| Do you have trouble getting dinner finished on | | | | company. |
| time? Maybe you just feel that it's all just too | | | | 4. Have a neighborhood dinner swap. One night |
| much trouble so you stop by the fast food | | | | each week, a neighborhood family cooks enough |
| restaurant and pick up dinner on your way home. | | | | to feed another family in the neighborhood. The |
| Fixing quick and nutritious meals doesn't have to | | | | next morning, each neighbor involved in the swap |
| be a chore. Here are seven ways to make meal | | | | gives another neighbor their leftovers. Leftovers |
| planning easier: | | | | are great if they're not YOUR leftovers! |
| 1. Do your meal planning in advance. Choose | | | | 5. Use your crock pot. Get up 10 minutes earlier in |
| simple, quick-to-fix meals for the days that you | | | | the morning and put a beef roast, onions, |
| know you will be rushed. Plan a week's worth of | | | | potatoes and carrots into your crock pot. Add |
| meals and shop for all the groceries for those | | | | some herbs and spices, put on the lid, and cook |
| meals on weekends. Having the ingredients on | | | | on low for eight to ten hours. Dinner will be ready |
| hand, together with a plan to use them, will help | | | | when you get home from work. |
| eliminate the temptation of picking up a pizza on | | | | 6. Keep nutritious frozen meals in your freezer. |
| your way home from work. Your meal plan | | | | On those nights when you get home from work |
| doesn't have to include anything more than a | | | | too late to cook, let family members choose the |
| meat (fish or poultry), a vegetable, a salad and a | | | | frozen dinner they like best. Many of the frozen |
| dessert. | | | | meals available these days are nutritious and |
| 2. Get help from your family. Choose one night a | | | | tasty. |
| week for each family member and make it his or | | | | 7. Keep your pantry stocked. Make sure that you |
| her responsibility to plan and cook that day's | | | | keep your pantry filled with staples that you use |
| dinner. Even children as young as 10 years old can | | | | every day. Also have enough produce in your |
| help with meal planning and preparation. If one | | | | refrigerator that you can use for a quick meal. It's |
| family member cooks, another should be assigned | | | | easier to figure out what to cook if you have the |
| the cleanup chores when dinner is finished. | | | | ingredients on hand for different choices. |
| 3. Cook extra for future use. When you have | | | | Planning ahead makes it easier to fix those |
| extra time to cook, make enough food for more | | | | dinnertime meals when you are rushed and won't |
| than one meal. For instance, grill extra chicken on | | | | feel like planning that night's dinner. If you keep a |
| the weekend and use the leftovers for chicken | | | | notebook with dinners you have planned, you can |
| pot pie or pasta during the week. If you make | | | | use those dinner plans over and over again. Make |
| lasagna, instead of making one, make two. Put | | | | a note of the dinners that your family seems to |
| one of them in the freezer for unexpected | | | | like the best. |