It used to happen to me everyday at 3pm. Quick flashes of what I might have in the fridge or freezer to make for dinner.
By 4pm, reality hit that I didn’t have enough of anything to pull together a nutritious meal for my family.
By 5pm, complete panic would set in. I’d be scanning the pantry, the fridge, the freezer, back to the pantry, hoping that miraculously an idea (and the perfect ingredients) would pop up in front of me.
Add to the stress, how lame I felt about cooking another box of pasta (my go-to dinner) for yet another night.
I’d heard about menu planning so many times but it wasn’t until I put in some effort into it that my world changed. Yes, planning my meals has changed my life.
Pretty much like everything else in my life, a little pre-planning can go a long way.
Check out today’s vid to see three essential ways to make your meals more efficient. And learn how you can save valuable time and energy. Every. Single. Day.
And if you like what you see, please share with other lovely ladies in your life that you think could benefit from these tips too.
Lastly, please share a quick and easy recipe in the comments below. A simple link would work great. Wouldn’t it be great if we could help each other out with the 5 o’clock dinner stress!
Thank you for reading, watching and sharing, my sweet friend. Hope you have a happy and productive week and I’ll “see” you next Wednesday.
Big hugs,
Mridu
Your menu planning video is great. I need to do this. The one thing that we do that is helpful is when something like hamburger or groiund turkey is on sale we will buy a larger quantity of it ( say 5-10 lbs). We have a lot of different recipes that call for browned ground meat. We brown all of the meat at once and then freeze them in 1/2 lb to 1 lb sizes in freezer containers. It makes preparing a meal easier since all I have to do is take out the frozen meat, zap it in the microwave for a few minutes and add it to my recipe. It makes making a crock pot of chili easy.
Chili Recipe
1-15 oz can of water – use one of the empty cans from below to measure water with.
2- 15 oz cans of Tomato Sauce
1- 15 oz can of Regular Chili beans
1- 15 oz can of Mrs. Grimes Chopped Mexican Style Tomatos
1lb of browned hamburger ( I use my frozen meat from above, zap it in the microwave and add it in)
Mix all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on slow for 5-6 hrs or high 2-3 hrs.
Oops, I meant ground turkey not groiuned turkey .
Yum! I loves me some chili. And I love anything that I can make in the crock pot. I definitely don’t use it enough but really need to.
Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe. I’m going to add mine right now. xo, mridu
Here’s a great idea from nicolepat71 (one of my youtube subscribers):
Bake a whole chicken (or maybe a cornish hen if you live alone) and have that on day one. Day two: Strip the chicken and make a meal that uses chicken pieces, such stir fry, sandwiches, burritos, etc.. Day three: cook the carcass in soup. I might have heard about this tip on the Fly Lady’s channel and thought it was brilliant.
Ok, here’s one of my favorite quick and easy recipes: Tortilla soup. (Great for when you have left over chicken). Here’s the link to the recipe. (I don’t use everything listed like the hominy and avocado– but it still tastes great.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-tortilla-soup-i/
Just got another great idea on my youtube channel from a subscriber that I had to share here. It’s from MissAnna4040
“My family LOVES spaghetti. I make a really large batch of sauce with meat. i make enough for that nite and feeze 3 other containers. Then on the next spaghetti nite i pull a container out of the freezer and only need to boil some pasta. Saves time and money.”
thank you Charu! Also, I love the lunch idea. I’m always so focused on dinner. 🙂 xo, mridu
Your traditional dinners put me to shame! :)) I bet your “go to” in some incredible curry…while mine is Mac n’ Cheese! 😉 love you! (and jealous) -mridu
Great advice!
Awesome ideas. We have been doing this already for kid lunch menus. This will be easy to implement! Background looks great too, your voice sounds awesome. Love it!
will she make my menu for the week?!
I’m a big fan of making my “big cooking meal” on Sunday afternoon (like soup or lasagna) and then having leftovers for at least one other meal later that week. I also love to utilize a store-bought rotisserie chicken and use it for a bunch of meals. Here is the link to one of my current favorites – a low fat/low cal version of thai peanut noodles:
http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/2012/02/secret-recipe-club-thai-peanut-noodles.html
Just read that recipe and was salivating. 🙂 So going on my next week’s menu. thanks Sarah!! xo, mridu
now thats an idea!
Like your tips.
Foodwise we have not acculturated yet. Its still mostly Indian that we eat at home. But my daughter already has a preference for pastas and pizzas over idly and Dosas 🙂
Coming to my tips…….On Sunday morning I prepare batters for Idly (with brown rice) and Oats Dosa along with Sambar with lots of veggies. So a couple of dinners / lunches in the week are taken care of.
I dice beans and carrots and refrigerate them. So its easy to make one pot upmas such as quinoa upma or cracked wheat upma (http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/2005/04/20/upma/)
Here is the recipe for Oats dosa in case interested. I substituted brown rice for white. Worked well. (http://showmethecurry.com/odds-ends/oats-dosa-healthy-dosa.html)
BTW I saw your Barney message….LOL….
First off Kamala, you are my mother-in-laws dream!!!
If only I would EVER make idly’s and dosa’s at home. 😉 We usually go to our favorite South Indian restaurant when we have a craving.
Your strategy is right on — cooking extra and pre-planning for the week to make your everyday meals easier. I think moms just have to think that way!
Thank you for sharing the delicious recipes. I bet a lot of people will enjoy them. xoxo, Mridu 🙂
I make a chicken salad with grapes. Buy a rotisserie chucked already cooked. Shred it and add purple grapes some parsley chopped up and mayo and salt/pepper. Mix and pot on top of tostadas!! I love this easy dish. U don’t cook anything you just prep. Enjoy!!
Ha ha. Chicken. I meant chicken, not chucked!! Spell check.
Um, yumm! I might have the only (non-veg) children ever who don’t enjoy chicken. So hard to meal plan with all their finicky habits! But that sounds de-lish and definitely something I could throw together for my hubby and I. Thank you!