6 Tips for Nutritious Weeknight Dinners
School is back in session, fall sports are in full swing, and my guess is your weeknights are a bit more hectic then they were over the summer. Rather than resorting to fast food or having cereal for dinner — no judgement if you do! — these tips will help you get meals on the table that nourish your family, providing not just nutrients, but hopefully time at the table together, too. (If activities have you all running in different directions and some nights eating together isn’t an option, the tips below will also help you have food ready whenever your people need to eat.)
Read on for some of the ways I keep my family fed when the weeknight schedule feels insane. The last one is my favorite!
Tip #1: Cook once, eat twice
No matter how many mouths you have to feed, getting in the habit of planning for leftovers is incredibly helpful. If you’re already making a casserole you know your family loves, while you have all the ingredients out, make a second one to have either later in the week or to pop in the freezer. Roasting some veggies for dinner? Throw in some extra for your lunch the next day. Cook an extra chicken breast or two for leftovers. Make a double batch of soup and freeze half for later. You’re already making it anyway so take advantage of the opportunity to intentionally create leftovers.
Tip #2: Use any time you can to prep
Any time you can chop veggies, slice fruit, make a marinade in advance, do it. Have to chop an onion for dinner? Chop 2 and freeze whatever you don’t need so it’s ready to go the next time you need it. You can do the same with peppers (they get mushy after the freezer, but are still great cooked), broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc. Have a few minutes while you wait for dinner to finish cooking? Use it to slice the strawberries or cut up an apple with a sprinkle of lemon juice for lunch tomorrow. You’re much more likely to eat up the produce you paid a pretty penny for if it’s washed, chopped and ready to go. As with tip #1, when you’re in the kitchen, try to make the best use of your time there. What will future you be glad you took 5 minutes to do?
Tip #3: Batch cook
You don’t have to plan an entire afternoon in the kitchen, but depending on your schedule and season of life, this one can be more of a challenge than the other tips. If you’re able to, plan some time on a weekend when you can cook a whole bunch of things at once. Perhaps you make 3-4 batches of rice or quinoa to keep in the freezer. Throw a family pack of chicken breasts in the crock pot for shredded chicken to use throughout the week. Maybe you get adventurous and make several batches of homemade pizza dough (it’s actually quite simple with a stand mixer!) that you can freeze for a Friday night. What else could you cook a lot of at once and then freeze for the next time you need it?
Tip #4: Use frozen or pre-sliced fresh veggies when you know you won’t have time to wash and chop
There are definitely days when having something ready to toss into a pan is worth every penny. I’ll occasionally buy frozen stir fry mix or diced peppers and onions and always have broccoli and cauliflower in the freezer. It’s nice to know on nights when I’ve either run out of fresh veggies or just don’t have time to prepare anything, that I can grab something from the freezer. Buying the pre-sliced veggies at the grocery store is another option. Most of the time I don’t buy pre-sliced veggies, however, there have definitely been times when I’ve wished I would’ve paid the extra to buy them pre-prepped! Consider the cost of your time in the kitchen versus the cost of buying pre-sliced veggies at the grocery store and decide what’s best for you.
Tip #5: Utilize your crockpot/instant pot
If you don’t already own a crockpot, get one with a built-in timer! I’m fortunate to have a flexible schedule, so I can start dinners in the crock pot at 10 or 11am, but if you’re out the door in the mornings and have a crockpot with a timer, you can toss everything in, set it and come home to dinner waiting. Instant pots are great because they’re so versatile and cut down cooking time a lot. (Same goes for an air fryer, too!) If you have one of these appliances collecting dust, break it out this weekend and reach out to me — I’ll send you a PDF cookbook of slow cooker and instant pot recipes!
Tip #6: Have an emergency back up meal
This is one of the tips I use and also teach in The Exhausted Mom Solution, my 12-week virtual coaching program. Your emergency back up meal should be 1 - something your family enjoys and 2 - a dinner you almost always have the ingredients on hand for, i.e. something easy. Don’t put this meal in your regular rotation. Keep it in the wings for a night when schedules are crazy, you forgot to defrost something, you’re just too plain tired to cook what you originally had in mind, or you had no plan and now the children are hangry. Bust out your emergency back up meal. Everyone gets fed and you don’t have to think too hard. In our house, spaghetti and meatballs is our emergency back up meal. I always have meatballs in the freezer (usually Wegmans - a local grocery store brand), a jar of sauce (Rao’s is my favorite when they’re on sale), and Tinkyada brown rice spaghetti noodles in the pantry (my family can’t tell they’re not “normal” noodles). In 20-30 minutes I have dinner on the table and everyone is excited because we don’t eat it that often. If I heat up some frozen veggies, that’s an added bonus. Dinner is quick, everyone is happy, and I add the ingredients to my shopping list for the next time I need my emergency back up meal.
I’m rooting for you, 100%
Whether you’re someone who enjoys cooking, someone who’d die for a personal chef, or anywhere in between, you can use these tips to help make feeding your family a nutritious meal on crazy nights a bit easier. These tips are just a teeny, tiny taste of what my clients learn and experiment with in The Exhausted Mom Solution. If you’re the tiniest bit curious about the program, join the waitlist today. You’ll receive emails designed to help you on your health journey and you’ll get first dibs on registration the next time I open the doors to the program!
