a little advice and ten dollar meal ideas
I’ve been having so much fun reading through the comments left on my crock pot giveaway! It seems there are a couple of dominant answers to my question of what is your biggest challenge when it comes to getting dinner on the table during the week.
Number one on the list seems to be having enough time to actually cook something and get it on the table at the end of a busy day. I feel your pain. I really truly feel your pain. I’m right there with you on that one. The thing that helps me the most with this (besides my crock pot) is panning my weekly dinners. It might seem like meal planning takes a lot of time but really in the end, it saves so much time – and money. Knowing what I will be cooking for dinner before I go to the grocery store allows me to get just what I need instead of a bunch of stuff I don’t and it keeps me from having to run to the store in a panic a few nights each week because I don’t know what to cook or I don’t have what I need on hand to cook what I want.
The second biggest challenge seems to be finding a variety of recipes to keep from serving the same old same old over and over again. No one likes to hear “We’re eating that again!” I just don’t know what I would do without my cook books. My kids? They just love to tease me whenever they spot a new cook book on the shelf but I tell you what, they never complain when I pull out a new recipe from one of them. There are tons of online sites that can be good resources but I find them more time consuming than just grabbing a book or two and deciding to cook something from them.
And finally, the next largest challenge seems to be finding meals that are budget friendly. Food is so expensive these days and it seems more important than ever to make dollars stretch as far as they can. I heart Rachel Ray, her shows, her cookbooks and her magazine. However, what I heart most about her right now is the RR Ten Spot and her weekly 10 Meals for Under $10. This second list is updated every Monday and you can even subscribe to have the recipes sent to your email. Now, I have to admit, not all of the recipes sound good to me but I can’t wait to try this, this, this or this….. and there are so many more that are calling my name.
So that’s what I do to help with dinner time in our house. What about you? Have any tips or ideas that you can share? I (and I am sure others) could use all the help we can get
