On the days when my husband and I both work, dinners are always a challenge. I usually need to throw something together on the fly, while simultaneously feeding the toddler, entertaining the baby, and emptying the dishwasher from the night before. My goal: make something tasty and healthy, hopefully without creating a giant mess in the kitchen that I’ll just have to clean up afterwards.
Some handy tools that help me out in this endeavor:
A rice cooker. If you need to make rice EVER, you should get a rice cooker. Put in the rice, add water, push the button, and voila — perfect rice, every single time. It’s a total no-brainer, the rice can just do its thing while you’re preparing the rest of the meal. Plus, you can use it to steam vegetables.
A nonstick electric skillet. Our skillet is a bit of a pain to store because of its size, but it’s immensely useful for whipping up the perfect batch of scrambled eggs or pancakes. It cooks evenly, heats up in a flash (be wary of accidentally touching its sides, though — we nicknamed ours the “Cornballer” after the device on Arrested Development that’s always burning people), and nothing sticks to it, so it’s super easy to clean.
Slow cooker liners. Crockpots are convenient, but man, cleaning them is such a PAIN. I haven’t tried this Reynolds product yet, but what a great concept: you just put the 13″X21″ liner in your pot and cook as usual, then toss the liner.
A mini food processor. I received a Cuisinart Mini-Prepfor a wedding present seven years ago, and it’s been one of the more useful tools in my entire kitchen. It makes quick and easy work of chopping onions, garlic, or whatever else, without having to use a blender-sized contraption.
Paper plates. Okay, I know it’s not exactly environmentally friendly, but I use paper plates for most of my prep work — it’s just easier to skip the step of washing off a cutting board between each ingredient, especially if you’re working with raw meat. If it helps you be less disgusted with me, I do put the plates in the yard waste for recycling afterwards.
Fast, simple recipes. I’m including this as a last tip because I stumbled across the link recently and it’s such a neat article: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less, from the New York Times.
Do you have any make-dinner-fast tips and tricks you can’t live without?
OMG, I had no idea about these slow cooker liners — I use my crock pot all the time and hate cleaning it. Thanks!
Nataly | June 6th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Thank you for the tips!
Lylah M. Alphonse | June 7th, 2008 at 2:55 am
I menu plan every week, so I know exactly what I’m making and how long it will take, so it fits in with the evenings activities.
I make a pork loin on Sunday night, so I’ll have pork to use for later on a weekday when I have less time. I also always brown an extra pound of ground beef and preseason it for the meals I’ve planned for the week. The frying pan is only dirtied once and I have less prep time during the week.
I also keep cut up peppers and onions in sandwich bags ready to be sauteed or added to a salad. The slicing is all done at one time.
My prep time on weekdays is usually 20 minutes at most.
Barbara | June 9th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Wow, Barbara I’m really impressed. I keep saying I’m going to do the menu planning thing and it always seems to get away from me.
Our schedule is so weird right now, my husband works 9-6, but has to take lunch at 2 pm. He’s never hungry when he gets home from work, and nights it’s just the two of us, I will make a quick salad or a sandwich. If I planned a little better, I could make him leftovers for his lunches, I just run out of time and it’s the last thing on my mind.
Thanks for the slow-cooker liners though, that would definitely be worth the time. And I definitely need a rice cooker, that seems like something that would come in real handy quick.
Kelly Olsakovsky | June 9th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
We buy large packages of chicken and pork top loin when they are on sale. On the weekend, we portion 3 or 4 pieces into a gallon ziploc bag, and then add BBQ sauce or other marinade, and freeze. Right now we’ve got about 8 meals in the freezer.
It takes about 15-20 minutes to defrost in a sink of hot water, then about 15-20 minutes in the oven. It’s easy to make salad and vegetables while the meat is in the oven.
SoftwareMom | June 9th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Soup. My quickest at favouritest soup is Potato and Bacon.
1. Put kettle on to boil
2. While waiting for kettle to boil, fry up some chopped onion and bacon
3. Use the boiled water to make up Instant Mashed Potato (eg Deb) according to the directions on the pack.
4. Make up 2 cups of chicken stock using stock powder and some more boiling water. 5. Mix it all together - the bacon, onions, mash and stock
6. Voile! Soup.
Gnometree | June 9th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Great tips!
*My easiest meal is—cook 2 pork roasts in the crockpot then take one out for later (green chilli stew is our favorite) and make shredded pork bbq sandwiches with the other (put pork in crockpot with a sliced yellow onion. season with salt and pepper and cook on low all day. shred meat with 2 forks then add favorite bbq sauce. serve on buns)
*Breakfast for dinner is always nice and something easy and different. We love omlets with meat, cheese, and veggies.
*When I’m going to do something in the crockpot the next morning, I try to have everything prepped the night before so I can just throw it all in and go.
*I buy bell peppers when the are on sale at the local grocery then dice them and put them in the freezer (in baggies) to add to recipes. Onions and peppers both freeze well.
Brenda | June 10th, 2008 at 3:15 am
I use the slow cooker liners allll the time and I love love love love them.
misguided mommy | June 15th, 2008 at 2:24 am
We are all into making a menu. We make it for two weeks in advance because I get paid every two weeks, and it works better for me that way. It sounds like a complicated process but it isn’t. Here’s how we do it:
- Each kid and the hubby choose two meals that they want (that’s six meals)
- I clip coupons and look for good deals on meats
- I check out the freezer to see what we already have
- I figure out the rest of the meals based on what’s in the freezer and what I have coupons for
- We all get together and look at work/school/sports schedules for the next two weeks
- I make the menu up so that late/busy days have easier meals and Sundays have special meals. Everything else just fits in wherever
Then I make a shopping list based on the menu, plus staples for breakfast and lunch. This makes dinner prep MUCH easier and we save about $200.00 a month on grocery bills because I only buy what we need.
Karen | June 18th, 2008 at 4:59 am