to have a happy family.

Do you have any dinner cooking tips to kill weeknight stress? Tell us in the comments!

 

9 thoughts on “7 Dinner Cooking Tips To Kill Weeknight Stress”

  1. You know I started implementing a lot of these things in our cooking about a year ago and it sure does make weeknights a lot less stressful. I knew that I had to do something cause my son started going to school and having to go to bed earlier, which meant I had to have supper done earlier etc… it was a big change but doing things like this really helped take a lot of the stress out of it.

  2. We do already freeze lots of meals, big spaghetti sauce which are perfect for busy cold weeknights and I use my slow cooker a lot too! Great tips!!

  3. I love my slow cooker, especially for Friday nights. Working all day and coming home to a meal that is ready is awesome!

  4. Great tips! Getting the kids involve is not only fun for the kids, but it also gets them interested in the meal because they help put it together.

  5. I find it very hard to have dinner on the table every night with everyone’s schedules conflicting…thanks for the tips.

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