Cooking Tips

fireflygirl12 · August 2013

How often do you cook and what do you do to cut down on the amount of time it takes? We are really bad about cooking regularly here and do a lot of oatmeal, sandwiches, soup, frozen meals, etc. I really enjoy cooking, I'm just really bad about thinking about it ahead of time. I also tend to get into a rotation of the same 5-7 things when I do cook, so how do you not get bored with the same food?

bosha711 · August 2013

I cook dinner at least 4xs a week. Fridays we usually order pizza. Mon-Thurs, my meals usually take about 45 minutes b/c that is the time I have before having to go pick up DS from DC. I like to have it done before I go get him b/c once he's home, it's pretty chaotic & everything runs late.

I defrost a meat in the morning, or from the night before if I am marinating it. Sides dishes are usually mac & cheese, rice, or potatoes, and a veggie, which are all quick to cook.

Even meatballs & a quick sauce from scratch can be done in that time. Same with shrimp & asparagus risotto, which is another meal in my rotation.

I rarely use my oven since I feel like those type of meals take longer, so I tend to everything on the stove top or outdoor grill.

We do oatmeal/waffles/toast/pancakes & fruit for breakfasts during the week & save cooking things like omelets with bacon, etc for the weekends.

Pancakes I make a big batch at once & then freeze them in a ziplock bag with sheets of wax paper in between each one. Then I pop them in the toaster when we want them.

Other people are really into using their slow cooker so that the meal cooks while they're at work. I love the idea of it, but I just can't get into it. Maybe that would be an option for you, though.

LyndseylovesHugh · August 2013

We do meal planning every Sunday for the week. We both cook, I do it a bit more, but we both do, and we try and eat at home most days. We used to eat out all the time, which got really expensive, so meal planning is how we save money. We have about 15 meals in the rotation, all are fairly easy. I love our slow cooker and about 5 of the meals we do are in that. I also will make big batches of things and freeze them or we will eat them numerous nights in a row. For example, I make a crock pot full of spaghetti sauce that lasts us about 4 dinners, so I freeze that and every few weeks when we do pasta I just defrost it and cook up some pasta. None of the meals we make take very long to prepare, I actually got a lot of the recipes off of Pinterst just by looking up easy, healthy meals. This meal planning thing is fairly new to us, I am assuming we will add more meals to the rotation as we go.

bonjourbelle05 · August 2013

When you make something double (or triple) the recipe and freeze the extra then you have a quick, easy homemade meal!

boo-bitz · August 2013

I meal plan dinner every second Sunday now as my DH works one week on and one week off. We tend to stick to quick healthy meals and slow cooker meals a lot. We do plan for 1 meal in that rotation to be brinner and one meal to be either takeout or a night out as a family (the local Italian place loves our kids)

With back to school approaching in a little over a week for the eldest, I have also been meal planning lunches for her and DH to make my day go smoother. This includes making double batches of muffins, banana bread, soft pretzels, etc and freezing them so they are lunch/snack ready come Sept 3...

Oh and as for how to keep it fresh, I try to use 1 new recipe a week and phase out one as well. Last week we made Taco soup (new favorite) and phased out fajitas for a bit

Want a personalized experience?

Cooking Tips

Re: Cooking Tips

Choose Another Board

Search Boards