Episode 131 A New Way to Look at Recipes
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Weeknight dinner success is more about time management than it is about recipes. To be successful you want to choose the right kind of recipe for the amount of time and energy you will have on a given day.
In this episode Marie walks you through six ways to categorize recipes by the amount of time you need to prepare them.
- Long Prep Project Cooking
- These are special occasion meals like homemade potstickers or baklava.
- Long Prep Bulk or Freezer Prep
- These are recipes like Big Batch Taco Meat, or making 3 Lasagnas at a time. You have one for dinner and several for your freezer.
- Short Prep Long Hands Off Cooking
- These are recipes that take a few minutes to prep and cook for a long time but you do not have to tend to them while they are cooking. Roast Chicken and Crock Pot meals.
- Short Prep Moderate Hands On Cooking
- These are 20 or 30 minute recipes that require you to be at the stove cooking but are done in a relatively short amount of time. Ginger Pear Chicken and Lemon Ramen Chicken Stir Fry are examples.
- Short Prep and Short Hands Off Cooking
- These are meals that are done quickly without you needing to watch them. Instant pot meals like Chicken and Brown Rice and Mongolian Beef are examples
- Freezer Revival Meals
- These are things you have prepped earlier that you can quickly put in the oven or defrost and serve. Frozen Lasagna and Taco Meat are examples.
Start thinking about what meals you make and where they fit in these categories. It will help you when you fill out your weekly meal planning sheet. How much time and energy will you have on a given day? Can you prep in the morning or the night before? Do you need to use something from the freezer you made earlier? Do you have time to do a little freezer prep?
Marie Fiebach is a married mother of four active kids. She helps busy families plan and execute weeknight dinner so they can recapture a little calm in the crazy. You can see her every week on KAKE TV’s Good Morning Kakeland or listen to the Feed Your Family Tonight Podcast.
For a transcript click here.
