Get Cooking – Tips and recipes for quick weeknight meals

Lets go cook! Here are some cooking tips and tricks to help you get a tasty meal on the table in no time and feel good about what everyone is eating.

1. Plan ahead

You’ll be more efficient and prepare healthier meals by planning ahead. Pick a day when you can take about 20 minutes to inventory your fridge/pantry and plan your meals for the week. Prepare an organized shopping list and take a trip to the grocery store. Having a weekly meal plan will allow you to identify small steps you can take ahead of time; for example, making a marinade the night before for chicken cutlets or preparing several days of salad greens at once. No matter when you adjust it, planning ahead will set you up for quick (no stress) healthy meals all week long.

2. Slow Cooker (aka Crock Pot)

Slow cookers prepare your meals while you’re away so you can come home to a kitchen that smells like delicious home cooking. Slow-cooked dishes are ideal for making ahead and reheating for lunch or dinner tomorrow, or freezing for a quick meal next week.

3. Frieza’s Favorites

Stock your freezer with some dishes that freeze and thaw easily so that all you have to do on those busy weeknights is reheat. For example, bake a large tray of lasagna or a large pot of chili on the weekend, divide it into 2-3 smaller meal-size portions, and freeze for easy reheating later in the week.

4. Refresh leftovers

Zapping leftovers in the microwave can definitely leave something to be desired. But when the leftovers are completely transformed into another dish, it’s a whole different (delicious) story. Using leftover chicken as a filling for tacos or combining it with cooked rice and vegetables to make a stir fry is great and easy.

5. One pot (or skillet) meals make cleanup easy

A quick and easy route to a quick and healthy dinner is to prepare it in a pot or on a baking sheet. This not only saves you the time of preparing an entree and two sides, but you have a lot fewer dishes to wash at the end.

6. Invest in a pressure cooker

Pressure cookers are incredibly useful tools with the ability to quickly tenderize meat and vegetables and extract their delicious flavors. These simple pots trap steam, which in turn builds pressure, creating higher cooking temperatures and reducing cooking time. Today’s models are almost foolproof. A pressure cooker will put a hot meal on the table in less than 20 minutes. You can use them for just about any recipe that relies on moist heat, like braised meat, beans, or a casserole.

7. Have a few meals to go.

Always keep healthy ingredients on hand for a couple of quick meals that you can throw together on any given day. Keep these meals as simple as possible. Here are five healthy dinner ideas you can have on the table in 20 minutes or less:

• Grilled cheese or melted tuna with sliced ​​tomato; cup of lentil soup; mixed green salad; and fruit
• Pizza prepared on toasted whole wheat English muffin or whole wheat tortillas, topped with tomato sauce, chopped vegetables, shredded cheese; mixed green salad; and fruit
• Vegetable omelette made with cheese and leftover vegetables, whole wheat toast and fruit
• Sautéed shrimp and vegetables served with brown rice; green salad and fruits
• Microwaved sweet potato topped with black beans, salsa and shredded cheese; mixed green salad and fruit.