Thursday, June 28, 2012

Take back your Turf Thursday-5 ways how to simplify your meals

Tackle your meals and fridge
I want to give you a  few tips on making meals easy and quick.1.Pick 10  go to dinners that you can alternate.2.Have the kids pick what they want for dinner that night.3Re-use things to make other meals. I like to get Rotisserie Chicken,especially in the summer. If you don't get rotiserie chicken grab your meat for the week and cook it all at once and assemble meal kits.I will talk more about that in a minute.4.Assign different categories for meal nights.Tuesday is pasta night.Thursday is leftover night.Friday is pizza night.You will always know what you want to cook and it takes the guess work out of it.
 This weeks Menu:Using a Rotiserie Chicken
Monday BBQ Chicken with rice,corn and green beans
Tuesday:Spaghetti with my home made sauce that I can freeze for another night.It is basically pasta night.
Wednesday:Creamy Pesto Chicken pasta
Thursday is leftover night or clean out the fridge night.Stirfry's are great for this night.Throw in your leftover veggies and meat.I have gotten really creative where I can just use my leftovers and make something completly new!
Friday is Pizza night or breakfast for dinner.If we are lucky we can get a date in for the week!
Saturday is something new or crock pot.I haven't decided yet for this week.
Sunday is dinner with family and I get a break from cooking.

If I plan my meals ahead of time I can pick a day to make meal kits where I cook all the ingredients,chop everything at that time.I got a big container to put all the food for that week in there so I know where it is and I just have to grab the individual zipper bags.On Saturday I dump whatever is left in there.You can label it so you know too. I organzize my fridge so like items are together.My kids often mess that one up but I have the dressings together, the sandwich making stuff,the drinks,my yogurt and all the snacks.If you know where everything is you will save energy because the door won't be open to long while you search the fridge.Things won't go bad and be forgotten.Try to use your produce and veggies first because they go bad faster.I also recenty bought stackable freezer containers to stack and take less room in my fridge. This is great for soups,gravies,creamy white sauce,almost anything you can freeze and they stack!

My final tip:At the end of the week your fridge should be almost empty or less full then on shopping days.Use this time to take inventory of what you have and need.Clean up spills and go through crispers.It only takes a second.If you go shopping on Saturday then do it on friday.Also trash day for us is Wednesday so it is a good time to go through the fridge again. Make your list starting with using up what is left in the fridge,then go from there! I hope this helps you to have more time during the week and less stress of what is for dinner?

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