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Pre-prepare to Save Time
When you have a busy week ahead of you, cooking healthy meals often falls to the side and you resort to takeout or eggs on toast. A busy schedule can leave you feeling stressed, tired and not feeling 100%, and not eating well will only make you feel worse. This article will give you some simple tips for being ready for weeks such as these, and how you can make sure you always have a healthy meal option available for you and the family.
1. Early Prep Work
• Doing the bulk of the preparation for the meal earlier on will save you time and effort when it gets to dinner time. Wake up 10 minutes earlier and spend some time chopping vegetables, dicing meats etc. You may even want to cook your vegetables, rice or pasta while eating breakfast, so you will just have to re-heat it for the night.
2. Freeze for the future
• If you know you will be busy during the week, cook some meals on Saturday and Sunday night that you know you can make in bulk and freeze for later in the week.
• Freeze meals in portioned sections, so you can thaw them individually.
• Spaghetti Bolognese meat sauce freezes really well, and all you need to do is cook some quick pasta on the night.
3. Make the most of quiet nights
• If you have a quiet night or afternoon available, spend some time preparing the vegetables you will need for the following couple of days.
• If you know you are making a stir fry; precut the vegetables and store them in a container in the fridge.
• The same goes for roasting, baking or stewing vegetables.
• You can also precut your meat before you freeze it.
4. Enlist Help
• If you have children or a spouse that will arrive home earlier than you, spend 5 minutes the night before telling them or writing a note on your plan for dinner the following night. This will encourage them to help in any way they can. When you get home, you may only have the actual cooking to do, and if your really lucky, the meal may be on the table waiting for you.
Added to site on : Monday, 9 May 2011