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A week's worth: meal planning made easy

Dinner time already?

When you’re racing through hectic work days and juggling busy family schedules, making meals sometimes seems nearly impossible. So how can you reconcile the comfort and pleasure of a healthy, delicious home-cooked meal with a fast-paced modern lifestyle?

Have a plan

Before you do your grocery shopping, plan the coming week’s evening meals, and buy accordingly. Adjust the meals to fit your schedule. If ballet lessons are on Wednesday night, pasta with a simple tomato and cream sauce will do fine. Keep the cheese-stuffed veal with two veggies for a quieter night.

Batches, canning and freezing

One great time-saver is to make batches of tomato sauce, soup, stews and other easy-to-keep (and reheat) recipes. Want a more relaxing evening? Pull a cheese lasagna from the freezer in the morning and set the timer on your oven to have it ready by dinnertime.

Same work, twice the food

Making eight portions of a meal isn’t much more work than making four. So prepare a lot of that creamy seafood chowder on Sunday, and enjoy it again on Tuesday - or freeze it for another week. If you double up your recipes, you’ll be making two meals for the "price" of one. After all, time is money - and buying in bulk can mean savings, too.

One meal leads to another

Don’t want to eat the same thing twice? Make a first meal that you can turn into a second one. The meat from a large roasted chicken will do great for the next day’s sandwiches, or can be diced and reheated in a nice cream sauce for another evening.

With a simple plan and a little creative thinking, you’ll always have an answer (or two!) when someone asks what’s for dinner.

Want to simplify meal planning even more? Look for our monthly menu on any recipe page.