August is coming to a close, Back to School season is here and that means my calendar for the fall is filing up quickly. Between school, sports schedules and family events our nights and weekends are busy, and that means that I have to have a plan in place to get dinner on the table at a reasonable time.
With my kids being on the swim team I need to make sure that the majority of the time our dinners are filling and healthy and that it is ready as soon as they are walking in the door from practice.
Here are some tips that I am going to use to get back into a dinnertime routine this fall.
Meal Plan–having a meal plan is a MUST during the school year. I admit it, I HATE making meal plans and I always drag my feet doing them but when I do have one my nights go some much easier. With a meal plan I can just look at the plan and make sure that I pull out any meat that needs to be defrosted, prep any vegetables needed in advance and do any pre-cooking earlier in the day. It really does make my busy life so much easier.
Print this Meal Plan template to get you started with your weekly meal plan.
Have some meals ready to go in the freezer–Freezer cooking is a dinnertime lifesaver! Have a few meals ready to pull out on busy days will save you both time and money and it really is easy to do. Set aside a few hours a month to prepare some meals to freeze or just do what I do and make extra when cooking, then just freeze the extra for another day.
Check out this post for some Freezer Meal ideas and tips
Take shortcuts when you can–Dinnertime is busy enough so I try to take shortcuts whenever I can. For instance, when making dinner that needs pasta, rather than waiting for the water to boil and having to watch the pot I make my pasta in the microwave with the Fasta Pasta for perfect pasta every time–in just minutes.
Check out my Parmesan Shrimp Scampi with Linguine recipe–a quick and easy dinnertime recipe that is ready in minutes! YUM!
Finally, have some easy meals in your dinnertime meal rotation that you know is easy to make and your whole family loves. Some of our favorites include:
What do you do in your home to make dinnertime easier? Leave me a comment and let me know!
*This post uses affiliate links which are no cost to you*
Even though I sometimes enjoy cooking I would rather spend the limited time I do have with my family versus cooking. Thanks for sharing! I would like to invite you to come join our party https://www.floydfamilyhomestead.com/2016/09/07/the-homesteader-hop19/
Hi! Visiting from Home Matters Linky Party. 🙂
I have been trying to get back into a dinnertime routine but it’s sooo hard! I’m trying to go low carb so that has helped me focus. I like making a meal plan but am not big into freezer cooking. I also shop Brookshires and get the Deal of the week for at least one of my meals(this week it was buy the chicken meat get everything else for a fajita dinner free. 🙂 Other than that, once a week we also plan for pizza because my whole family loves it. Luckily the kids also eat lots of raw veggies as long as there’s ranch so I have a bunch of that chopped up and ready if I don’t feel like cooking sides I’ll just cook an entree and put the raw veggies on the table and everyone is happy. 🙂