5 Tips to Get Dinner Done in 15 Minutes (or less!)

Getting delicious, healthy meals on the table for you and your family can seem like such a daunting task, especially when you don’t have time to slave away in the kitchen for hours. Whether you are working that 9 to 5,  spend all your time running after little ones, or have a jam-packed social calendar, here are five tips that will help you get dinner on the table faster than waiting for your take-out order.

1. Shave off “active” cooking time with a slow cooker.  My favorite appliance in my entire kitchen is our slow cooker. It may seem counterintuitive that cooking dinner for 6 hours would save time, but by using a slow cooker, dinner is ready and waiting by the end of the day, with very little effort. Spend several minutes in the morning combining all of your ingredients into the slow cooker, and your chili/ stew/ curry will be ready to eat when you are.
2. Prep once, get dinner twice (or more!) On days when you have extra time to make dinner, cook double or triple the amount you will serve that night and freeze the rest portioned out in zip-top bags.  Label with the date and what the contents are (because turkey taco filling can look a lot like vegetarian chili), and you are set! On a night when you have zero time to cook, and you have to do is reheat and eat.
3. It’s okay to take shortcuts. There is no shame in keeping loads of frozen veggies and canned beans on hand. They can be used to cook up a nutrient-rich dinner much faster than starting with raw veggies and dry beans. Seriously, save yourself the trouble and take the easy way out…they are just as healthy for you! Just be sure to buy “no salt added” beans to keep sodium intake in check.  You can even use a store-bought rotisserie chicken to quickly boost dishes with some extra protein without a second thought.
4. Batch cook for the week. Pick the day where you have the most free time to cook, and make it your “meal prep” day. Roast a bunch of vegetables, cook up grains like quinoa and farro, and grill some salmon or chicken breasts. You will have quick, healthy dinner options on hand to last for a few days or most of the work week (depending on what you cook up). This tip works well for throwing together a healthy lunch on the fly, too. 

5. Work with smaller portions. Cooking whole carrots or beets? Time consuming! Chop veggies into 1-inch pieces, thinly pound chicken cutlets, or purchase single-portion sized fish fillets instead of a whole side. The smaller the pieces are of raw food you start with, the faster they cook up. No rocket science here, just dinner done in a flash!

Next time you are pressed for time and need dinner ASAP, put these tips into action, and you will be enjoying a meal in no time, no take-out menu required.