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Recently I was chatting with a friend of mine about how
stressful it can be to cook when you are gone to work all day. You don’t have to be a gourmet to enjoy the
health benefits of eating home cooked meals, nor does it have to take hours of
your already busy day. Here are a few
time saving menu tips.
Frozen bread loaves or rolls.
- They have whole wheat and white and if you keep
some in your freezer, you can pull some out in the morning, put them in a
greased pan in your fridge, then when you get home from school, pull them out
of the fridge, and when they look nicely raised, preheat your oven to 375 and
30 minutes later or so, you have fresh bread.
- If a loaf is too much for the two of you to eat,
then try tossing 4 or 5 rolls into a loaf pan and letting it raise. I might be a bit of a bumpy looking loaf, but
will be just as tasty.
- You could also just put them in a pie tin and
let them raise as separate rolls.
- Also, you could put some rolls in the fridge in
the morning, then after school, roll them out flat, and make individual
pizzas. This really is super easy – a
bottle of pizza sauce lasts quite a while in the fridge, you can keep grated
cheese and pepperoni in the freezer, and pull some out, sprinkle on your mini
pizza dough and bake at 425 for 15 – 20 minutes. You can even open a can of sliced olives, and
keep the rest in the freezer, as well as pineapple tidbits and Canadian
bacon.
Pre-made pizza crust
- For the times when you don’t want to roll out
and deal with pizza dough, keep a boboli in the freezer. Pizza is a great way to use leftovers:
leftover taco fixings become Mexican pizza, leftover barbeque chicken = bbq
chicken pizza, leftover bacon = blt pizza.
Crockpot with leftovers planned into the menu
- Pot roast with carrots, onions and potatoes is a
great meal, but don’t chuck the leftovers.
Before you put that clean crockpot away, add some tomato juice, a bay
leaf, a rinsed can of white or navy beans, maybe some pearl barley and a little
beef broth. Put that on low while you’re
at work and come home to a hearty soup.
- Toss some chicken breasts or tenders into the
crockpot with your favorite barbeque sauce.
When you get home, add some fruit and a salad and you’ve got a great
meal. When cleaning up dinner, shred
that chicken and put in the fridge for the day after tomorrow (you may not want
2 BBQ meals back to back). Pull a
pre-made pizza crust out of the freezer before work. When you get home, top with BBQ sauce,
shredded chicken, some frozen corn and Monterey Jack or mozzarella cheese. Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes. Serve with a salad and you’ve got a delicious
meal with very little effort.
Salad Spinner
- I’m not one to go for every kitchen gadget know to
man (mostly because I don’t have the space).
But the salad spinner can be a very healthful gadget. Whether you are buying a bag of salad, or
harvesting your own from your garden, the salad spinner not only helps clean
and dry the salad, but it is a great storage solution that will allow you to
eat salad all week.
- Salad stays fresh
for days and you can just pull some out to add to any meal. For example: Monday you might want taco
salad. Keep the leftover greens in the
salad spinner and the next day you can add a side salad to your crockpot
chicken menu. Maybe the following day
you can have a salad-topped pizza (another use of the pre-made pizza
crust). And to use up the last of your
salad, it might go into BLT wraps the following night.
So for the someone trying to eat at home 3-4 times per week,
the grocery list might look something like this:
Bag of
salad
Bag of baby
carrots
1 container
cherry tomatoes
Couple
(depending on family size) potatoes
1 onion
In season
melon or fruit of choice
1 package
chicken tenders or chicken breasts (depending on family size)
Small roast
or small pot roast
1 bottle barbeque sauce
1 bottle salad dressing
1 can reduced sodium white or navy
beans
1 can tomato juice or 1 can crushed
tomatoes
2 cans reduced sodium beef broth
1 premade
pizza crust
1 bag
frozen whole wheat rolls (dough, not baked)
1 bag
shredded mozzarella cheese
1 bag
frozen corn
The menu & recipes would look something like this:
Monday: BBQ
chicken, salad, fruit & rolls
In the morning (3-5 minutes) – Turn the crockpot on high,
put the chicken in the crock pot and pour ½ the bottle of bbq sauce over
chicken. Put rolls onto greased pie tin
and place in fridge. Before leaving for
work, turn crockpot down to low.
After work – set out rolls, preheat oven to 375. When preheated, bake rolls for 20 – 25
minutes. Wash and spin bagged lettuce, wash cherry tomatoes and wash and slice
melon (or fruit of choice). Serve with
chicken. After dinner, shred the
remaining chicken before putting in the fridge.
Tuesday:
Pot roast with rolls and fruit
In the morning (10-15 minutes) – Turn the crockpot on low,
peel and cut onion into wedges, scrub and cut potatoes into large pieces. Layer potatoes, ½ bag baby carrots, onion and
top with roast. Pour 1 can beef broth
over, cover and let cook on low. Set out
rolls as before.
After work – Preheat oven, and bake rolls at 375 for 20
minutes. Pull out fruit and serve with
rolls and pot roast. After dinner, shred
pot roast before putting in the fridge.
Wednesday:
BBQ chicken pizza
In the morning – nothing!
After work – Preheat oven to 425. Pull out premade pizza crust, spread with
barbeque sauce, top with shredded chicken, some frozen corn and mozzarella
cheese. Bake 15-20 minutes until cheese
is bubbly and pizza is hot. Meanwhile,
pull out the salad, top with cherry tomatoes slice or grate baby carrots. Serve with pizza.
Thursday:
Tomato beef and bean soup, breadsticks
In the morning (10 minutes) – set out rolls in a plastic bag
and place in fridge. Turn crockpot on
low, add leftover pot roast & veggies, drained and rinsed beans, some
frozen corn (maybe ½ cup depending on family size), can of beef broth and can
crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce. You
can toss in a bay leaf, and black pepper or other seasonings according to your
preference. Cover.
After work – take roll dough out of fridge, roll each roll
out into a long rope and place on a greased baking sheet. Preheat oven to 375. Bake breadsticks 20 minutes or until golden
brown. Serve with soup and any leftover
fruit or salad.
There are certainly more ideas out there, but the point is to just start with something that will make eating at home a more convenient, delicious and healthy part of your routine.
