I live in a complicated household - food-wise I mean.
We have people who are lactose intolerant, others who can't eat wheat and others who are vegetarian.
It can be a struggle to put together a dinner that everyone can survive let alone enjoy! Most of us have some dietary issues in our families - even if it's just a "picky" eater.
But there are a few tricks that can help simplify things.
oHave a plan: Taking just a couple minutes to plan things out can save you hours.
For example, let's say you make a spiral ham one night.
Take it out of the package and heat it up.
Serve it with a pre-bagged salad and some bread and dinner is done.
The next night, you can make sandwiches with leftovers.
And the next night, cook up a pot of ham and pea soup.
That's three dinners with about 20 minutes of active prep time.
oPrepare ahead: What do you use a lot of in your meals? For us, we use tons of onions, garlic, carrots and peppers.
At the beginning of each week, we chop up enough of each for the week.
If you have a food processor it makes quick work of the chopping and slicing.
In about 10 minutes you have enough veggies cut up for the week.
Toss the veggies into stir-fries, soups, stews, salads and casseroles.
oDo double duty: Make twice the amount and freeze one batch to use when you're too busy to cook.
oKeep it simple: Dinner doesn't have to be a gourmet adventure.
It can be enjoyable to create a magnificent feast when you have time but a salad, sandwich or simple soup works too.
oThink variations on a theme: Come up with about 10 meals that you enjoy making that are quick and easy.
Then think variations on that theme to come up with a lot of different meals.
By changing one ingredient or one spice in a soup, you can create an entirely different meal.
If you served the same sandwich night after night it would be boring, but by changing up the types of bread and meats you get a completely different experience.
Here's a sample menu from our house: Mondays - sandwich night.
Bread, mayo, mustard, ham, turkey, cheese, peanut butter, jelly and chips.
Tuesdays - salad night.
A tub of lettuce, bite sized tomatoes, salad dressings and left-over deli meats from the night before.
Meat always goes on the side for the resident vegetarian.
Wednesdays -soup night...
or chili or stew.
Remember those veggies I cut up at the beginning of the week? Three handfuls of those and some spices and we're all set.
Thursdays - breakfast for dinner.
Eggs, toast, bacon, ham, cereal, pancakes..
..
Fridays - Left-over night.
Saturdays - delicious experiment day.
This is when we try out new recipes.
If it tastes good we celebrate.
If not, we order pizza.
Sunday - grazing day.
Keep healthy foods around and let the family pick all day.
Meals don't need to be complicated to be good.
In fact, the simplest meals are often the best.
A little preparation and planning and you're all set.
Bon apetit!