How can I balance busy schedules and home-cooked meals?

Question

How can I balance busy schedules and home-cooked meals?

Answer 1

I agree with BlueSea and Tony B - a little investment cooking can go a long way. Here's a site for "cook once / eat twice"

http://busycooks.about.com/cs/lefto/a/co...

Occasionally, I'll spend a Saturday doing some investment freezing: portioning up chicken b*****s, homemade meatballs, containers of homemade chili and macaroni & cheese for later use. Putting labels on frozen food is a must because once it's frozen, it all looks the same and it's hard to remember how old something is.

Keep a list of fast emergency meals for those days when there's no time and everyone is clamoring for something to eat. Baked potato with canned chili poured over it is satisfying and cheap. Ramen noodles with a ton of fresh veggies and shredded leftover chicken is fast and fairly healthy. Hamburgers over egg noodles, covered with brown gravy is fast and doesn't make a giant mess in the kitchen.

Lastly, if you have a clow cooker, drag it out -

http://www.crock-pot.com/recipescat.aspx...

Good luck!

Answer 2

I use a website called www.relishrelish.com

For about $60 a year they make you a grocery list and menu every week.  

Answer 3

This is where a freezer really helps.   When I cook a meal I cook enough for three or four servings - and freeze what I do not eat.   Then, when I have had a busy time I can re-heat something home-cooked in the microwave and have it without wasting time working at cooking something from scratch.

Answer 4

Plan ahead.

Make list for the store based on what meals you want to make that week and make sure you have everything on hand.

Prep the night before if you can.

Learn to love your crock-pot.

Go to various web sites like allrecipes.com   kraftfoods.com  etc and find others, like you, who are busy and still serve home cooked meals.

And get your kids to help, they can toss a salad or peel potatoes and probably will love doing it.

Also, cook things with two meals in mind.  For instance a roast and all the trimmings one night but make one big enough to plan leftovers--shredded beef on buns---the next night.