Breaking bread with your loved ones is perhaps the most important family time that you can have in your home. When you get nostalgic, you may remember meals times at your own childhood home. You may remember the delicious food enjoyed with fun conversation and banter. This authors family would do the trivia questions out of the newspaper each night. Others have similar memories.

In the contemporary world, it is difficult for adults to find a balance between their hectic work and life schedules. Making meals often times seems tedious; and when do we have the time to do it? After work in the hour before soccer practice? Or while helping with homework after school? Ordering in or heating a frozen dinner may seem to be a convenient alternative. However, you can avoid this unhealthy trap and try some easy to cook meals, that are nutritious as well as tasty. The health of your family and yourself lies in your hands. With a bit of planning you can cook up some great, but easy to prepare meals.

Select a day when you will plan the meals for the coming week. This will give you enough time to check your kitchen for ingredients that need to be bought from the supermarket. If your children are old enough to help with kitchen chores, you can assign them some vegetable cleaning or chopping time. Or, you can invest in a food processor that will accomplish the same task in seconds. This will save you a lot of time when you are ready to cook a meal. Similarly, you can boil a few eggs at the start of each week and keep them in the fridge and use them at breakfast or meal times.

By choosing dishes that offer a variety of ingredients combined for your family you will not need to cook additional recipes. Consider casseroles or bakes that your family would enjoy. A healthy meal can include chicken and wild rice casserole, stir fired vegetables and a salad. You can also choose to prepare a few meals during the weekends and freeze them. Great ideas for these would include meals like chili, sloppy joe, or spaghetti sauce, or lasagna. These can be used during the course of the week.

By making healthy choices for your home you can simplify your cooking. Opt for whole wheat bread and grains. Choose cooking techniques that require minimum time and effort. Stir frying, grilling and baking are excellent techniques to this end. Devote ten minutes before you go to bed to marinate and refrigerate any meat that you will use the next day. This will bring down the cooking time tremendously and make sure that the meat is succulent. Create a small herb garden for your home, so you can add some fresh herbs to your recipes by just running to the backyard–not the grocery store. It will be best to involve your family in meal preparation. This will allow them to make suggestions and increase their commitment towards the task.

Author Bio: Heather Mitchell is a featured writer for Unique Online Furniture where one can find the best selection of unusual bath vanities in every size and style.

Category: Food and Drinks
Keywords: home, family, cooking