Easy Weeknight Dinner Ideas

Easy Weeknight Dinners:Weeknights for most families are busy! I only have 1 child and I am busy enough. Anything that will make my life a little easier is definitely worth sharing, so I thought I would share this with you.  Easy Weeknight Dinners: A collection of Ideas. These ideas are great for the family-on-the-go, or the mom that is worn out and doesn’t want to play short order cook for the picky kids again.

We’ve all done it. We’ve pulled into that drive-thru lane because we were too tired to cook. We all know fast food isn’t healthy. We frown as our kids insist on French fries instead of grilled veggies or whatever we could have whipped at home. Sometimes it is just easier to grit our teeth and hand over the debit card.

But weeknight dinners do not have to be such a nutritional wasteland. With a little planning, a little restraint and a little determination, you can cruise through weeknight dinners easily, and a little healthier than the drive thru lane.

Check out these ideas for Easy Weeknight Dinners:

1.Freezer cooking (or once a month cooking) – this is a popular way to take advantage of downtimes to prepare for the busy weeknights. It takes some  planning and stamina but it is worth it in the long run. This method is simple enough to understand, set a day of the week (usually a Saturday or Sunday) and  plan 30 days worth of meals, and then cook and freeze them. Casserole dishes are the most popular dish to cook using this method,but  really, anything is fair game. You will be thankful for the work you put in for that one day during your busy work and school week,when the extent of your prep work is to decide which bag or container to get out of the freezer for the next day.

2.Session cooking –Session cooking is similar to freezer cooking,  but not all at once. It also helps you save some money! If you see ground beef on sale, (or any other meat) you can buy 10 pounds of it and prep it all in an evening. You can make some patties  for burgers, prepare some meatballs, and make a few meatloaves! You can also cook several pounds of ground beef and store it in  ziploc bags for quick meals like tacos, nachos or sloppy joes.

3.Scheduled Meals- Scheduled Meals are a slightly different approach. You will  still cook every night using this method but you will cook the same meal every weeknight(not the same thing every night, but every week, think Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, etc) so that you can move through the week on autopilot. If you have picky eaters in the family, you can sit down and decide as a family what everyone will agree to eat and when. This will take the guesswork out out of what to eat during the week.

4.Tag Team Cooking- Tag Team Cooking is the idea of having your spouse (or an older child) cook on designated nights. For example, If you know you are going to be  swamped on Wednesdays with late meetings at work  or picking everyone up from basketball practice, let your partner man the stove. Knowing that you have a night or two off off is enough to get you through the week without running to the  drive-thru.

5.Planned Pizza- Planned Pizza is a way of saying that you plan a night out every week (or once a month).Eating out sometimes is not a bad idea, it gives you, your stove, and your dishwasher the night off.  Another benefit of planning this is that you can pick a night when kids eat free or pizza is half off, and it gives everyone in the family something to look forward to!

 

Planning Easy Weeknight Dinners not only saves you some stress, it can also change you some money!

An added benefit to the ideas above is that they all can help save you some money!  Buying in bulk and planning your menu will help you save money and time at the grocery store,and avoiding weekly fast food runs can trim some of the fat from your food budget (and your waistline!).

Looking for some great Weeknight Dinners to plan? Check out this awesome book from Amazon:

Topic: Easy Weeknight Dinners