Saving Time When It Comes To Making Dinner

A common misconception that many people have about those who work from home is that we have all the time in the world to make fancy dinners and to get those dinners onto the table on time every day of the week. As someone who works from home, I can honestly tell you that at times, I used to have a problem with that.

One way I solved that problem is by being prepared and here is how I do it.

I like to plan our family dinners 2 weeks in advance. I will sit down with my calendar and write down what I will be making each day for that 2 weeks time period and I plan on 5 dinners for each week.

To break that down even further, 2 of my 5 dinners will be something I make in my crock pot (slow cooker), 1 will be a meal that I pull from my freezer (I am big on making my own freezer meals) and the other 2 will be dinners I make from scratch.

When I do my grocery shopping, I use my 2-week dinner plan to steer me into the right direction of food items I need to purchase. I set aside 1 hour of my day to prepare my family’s dinnertime meal.

For crock pot meals I allow 20 minutes in the morning to assemble all ingredients into my crock pot. I then allow another 20 minutes during the day for checking on it and then the final 20 minutes is for finishing it up when its done or for preparing a side dish to go with it. Surely, most of us who work from home can spare a total hour :)

For my premade freezer meals, I will get it out of the freezer the night before and refrigerate it over night. Then 1 hour before I plan on serving dinner, I will finish thawing it in my microwave and then throw it into the oven or on the stove top to finish up its cooking time. While that is going on, I can prepare my side dishes.

For meals I make freshly from scratch….I like to make simple things such as meat loafs, grilled chicken, barbecue sandwiches and so forth.

I save all of my heavy duty cooking and baking for weekends when I have more time.

How do you like to plan out your weekday evening meals? Do you struggle with getting dinner onto the table each evening even though you work from home? Do you have any tips to share with our readers?

Shelly