Making dinner in a flash

TwitterMoms is again hosting a fun contest for bloggers. This time the prize is a random drawing from participating bloggers for a Samsung Refrigerator. Wouldn't you know, that is the only appliance we have not yet replaced and needs replacing? The "theme" for the contest blog is also very fitting for me, "Making dinner in a flash". So here are my tips for getting dinner on the table quickly.

- Prepare your ingredients ahead of time. I chop vegetables, shred cheese, and brown meat within a day or two of buying it. I then throw everything in the freezer so that when I need it, I can just pull it out and add to the recipe. If you cannot do this, do not be afraid to buy your veggies already chopped, either in the produce department or the salad bar at the grocery store.

- Plan ahead. I plan my meals one week ahead of time. This means that I already know exactly what we are eating and have all the ingredients on hand and ready. I can even pre-measure out the recipe ingredients at my convenience so that I can just throw everything together as needed.

- Love your crock-pot. You can throw everything together the night before and throw it in the fridge. In the morning, throw it in the crock pot and let it cook. At dinner time, grab some salad and dish up from the crock-pot.

- In a real pinch? Buy an already-cooked rotisserie chicken at the store, a bag of salad, and some potato or macaroni salad from the deli. You end up with the taste of a homemade meal in very little time.

- Double your recipes and freeze the second portion for another day. If you are already making one lasagna, making the second one only takes a few minutes longer. When you are ready to eat it, take it out to defrost and then cook as normal.

- Extend your recipes. When you buying a roast, buy one a few pounds larger than you normally use. Cook the roast for dinner one night. Add the leftover meat to the leftover gravy and serve over egg noodles or rice another night and as hot roast beef sandwiches a third night.

So what ways do you make dinner in flash? Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments or do your own blog post and enter the giveaway at Twittermoms (please let me know if you do this so I can check out your post).