For most families, dinner is the most important meal of the day. It is that one part of the day when all family members are present and everyone can catch up on all important family and school matters. Parents who are in charge of preparing dinner will also have more time to cook and won’t have to feel rushed to make the evening meal, unlike breakfast, when everyone has to rush to work or school.
Since dinner is often the only time of day when everyone can be at the table, you’ll want to spend less time preparing food and more time chatting with family. As such, it would be helpful to know some tips for making easy-to-make dinners that are also healthy and delicious. Here are some of these tips that you can follow to prepare healthy and easy-to-cook dinners:
• Create a meal plan for dinner. Set aside some time on the weekends (when you’re free) to come up with a meal plan for dinner for the week. Make sure your meal plan has healthy recipes. As such, don’t forget to incorporate whole grains, vegetables, lean protein, and other healthy and nutritious ingredients.
• Set aside time to do some prep work too. When you have some free time, also do the necessary food preparation tasks. This means peeling and cutting vegetables and fruits and storing them properly in the refrigerator. You can also snack on some extra fruits and vegetables so you can have more for everyone to snack on or add to other meals.
• You can also make sure you’re always incorporating healthy vegetables into your meals without spending too much time on prep work by buying fresh, pre-cut vegetables like broccoli, squash, and mushrooms.
• Always store and use healthy staples for cooking. For easy and healthy food preparation, always have your staples on hand. These include extra virgin olive oil, egg substitutes, and nonfat or light soymilk. Leading nutritionists recommend using extra virgin olive oil in a spray bottle because it is a safer and easier way to reduce the fat and calorie content of a dish.
• Modify your cooking methods. Finally, by changing the way you usually cook, you can effectively reduce everyone’s fat and calorie intake. As such, if you’re always frying chicken, consider baking or grilling it. You’ll spend less time watching what you cook while serving and eating healthier dishes. Grilling, grilling, or poaching fish is also a healthier option. You can also avoid using too much oil by microwaving diced vegetables like onions and greens instead of frying them.
