Running late to prepare dinner? Coming home to an almost empty fridge? Hungry children waiting for dinner and you have not defrosted the meat?
I know the feeling! I have been through all those situations…
After many trials and errors, here are some simple techniques that I have tried, and they have helped so much in those stressful moments.
Stock up on roast poultry
Whenever we are at Chinese eatery with roast duck/chicken, we would stock up on roast duck, roast chicken or soy sauce chicken.
When I say stock up, I mean purchasing about 8 – 10 boxes of roast poultry and freezing them. I find this most helpful. When I am just too tired or running late to prepare dinner, I just need to place the chicken in a pot and simmer in low heat for about 15-20 minutes and dinner will be served.
If I had time to defrost them, I would leave them in over for 15 minutes before serving.
Would the poultry have gone soggy or bad? No. Because I froze them while they were still very fresh.
Be prepared to order takeaway
Sometimes I do feel quite guilty taking away food, as naturally, we all want our family to eat healthy and with fresh ingredients. However, sometimes it just isn’t possible, due to many reasons.
If you are seriously running late, don’t hesitate to have take away. It may not be the ideal way to feed your family, but it will ease the pressure of having to be “perfect” all the time.
If you pay attention to number of eateries nowadays, we are very blessed with the variety. Maybe, you can even make it a dinner with a theme, i.e. a Thai dinner day – where you will have a few dishes from your local Thai place. You family may surprise you by enjoying the occasional take away.
Cook double portions
If you know that you are going to be struggling with time, cook more the day before (or a few days before) and freeze some.
For example, I would normally cook a double portion of curry chicken. I would freeze one lot and have the other one for dinner on that day. You can do that for other meat dishes, such as roasts etc.
By doing so it will definitely ease the workload when you have a busy week.
Life will keep throwing wonderful challenges our way; it is up to our creativity on how to overcome those challenges with “joy”. Do whatever you have to do, whether it is pre-cooked double or triple portions, take away from your local eatery, freezing some takeaways in advance, whichever way you choose, you will still enjoy a wonderful dinner with your family.
Make dinnertime or any mealtime fun and enjoyable!
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