Of all the things I do for my husband nothing says I love you, I have been thinking about you, and I am the most awesome wife ever as having dinner ready and on the table by the time he gets home.
Now I do not do this very often as it is a tricky thing. My husband can come home any time between 4:00-7:00 pm and then there is the occasional call that he won't be able to come home for dinner at all. For anyone who does a lick of cooking, you know this is a hard schedule to cook for.
So I have learned a few things to adapt to the ever changing dinner schedule. I have learned to prepare ahead of time so that dinner can be put together as quickly as possible when he gets home.
The meals I make on a regular basis are not elaborate. Most take only about half an hour to prepare. But for those evenings where dinner is ready ahead of schedule, instead of letting them sit on the stove to get overcooked or left out to get cold, I started putting our dinner in the slow cooker. It keeps the food at an even temperature and has been my saving grace at keeping food warm.
We have a regular sized slow cooker but I like using these small ones that both were bought at Walmart on black Friday for some ridiculous price of something like $2. Look for one this year. They have had them the last two years in a row.
Since there is just two of us they are perfect for our dinner plus with more than one I can divide the dishes amongst two slow cookers. These also come in handy for dips like chili or nacho cheese for parties or football game days.
They have also come in handy for evenings where I am in the middle of working on something. By having the food ready I can go back to what I was doing and work until my husband gets home as compared to the frantic-I got so caught up in what I am doing and he is home and I need to start cooking right now-chaos.
My other favorite quick and easy cooking tool is the George Foreman Grill. We eat a lot of chicken so being able to cook a couple of chicken fillets in seven minutes really cuts down on cooking time. We often have chicken tacos, pasta, stir fry, nachos, and pizza (I will talk more about these in a few days). The chicken and pasta takes the longest to cook making the rest of the preparation a breeze.
Setting the table, getting cooking dishes cleaned, and a house tidied before my husband gets home all the while keeping my food hot is sure to win me a best wife award.
For quick dinner time recipes, visit my recipe index for easy meals you can make tonight!
Check out all 31 Days of Creative Homemaking series here.
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31 Days of Creative Homemaking for the Modern Day Woman is now available as an ebook! Click here to find out more about this entire series in an easy to read PDF download!
