Cooking is generally as hard as we make it. Easy cooking or hard cooking becomes a choice if you think the process through. Yes, we may want hard cooking for special occasions such as holidays. Most times, however, what works best are those easy cooking recipes that we can put together in little time but with a big taste.
Why does this become important? Either the schedule is tight, the money is tight, or both. When you get home from work, you are scrambling to get something together to put on the table. You could do take out or fast food – again! There has to be some cooking ideas that offer easy recipes for dinner. You are left staring at the open refrigerator wondering what to cook.
End your kitchen frustration. Here are four easy cooking ideas the will help you get healthy easy recipes from the refrigerator to the table.
1) Plan in advance.
Cooking is like anything else. Plan your work and work your plan. This is the best way to stay on time and on budget. Put yourself together a weekly, or even monthly cooking book that you can use. Break each page down into two sections – first, what you need to buy, second, how to put it together. You can get everything on the counter in the morning and put the meal together in minutes when you get home. If you use quick and easy recipes, you have even more time available.
2) Use your crock pot.
You know the one. You got it as a wedding gift all those years ago. It’s on the shelf gathering dust. Wash it up and use it. Crock pot cooking has dinner ready when you walk in the door. There is no after work prep time. You can cook almost any meat, soup, or vegetable (or any combination thereof) in a crock pot. The words crock pot and easy cooking should be side by side in the dictionary. The only thing you have left to do in the evening is set the table. Cleanup becomes easy. 1-2-3 and easy dinner recipes become culinary delights for your family.
3) Prepare dinner at breakfast.
Yes, this is not what most people think of as normal. Yes, this will save you time. You know when you have to leave for work. You have the most control over your schedule before you close the car door in the morning. Leverage the morning time to gain the afternoon time. Schedule time to get supper ready and use easy dinner recipes. By using some easy cooking recipes, you keep your ingredients to a minimum and take up the least amount of prep time. All that is left when you get home is to heat it up.
4) Prepare many meals at one time.
If you cook an entire month of easy dinner recipes in two days, all you have left on the day to day basis is about 20 minutes to heat the meal. Open the freezer in the morning. Choose what looks good. Put it together in under 30 minutes that afternoon. The hard part has already been done. Some people get overwhelmed at the thought of cooking 30 meals at one time, but it really isn’t that hard if you are organized about it. We do it about six times a year. Start with a week at a time if you want to take a slow start, but this is a great time saver on a daily basis and budget conscious on a monthly basis.
Cooking is usually as hard as we make it. Easy cooking is a choice for your lifestyle if you think the process through. We just have to get the hang of what works best. It’s often those easy cooking recipes that we can put together in little time but with a big taste.
