Meal Do-Ahead Dos & Don'ts

If you’re like me, when you get home, the last thing you want to do is start a meal from scratch.  Whether I’m being questioned about what’s for dinner, answering a phone call or trying to remember the time and location of an evening meeting, the swirl of activity seems to crescendo just as I need to begin cooking. 

Advance preparation keeps me sane and allows us to eat dinners that are healthier and nicer than what I could throw together if I started just as dinnertime approaches.  Of course, the key is shopping smart, with a plan and ingredient list for all the dinners you’ll make in the coming week or the next few days.  

Some of my favorite advance preparation meals are the homemade equivalents of the TV dinners I loved as a kid – casseroles that freeze well, defrost in the refrigerator and easily reheat just before dinner.  But you can also make meals in stages, allowing you to put together a fresh dinner at the last minute.  A few tips to set you down the do-ahead path.  In general, these tips are meant for preparation 1 day (or night) in advance. 

Do-Ahead Dos

Click to read more ...

Staying Sane - Weekday Dinner Tip #1

Preparing a weekday evening meal is not supposed to be a stressful marathon or a trial by stir-fry.  After all, it’s just dinner.  You can eat well – and feed others too - with modest effort and planning.  You don’t need tons of money or hours of research online or rummaging through cookbooks either.  

If you've read MotherWouldKnow before, you have already figured out that I am all for sanity, in the kitchen and elsewhere.  I start with a few basic tenets:

• First, leave your competitive, Type A qualities (if you have them) at the kitchen door.  
• Second, if you notice that your dinner plate has a chip or doesn’t match the placemat, resist the urge to switch them.  That’s for company – this is about weekday sanity.  You can throw out the chipped plate after dinner or switch out the placemat next time
• Third, take a deep breath, ditch your heels or your tie (if you dress that way at work) and smile.   After all, it’s just dinner.  

Are you with me? 

Weekday Dinner Tip# 1 Plan – and Shop – Ahead 

Click to read more ...

Meal Planning Rule #9 – Presentation Matters

If you’re following my 10 Rules for Meal Planning Success, you have already know about the basics of getting the job done.  Still, success is not just about getting tasty food to the table.  It is also about whether it looks delicious.

As in romance, the “packaging” of a meal isn’t the whole story, but it sure helps.  Of course, what is attractive to one person or culture may not be appealing to another.  I am not suggesting that there are universal rules for how to make food mouth-watering.  But it's easy (and quick) to turn the initial impression that food makes from blah to appetizing.                                                                                                                                
These tips are not for Martha-Stewarts-in-training.  If you already care deeply about whether your serving pieces match your silverware, you can skip this post.  In fact, I might benefit from whatever lessons you would be willing to impart on how to set my “everyday” table.

For the rest of you, who have been concentrating on making good tasting meals and haven’t yet thought about how your meals look - check these out.

5 Tips to Make Your Meals Look Better

Click to read more ...