What's for dinner?

February 04, 2016

Making dinner on weeknights has always been a challenge for me.   I know meal planning and prep would go a long way to alleviate my stress, but I must confess ... I am just not that organized. Especially during the winter when we are never home on the weekends.  Both girls are on ski team so we are in Tahoe pretty much every weekend for 4 months so there goes weekends for prepping meals ahead of time.  When Monday rolls around, dining out just seems like such a tempting option.  But then, I remember nothing beats home-cooked meals.  Plus, I love the sitting down as a family to connect with one another.  So, what do I do?  In general I'm a fly by the seat of my pants type of person when it comes to making meals but I do have a few survival tactics: 

• Keep meals simple - main protein dish with 1 - 2 veggies as sides
• Have about 5 easy meals that I know my family will eat in constant rotation so they won't get bored
• Leverage easy meal prep tools such as slow cooker and/or pressure cooker.  To date my slow cooker is my best friend but I am also looking into the Instant Pot.  A few of my friends have it and rave how easy it is to get meals on the table in 20 minutes or less.
• Have a variety of meats ready at the beginning of the week - either defrosting in the fridge or purchased fresh.
• Stock your fridge with a rainbow of vegetables.

I am a procrastinator when it comes to meals so this past Monday, I realized I didn't pull anything out to defrost but I knew I had frozen chicken breasts and sweet potatoes so I decided to make a variation of Pumpkin Chicken Curry and use sweet potatoes instead.

Ingredients:

• 1 6 oz can of tomato paste
• 1 15oz can of coconut milk
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 2 large chicken breasts
• 3 sweet potatoes (cut into chunks)

I basically threw everything into the slow cooker (including the frozen chicken), turned it on low and set timer to cook for 6 hours and voila ... dinner is ready.  Super easy.  I served it over rice with a side of broccoli.  

What are some of your family's favorite go-to meals? 

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