Tips For Getting Dinner On The Table

Photo by Rene Ehrhardt

During our busy days of homeschooling, child training, laundry piles, and housecleaning madness sometimes the task of getting dinner on the table seems so tiring!

Over the years I have learned that if I wait until 4:00 to start dinner, I am usually worn out and tired and tempted to serve a bowl of cereal instead of a hot meal.

While a bowl of cereal is a fun dinner sometimes, it isn’t something I want my family eating every night!  Instead of doing that, I began to set the goal of having dinner ready by 1:00. Getting most of my meal (and dishes) done and out of the way works really well for us. Once we eat, there are fewer dishes and we can easily transition into family time. Instead of spending an hour cleaning up, it takes only a few minutes. For some reason, getting the kitchen cleaned up quickly  seems to help us stick with having family devotions every night too.

As soon as we finish lunch, I begin preparing whatever it is we are having for dinner. Sometimes I can get the entire meal done, (which I try to do!) and other times, depending on what we are having, I get most of the preparation done.

Some meals that can be done in advance are:

Casseroles- usually you can make them up and pop them in the refrigerator and take them out when it is time to bake it

Soups- They taste better when they simmer for a while anyway!

Pizza- You can put the dough in the bread machine, chop up all the toppings and place in a container in the refrigerator

Chicken for grilling- I usually parboil some chicken thighs or whole breast and marinade them. At dinner time, pop them on the grill for a few minutes and you have a quick meal!

Salads- Getting a nice crisp salad all ready to go is a nice addition to any meal! Pasta salads are great to make in advance too!

Breads- If I get my bread in my bread machine by 1:00, it is ready for dinner. Fresh, warm,  homemade bread is delicious! If I am making dough for rolls, I will start it in the morning and in the afternoon get it all ready and bake right before dinner.

Desserts-It is nice to have a dessert all ready after dinner time, especially since most things have to cool. If you are making cookies, you can get all the dough ready, place it on cookie sheets in the refrigerator and cook while you are eating. Then you will have a yummy warm cookie right from the oven without all the extra dishes!

Having my dinner all ready by 1:00 also frees up my time to play and read with my children in the afternoon or finish up some projects.

It also allows me to get a few minutes of rest so that I can be prepared for my husband coming home from work. I am much more able to greet him with a smile when I am not in the midst of getting dinner ready! It has definitely been a time and sanity saver for me!

This post is linked to Kitchen Tip Tuesday & Works For Me Wednesday