What's for Dinner?

I couldn't have said it better myself so I decided to ask permission from Jaimie at An American Homestead if I could share her post titled "What's For Dinner? Real Life Tips for Getting Dinner on the Table".
My additions will be [in italics and brackets].

So ... here it goes ...

Everyone wants to eat everyday! Multiple times a day! There’s no stopping it and most often that thankless repetitive job falls to us mothers. I’ve been asked by numerous people to offer suggestions on how I regularly make healthy and simple meals. I guess if I can get dinner on the table while living the demands of an off grid life, anyone can do it! One woman asked recently, “Do you ever work so hard that you are just too tired to make dinner? What do you do in that situation?” The answer to her first question is a definite YES! And this article is my answer to her second question. These are the things that I have found that help me the most when trying to get a quick and healthy meal on the table.

Remember that food is just food.

Ma Ingalls feeding the fire
for the smoked venison.

I put this as number one because I remind myself of it all the time. Please keep reading and I’ll explain. Food can be enjoyable and often is. But when I am strapped for time and have a million other things to do, I try to remember that food is just food. It helps me put things in perspective. Because I live on our off grid homestead, I’ve often thought about how the original homesteaders would have eaten over a century ago. I’ve come to the conclusion that they kept meals simple because a lot of their time spent with food was focused on production and preservation. They planted their own gardens, baked their own bread, and made their own cheese. They raised livestock and hunted for wild game; which they butchered, salted, and smoked to keep without refrigeration. For a summer dinner, they could have had a slice of bread with sausage and cheese, and raw vegetables from the garden. In the winter, they may have cut up some smoked venison and fried it up with some potatoes stored in their root cellar. My point is that we as Americans have come to believe that we need so much variety! Healthy meals, made with real ingredients (not processed), are really possible without a lot of stress if we remember to keep it simple.
[I really appreciate that she put this point first ... food really is just food and meant to nourish our bodies. Keeping things simple helps to keep things in perspective and takes the stress out of meal preparation on those days when time really is too short.]

Have a plan.

I’m not talking about meal planning, although that can be great if that is your thing. I did meal planning for a few years. It worked, but I spent way too much time meal planning! It was just another thing that needed to get done. When I say to have a plan, I mean to realistically think about what you have to fix and how long it will take you for the time you have to spend on it. I try to think about dinner in the morning so that I at least have an idea of what I will fix. This is really important if you need to get something out of the freezer. When the time comes for dinner prep, I can grab my ingredients and get started because I already know what I’m making.
[Meal planning can vary for everyone, depending on each family's needs and situations. Whether planning meals for a week or two at a time, waiting until the morning of to figure out what's for supper, or a combination of something in between, all are meal planning. For 2-3 years I cooked for several adults each night and HAD to plan ahead, at least a week at a time. Now that I'm only cooking for our little family, it's easy to plan the morning of. We go through seasons of having families over every week (usually this stops in the warmer weather due to late work hours); during these times I am sure to have in mind at the beginning of the week what I will be making for our company later in the week. Sometimes I even prepare most of it a day or two in advance so my time is free the day of to do other things ... like relax so my mind is fresh for our guests!]

Keep your kitchen clean and picked-up.

Drainer overflowing!

This is a tough one for many people and something that I struggled with a lot when I was a new mother. Before I had my first child, I had worked full time. When I made the change to stay home, I just could not get used to the idea of having to clean and pick-up the kitchen throughout the day. I wanted to do it once and be done! Well, I’ve since learned that cleaning throughout the day is a lot easier than cleaning a huge mess at the end of the day. This is so important for meal preparation because if you can’t find room to cook, you won’t do it. Cleaning up after each meal means that you can enter your kitchen at any moment and start cooking. You won’t need to waste valuable prep time cleaning up before you can even get started with dinner.
[This is a very important tip!! Keeping the kitchen clean is my number one cleaning priority!! I prefer the dishes to be washed and put away after each meal, however sometimes I need to let them sit in the drainer ... that's ok as long as they are not sitting dirty in the sink unless absolutely necessary! I like the 'flylady' system of 'shining the sink' before you go to bed each night. What a blessing to start your day fresh with a CLEAN KITCHEN!!]

Get rid of kitchen utensils that you never use.

My most essential kitchen tools.

And keep the rest of them organized and easily accessible. It’s a pain when you have to fish around in a drawer overloaded with utensils for a pair of tongs or a wooden spoon. Keep only what you use and get rid of the rest! Meal prep goes so much quicker when you can quickly put your hands on what you need. I actually keep the things I use most often on my kitchen counter. My knife block and cutting board are always out where I can use them and my cast iron skillet is always sitting on my stove. Isn’t that a beautiful skillet? It was my grandmother’s and I love it!
[I try not to have anything on my kitchen counter because it's so small ... but I DO like to have my  most-used items easily accessible. This seems to be an ever-evolving process for me!]

Pick a good time of day for dinner prep.

Simmering soup in a dutch oven.

It doesn’t have to be right before dinner. Try to make it a time when you have limited distractions. I usually do most of my dinner prep in the afternoon while my youngest is napping and my oldest is at the kitchen table doing schoolwork. This is the best time for me to work in the kitchen. During this time, I bring all my ingredients together. I chop what needs to be chopped, grate cheese, get baked potatoes ready to go in the oven, make biscuits, etc. All I have to do before dinner is put a pan on the stove to cook or put a dish in the oven. This time of year (winter) I usually have my wood stove going, so I will often prepare something that can simmer on top all afternoon and be ready by dinner time. It’s my off grid crock-pot!
[Excellent tip ... you do not have to prepare all of your meal right before you cook it! Do various components at the most convenient time for you and your family. When my work load was a lot heavier and I planned meals a week at a time, I would often take the time to prep ingredients for several meals at once. This cut daily meal prep time down a lot.]

Choose something you already know how to make.

My homemade biscuits.

This is important when you are strapped for time. You don’t want to worry about carefully referring to a recipe when you just need to get dinner done. If you are trying to broaden your cooking skills, do that a little at a time. Every couple of weeks, pick a new recipe to try when you don’t have too many other things going on. Make that effort worthwhile and choose something that will be delicious time and after time! Learn how to roast a chicken, make biscuits from scratch, or cook up your own spaghetti sauce. In future articles, I plan to cover some basic foods that I believe are essential when building your cooking skills.
[I like to have a list handy in my homemade cookbook binder of all our favorite meals. When I'm pressed for time it's nice to look at that list and get a few ideas before moving forward. Another thing I find helpful is to have the ingredients accessible. We purchase a lot of things in bulk; instead of keeping these items in large bags I keep smaller containers within reach. Here is a post I did a while ago that shows some of my containers for our bulk items though I no longer keep the ones on the counter but on a shelf in the kitchen.]

Keep a well stocked pantry.

Our garden produce canned
for the winter.

I don’t make many trips to the grocery store. I make most of our meals from the food I have stored in our pantry or the produce from our garden in the summer. I spent a lot of the summer and fall canning our own garden produce and livestock, but I also have a good amount of bulk food stored. Things like wheat berries, corn, beans, rice, olive and coconut oil, sugar, salt, coffee, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, different kinds of vinegar, canned milk, spices, and peanut butter.
[For me, part of having a well stocked pantry is having plenty of home-canned convenience items on hand. Home canned soups, seasoned beans, meat and vegetables all make for super quick meals in a pinch that are also healthy and tasty! Here is a link to some of my canning videos and posts. Also, here is a link to a post I did a while ago about stocking the pantry and meal planning ... though it looks like I need to update it a little!]

Don’t cater to picky eaters.

This is a hard one for me, but I keep at it. My toddler is in the picky stage. I remember when my 8 year old was his age and doing the same thing. He grew out of it and will now eat most anything. I know my youngest will too. I want him to learn to eat what I put in front of him. I know what my family likes and I really try to make meals that they will enjoy. But if the kids don’t like something, our rule is that they aren’t getting anything else. They have to eat what they have been given. I won’t be a short order cook.
[Amen to that. When my oldest, now 21, was less than 2 years old he decided he did not want to eat his food. Fortunately for the both of us he did NOT have a choice as that was the only food we had left. I wrapped it up and gave it to him the next morning for breakfast. He refused to eat it. I wrapped it up and gave it to him for lunch. He refused to eat it. I cannot remember if it was supper that night or breakfast the following morning (pretty sure it was breakfast) but finally he ate it and asked for more. I did not have this problem with him again and did the same with my other two children. If I found one did not particularly like something I tried to serve it more often so they would get used to it. Even if they never grew to like it they at least tolerated it. They are now all pretty much adults and they enjoy so many different foods and are not afraid to try new things. I believe my  mission was accomplished.]

Don’t stress when your dinner plan doesn’t happen.

At the end of the day, no one will go hungry because you didn’t get a perfectly home-cooked dinner on the table. With that said, try not to get takeout either. Just because the circumstances of life haven’t enabled you to cook dinner, you don’t have an excuse for takeout. Anything you eat from home (even if it is cheese and crackers) will probably be more healthy than any restaurant fair.
[Sometimes we are in situations where we simply have to eat out ... and that's ok!! It's there for a reason. But if it's just a matter of lack of time, it's so quick and easy to throw together a few jars of homemade soup or meat and vegetables to make a soup or stew, pull out a freezer meal like the freezer lasagna I just posted the other day ... or eat cheese and crackers! Be prepared! You won't regret it.]

So that’s it. These are things that I do everyday. I know they help me get dinner on the table. I hope they have given you some encouragement in fulfilling what can often be a thankless job. Do you use any of these tips? Do you have any to add to the list?