Shortcut Meals

There are nights I just don’t feel like working to hard to put together a dinner for the family. I’m sure every home cook responsible for preparing meals every day feels this way once in a while.

In fact, it’s my opinion finding “shortcut” meals that you and your family enjoy are an essential part of planning out your week’s meal schedule. In my case, I don’t usually plan out the week but it’s a really good idea if you can manage it; I just make sure I have enough “short cut” ingredients in the house at all times.

What do I mean by “shortcut” meals?

These are dinners you put together where one or more of the ingredients is already prepared and you build the meal around it. For a good example, check out my Ravioli with Carrot Fennel Sauce recipe on my Cooking & Recipe Blog.

By the way, a “quickie meal” is different from a “shortcut meal” insofar as it is one step and you don’t prepare the rest of the meal around it. For example, throwing a frozen pizza in the oven is a quickie meal. Mac and Cheese is another example. Heating up some commercial chicken wings another. These are usually meals that we make for the kids when a baby sitter is coming over or they won’t eat something I prepared for my wife and myself.

The trick is to have a well-stocked pantry and freezer with products that are quick and easy to prepare, good quality, taste good and affordable. Over time I will show you some of my favorites and ones that have saved me numerous times when I needed to get a meal together in a hurry.