Tag Archives: meal ideas

Easy Weeknight Dinners in 20 Minutes or Less

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On average, American women with children under age 18 spend about an hour on food preparation and clean up every day, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s an hour less time spent chatting with the kids or catching up with their spouse or even just relaxing and re-energizing. Instead of spending an hour on dinner and cleanup, why not cut it to 20 minutes, or less?  Replace the cleaning, mixing, and chopping, with time at the dinner table, savoring your food and catching up with the family.

Here are some great easy weeknight dinners ideas:

  • Slow cooker soups and stews: Really, the slow cooker is a godsend for any busy mom. You can get creative with your slow cooker by coupling a meaty dish with your favorite jam, making an apricot pork dish (hyperlink: http://www.foodonthetable.com/recipes/355007-slow-cooker-apricot-pork), for example. You can also cook a rotisserie chicken or lime and cilantro chicken in your crock pot for a tender, succulent and juicy chicken dinner dish. Load up your slow cooker in the morning, and come home to a fully prepared meal, just waiting to be devoured.
  • Grilled panini: Grill your sandwich with turkey, spinach, basil, and sun-dried tomato, and drizzle the sandwich with garlic olive oil for a Mediterranean dish that’s both filling and fast. All it takes is about 10 minutes for the contents of the panini to warm up and for the bread to brown. Cleanup is made easy, too: all you have to do is clean the panini residue of your panini grill or pan!
  • Quick and painless pizzas: All you need is single-serving pizza dough (which you can defrost ahead), tomatoes, pesto or olive paste, cheese (unless you want delicious white pizza), and salami to make mini-pizzas that each family member will love. You can even use pocketless pita bread to make these single-serving treats.  You can even make extra pizzas and freeze for another easy weeknight dinner.
  • Beef salsa: Cook beef ahead of time or defrost leftover beef from another day to make a filling southwest salsa. Mix beef with quartered cherry tomatoes, black beans, shredded carrots, green chile salsa, red onion, and cilantro to a dinner that will take you 10 minutes to assemble. Just throw your beef salsa into taco shells and garnish with lettuce. You can also try this salsa with salmon, if you prefer fish.
  • Burgers: Use your George Foreman grill or panini press to quickly grill up burgers for a dinner that should take you under 15 minutes. Broil hamburger buns with a bit of butter and garnish with ketchup and lettuce for the quintessential, American dinner.
  • Hearty salads: Get some more greens on the table by quickly tossing up a hearty, dinner salad. You can prepare a taco salad with beef or make a summer salad with grilled chicken breast. If you like to make your dressing from scratch, make the dressing ahead of time to cut down on cook time. Chicken, spinach, and raspberry salads are especially delicious in the warm, summer months.
  • Fruit salads for dessert: You don’t have to serve a decadent dessert. For weeknights, prepare a delicious, sweet fruit salad, which can last for a few days if you make it in bulk. Make your fruit salad using fruits that are in season and at their peak ripeness to get maximum flavor. You can even add 3/4 cup of marshmallow cream, coconut shavings, and whipped cream to really take a plain fruit salad into dessert territory. Make a fruit dip using marshmallow cream and orange juice. If you’re not a fan of marshmallow, simply serve your fruit salad with a couple of scoops of vanilla bean ice cream. Sometimes less really is more.

Now that you have some quick and painless recipe ideas at your disposal, time yourself to see how fast you can get dinner on the table. The less time cooking and cleaning, the more time you have to spend your way.

What to Know Before Creating Meal Ideas for Toddlers

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According to the Childrens Heart Center, how much healthy fat in the form of omega 3 fatty acids a child gets in his or her diet can directly influence his or her brain function later in life. The Childrens Heart Center also asserts that children with diets that are low in cholesterol and fat are less likely to have cardiovascular problems as adults. So, clearly, nutrition is important for your child’s growing body. Teaching toddlers good nutrition habits will set them up for healthy lives as adults.

The most difficult part about planning toddler meals is making the right food choices. There are so many authoritative sources on this subject. Trying to learn and keep up with all these sources can be very overwhelming for new parents. Coming up with meal ideas for kids doesn’t have to be difficult.

Nutrition in Your Toddlers’ Meals

During your child’s early formative years, it’s very critical that your meals for toddlers have a lot of nutritional substance in the form of lean protein, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Since toddlers are constantly growing, it’s important that you feed your toddler the best fuel so that he or she may grow properly. What tastes good to a toddler isn’t always what’s healthiest. Snacks meant for children are often loaded with sugar and fat and should generally only be eaten in moderation. Parents should focus on providing their toddlers with three healthy, balanced meals a day with a few healthy snacks added in the mix throughout the day.

Breakfast Ideas for Toddlers

In order to start your child’s day out right, he needs an excellent breakfast. Including eggs in your toddler’s breakfast is usually a good idea. Eggs are a great source of protein and chromium, and they can also be mixed in with a variety of other foods. Another great breakfast option is fruit. Almost all fruit can be eaten for breakfast, but bananas, oranges, and apples are probably the ones your toddler will like the most. Pancakes and cereal are popular breakfast choices for toddlers, but they’re usually less healthy than other options. Consider serving your child some whole grain toast topped with organic, all-natural fruit preserves instead of pancakes.

Lunch Ideas for Toddlers

There are a variety of foods that you can feed your toddler for lunch. Since kids’ metabolisms are so fast, most healthy meals for kids can be pretty flexible. Your toddler’s lunch could include some carrots, applesauce, and a turkey sandwich on whole grain bread. Making lunch for your toddler doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. Sometimes some of the healthiest lunches are also the easiest to make. Kids can be picky when they’re younger. So, half the battle is discovering what they like to eat. Experiment with different healthy lunch options for your child, and you’ll be able to discover what he or she likes. What your child likes can become the basis of the lunch menus you plan for him throughout the week.

Dinner Ideas for Toddlers

Some easy dinner meals for your toddler could begin with pasta. Pasta is easy to eat and simple to cook. One healthy dinner option your toddler might like is fish. Fish is the best meat for you; it’s extra lean, and it has been considered a brain food for years because it’s loaded with omega 3 fatty acids. For dinner, it might also be a good idea to include a vegetable in all your meals. Don’t be afraid to season vegetables to make them more appealing to your toddler. Your child may be reluctant to eat raw, unseasoned broccoli. However, your child will find steamed broccoli seasoned with lemon juice and garlic a lot more appealing.

Toddlers may be picky eaters, but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn to love to eat healthy foods. Take some time to figure out what healthy meals your little one likes, and you’ll help pave the way to health for your child as an adult.

Meal Planning Ideas for Pairing Food and Wine

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David Lynch, a James Beard Award-winning sommelier and author of Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy is surprisingly cynical about wines for a wine expert. Lynch describes the typical scenario: “You’re in a restaurant that takes wine very seriously, one where a thick, leather-bound, 25-page book arrives with great fanfare–and a thud–at the table.” However, he realizes, the everyday person “[Doesn’t] come to your restaurant to read a book.” The truth is, all we need is a nice wine to go with our meal, not an enormous, daunting wine list handed to us by a pressed waiter with a pair of condescending eyes. And, lucky for us, if we know the secrets of wine pairing we can have that nice wine, and great meal, in the comfort of our own home. All you have to do is learn the basic rules for wine pairing and you can turn a Friday night into a romantic and festive evening. Just hand the kids off to your sister or aunt, set the table, and read up on these meal planning ideas for a wonderful night of food and wine.

Basic Rules of Wine Pairing

  1. Identify the properties and characteristics of the dish and go from there. Look at your grocery list ideas and then start thinking about what wine would best accompany those foods. For example, if you prepare a steak, couple it with a full wine. Both steaks and full wines are hearty and strong.
  2. When in doubt, match regional cuisine with their regional wines or with wines from grapes of a similar soil and climatic condition. A tomato sauce pasta dish, for example, tastes delectable alongside a Tuscan Chianti, however French chablis (the grapes of which grow in a climate that retains their tangy edge) will serve this dish just as nicely.
  3. Keep in mind that palates can be cleansed with either tannins or acids after a rich meal, like a steak or fried chicken dish. Tannins can come from the skins of the grapes used in winemaking or the wood barrels a wine may have been aged in. Tannin tastes similar to the flavor you would get if you sucked on a tea bag and causes a puckering of the gums. It’s this astringent flavor that helps strip the fats from your tongue and cleanses the palate after a fatty meal.
  4. Match acids with acids. Acidic wines and cream don’t mix, unlike acidic wines with shrimp and lemon pasta. Anything sauteed in a lemon-butter such as salmon and shrimp cakes sauce tastes great with a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.

Last but not least, drink what you want and what makes you feel good! Your preferences should always take precedence over others’ recommendations, even if they’re coming from the mouth of a wine connoisseur.

Tips for Creating Great Sunday Supper Recipes

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We’ve all heard the benefits of eating with the family. One survey done by the Obesity Prevention Program at Harvard Medical School found that 9-14 year-olds who ate dinner with their families frequently ate more fruits and vegetables and less soda and fried foods. Additionally, researchers at Brigham Young University conducted a study of IBM workers and found that sitting down to a family meal helped working moms reduce the tension and strain of long hours at the office. While sitting down for dinner helps kids eat healthier and moms alleviate stress, family dinners are also fun and a great opportunity for the whole family to spend some time together and catch up. Instead of ordering in this Sunday, have a traditional Sunday supper. Here are some tips to create the perfect Sunday supper recipes:

  • Plan in advance. You don’t want Sunday to roll around and have no idea what you’re going to cook. Additionally, braving the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon can sometimes be a nightmare with frenzied mothers and children running amuck. Avoid the lines and grocery store and do your meal planning, recipe selecting, and grocery shopping beforehand.
  • Keep your Sunday supper classic and stick to recipes that everyone will love. Think of suppers that your mother or father used to serve you, like classic roast beef with home fries and gravy, lemon rotisserie chicken with fresh rolls and honey butter, or maple glazed pork roast with garlic potatoes. Once you find a menu you love, you can create your own family tradition.
  • Keep it simple. Don’t spend your entire Saturday and Sunday cooking and cleaning. Make as much as you can beforehand (like desserts, in particular) and try to save time by buying sauces at the grocery store rather than making them at home. Minimal cooking means minimal stress.
  • Get your family to lend a helping hand. This isn’t a one-woman show! Get everyone involved, from the chopping and peeling, to the cleaning. Normally, non-cookers get dish duty.
  • Pick a filling meat as the entree, like pork, beef, or chicken. These hearty meats are the anchor and soul to any Sunday supper.
  • Sneak in veggies if you have to and make it healthy. You don’t want to associate Sundays with pigging out and unhealthy eating. Instead, give your kids a positive example of what a meal should look like, with a balance of healthy carbohydrates, protein, and plenty of veggies. A side salad or grilled asparagus could add a little green to your supper recipes.
  • Make a dessert. Every supper recipe deserves a dessert for the special meal. Cheesecake, carrot cake, or even something as simple as Jello and some fruit are great complements for a Sunday supper. Try and prepare something that pairs well with your entree.
  • Pick a standard time to eat supper every week and stick to it. This will assure that everyone in the family keeps their schedules wide open for a wonderful, relaxed suppertime meal.

If you keep all of these tips in mind, you will surely prepare Sunday supper recipe to remember. Just beware: after one, your family will want a Sunday supper every week!

 

The Perfect Timeline for Family Meal Planners

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Are you the meal planner in your family? It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. Being the designated “meal planner” usually means that you’re in charge of dinner parties and big holiday meals: the cooking, the cleaning, the works. There’s a reason why about 90% of Americans feel increased stress during December holidays, according to Consumer Reports. The cooking alone is enough to turn anyone into the Grinch. Whether you’re planning a dinner party or you have to prepare the big Christmas or Thanksgiving meal, the best way to eliminate stress is to make a timeline. Starting early will make even amateur meal planners execute large meals with ease.

A month ahead:

About a month before the big meal, you should be establishing that a meal will be served and taking care of factors that don’t involve much of the cooking. Try cracking down on some of these things four weeks before the meal:

  • Pick a menu
  • Prepare pie crusts and cookie dough, vacuum seal, and put them in the freezer
  • Decide on table decor
  • Make your guest list and send out invites

A couple of weeks ahead:

The real prep begins just a few weeks ahead of the meal when you should:

  • Make shopping lists
  • Find recipes for your menu, print, and make detailed lists for recipes
  • Make suggestions as to what your guests should bring, if they offer to bring a dish

5 days ahead:

Five days ahead you may be starting to panic. Never fear! Call up your guests and complete these tasks to ease your stress:

  • Call guests who have not RSVPed and ask them if they will be attending
  • Make relishes, sauces, and vinaigrettes
  • Purchase meats if you’re planning on using large cuts of meat and throw them in freezer with pie crusts

3 days ahead:

After confirming guest lists, preparing sauces, and buying meat, you should try to accomplish these tasks:

  • Thaw meat
  • Gather equipment
  • Polish silver, arrange decorations, clean the house

2 days ahead:

It’s almost here! You can do a lot of your perishable grocery shopping days before the big event so that you can rest easy the day before the big meal:

  • Prepare items that you can make immediately and store accordingly
  • Do your perishable grocery shopping

Day before:

The day before the event is the time to chop, clean, and do all the prep work for the meal:

  • Do prep chopping, washing, etc.
  • Prepare punch
  • Make plan that indicates what time you should cook each dish
  • Prepare baked goods

Day of:

  • Put on your game-face and make it all come to life!

Being a menu planner may not be simple, but if you make a month-long plan ahead of time, you’ll be able to execute your dinner with ease.

Creating Great Meal Ideas for Dinner

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We all know the typical, mealtime song and dance. Chicken goes with pasta, hamburgers go with fries, soups go with bread and butter, etc., etc., etc. So what if you want to get a little creative and stray from these typical meals? It’s incredibly easy to come up with great meal ideas for dinner if you know the basic building blocks for a meal.

#1 Meat or Protein: A protein is typically the main part of any dish. Yes, there are the exceptions, like in pasta dishes and stir frys, but generally a main course is a portion of protein accompanied with sides. This protein serving can be anything from chicken to lobster. If your main protein is an expensive cut of meat, try not to drown it out with a heavy sauce. Instead, let the flavors speak for themselves. Pick your protein wisely, as it will dictate the rest of your meal.

#2 Vegetable: Next comes the veggies. While vegetables aren’t critical to every meal, they do contribute to a healthy and wholesome diet and should be considered as you’re preparing meals for your family. Lobster pairs well with lighter-colored vegetables, like squash and zucchini, while a filet or steak is strong enough to bolster something a bit heavier, like grilled onions and mushrooms, or grilled asparagus. The grilled vegetables go well with the smoked tastes of a steak hot off the grill.

Another contributing factor to your vegetable selection could be the season. Pick vegetables that are in season for your meals so that you can get the freshest produce at the supermarket. There are plenty of info graphics online that can tell you what’s in season in your area.

#3 Starch: You can add further depth to your dish by contributing a starch to accompany your vegetable and protein. Corn tastes great with a lobster dish, jasmine rice looks elegant next to a cod or mahi mahi, and chicken goes with, well, basically anything. Shorter pastas, like penne, are versitle and can be sauced or spiced to go with nearly any main dish.

#4 Sweet: You can’t end a meal on a sour note. Instead, pick a sweet and lovely dessert to end your perfectly balanced meal. You can analyze the characteristics of your protein to decide on an adequate dessert. For example, if you’re dining on a filet mignon, you’ll want to end with something equally rich, like a chocolate-based dessert. If you’re preparing an American-style chicken, like one marinated in a honey-dijon sauce, you can follow it with an equally American dessert, like apple pie with some vanilla ice cream. For a main dish marinated or complimented with citrus, like seafood, a dessert with citrus, like a sorbet or a lemon merengue could be perfect.

There are several other factors you should keep in mind when you’re creating a meal. For example, color is crucial to any dish, so make your meal look appetizing by adding color through vibrant vegetables or garnishes. A well-arranged dish is also more appetizing than a dish that is haphazardly assembled. Try not to get too messy in the kitchen! Also remember that a salad or bread served before the main course may not necessarily account for your vegetable and starch, so serve all three factors (protein, veggie, and starch) all on the same plate, even if you’ve already served a preliminary course. You don’t want your protein to be lonely on the plate, all by itself. When in doubt, look to the category of the main dish’s preparation (American, Italian, Indian, Chinese, etc.) and choose your side dishes from there. You can’t go wrong.

Creative Meal Ideas for Dinner: The Italian Feast

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Sometimes we fall into a rut, making the same recipes night after night, week after week. However, part of the fun of cooking dinner at home is getting creative and trying out new recipes. Variety is the spice of life, after all. Instead of having regular ol’ family dinner menus, why not plan a fun night that the whole family can enjoy? Tonight, try having an Italian night, checkered tablecloths, chef hats, and mustaches included.  After all, Italian food is the second most preferred cuisine in the U.S. (after American, of course)!

Tips for a Great Italian Dinner

If you want to change things up during dinner time, try a few of these meal ideas for a wonderful Italian feast:

  • Kick off your Italian dinner with appetizers – some garlic bread or focaccia bread with onions and garlic. Both of these appetizer options are easy to make and dangerously delicious. You can also serve a Caprese salad, with fresh tomato, basil, mozzarella, fresh cracked pepper, and garlic oil to whet your appetite for the big meal. Crostini are another great option for those that want a simple, yet delicious appetizer to kick off the meal. Get creative with your crostini, using anything from salami and fennel, to mushrooms and rosemary.
  • Next it’s on to the primi piatti, or first courses in Italian. The first course is generally a pasta-based dish, like spaghetti bolognese (spaghetti with ragu sauce), lasagna, ravioli, gnocchi, or simply spaghetti with red pepper flakes, butter, and garlic oil. Buy whole wheat pasta if you’re trying to prepare healthy foods for your Italian dinner party. Trader Joe’s carries a top-rated Organic Whole Wheat Pasta, which tastes great with pesto. Real Simple magazine notes spaghetti with bacon and squash, spaghetti primavera, and spaghetti with ricotta and tomatoes as the top kid-friendly spaghetti recipes, if you are trying to please the young ones.
  • Next it’s on to the secondi piatti (or second courses). The second course in an Italian meal is usually composed of a protein, like fish, meat, or poultry. If you’re trying to serve a vegetarian meal, you could also serve cheese plates or a salad as the secondi piatti. Second courses include shrimp scampi, roast pork, veal stew, or baked chicken with mushrooms.
  • Last but certainly not least is the dolci (desserts). Hailing from Venice, tiramisu is great for coffee-lovers and chocolate-lovers alike. Gelato (ice cream), panna cotta, biscotti (Italian cookie that goes well with coffee), granitas (or flavored ice), or cannoli are all great options for an Italian dessert.

After the last dish is served, it’s time to grab a coffee or espresso, kick back, and relax with your family and friends. Ciao!

 

Family Menu Planning for Movie Nights

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Whether you’re on winter vacation or you’re lazing around the house on a warm summer night, movie nights can really bring the whole family together. Next time you want to spend some extra time with your kids, try hosting a movie night with a special movie night menu to really get everyone in the mood for a good flick and family fun time.

Movie Night Family Menu Plan

Hit the lights, take your seats, and brace yourself for some great foods that are just perfect for family movie night:

  • Kick off your movie night with the entree (the snacks will come later so go ahead and skip the appetizers for this menu). Main courses should be fun, festive, and preferably something you can handle with your hands. Try panko-crust chicken tenders with honey dill dip. Beef sliders on toasted rolls could also make the perfect movie night entree because of their petite size. Just have one or two each and save your appetites for the snacks and dessert! Mini pizza poppers, made out of puff pastry dough filled with sausages, tomato sauce, and veggies, could also make the perfect entree because they’re not extremely messy, helping you avoid a potential couch mess.
  • No meal is complete without some veggies. With crudité, you can have raw veggies and a nice dip. Chef Craig Koketsu of New York’s Park Avenue Winter recommends pairing broccoli with Cheetos for a fun side that makes snacking a little bit healthier.
  • After dinner has been served and Cheeto broccoli has been devoured, it’s time to roll out the snacks. Nothing says “movie” like popcorn, so make sure you have your family’s favorite type of popcorn on hand. Heat popcorn in your Dutch oven on your stovetop with a little bit of vegetable oil and about 1/3 cup popping corn kernels. Caramel popcorn is also the perfect dessert. Make caramel at home by either melting your favorite caramel candies in a double boiler (the easier way) or, for a culinary challenge, make your own caramel from scratch. Include M&Ms over salty popcorn for a melted-chocolate treat.
  • For dessert, you’ll want to stick to the idea that finger foods are your best bet at keeping the couch in tip top shape. Try double chocolate chunk or macadamia nut cookies, munched over napkins, of course!

Now that you have your movie night menu planning all done, it’s time to scroll through that Pay Per View selection or hit Netflix to find some wonderful flicks that will entertain the whole family.