We have dinner together as a family almost every night. It’s one of the best times of the day — as long as I don’t get too frazzled by getting dinner onto the table. It’s important to me to do it reasonably inexpensively and quickly without making a huge number of dishes, and I turn again and again to the same few cookbooks, tools, and suppliers to help me do that.
Here are my top five resources for getting dinner on the table without too much stress:
Costco. Where would I be without their frozen food section? I buy lean ground beef chubs, boneless skinless chicken breasts, salmon fillets, chicken nuggets, and fish sticks there. The only trick is to remember to thaw out whatever I need 24 hours beforehand. Since I so regularly use frozen meat, I’m in the habit of doing that.
If only I lived close to a Trader Joe’s, that’d make my list instead of Costco, but sadly, they don’t do business in Colorado.
Cook’s Country Quick Recipes. Most of the recipes in the Cook’s Country magazines take too long for a weeknight dinner, but every issue comes with eight quick dinner recipes on punch-out cards. I’ve found some of my favorite recipes there, including Skillet Chicken and Potatoes; Steak Tips with Mushrooms, Garlic, and Thyme; and Skillet Hamburger Macaroni, a huge hit with the kids. My only complaint is that they publish just six issues a year. I wish they came out monthly.
Express Lane and Vegetarian Express Lane Cookbook by Sarah Fritschner. When I was a vegetarian for ten years of my life, we lived off of Vegetarian Express Lane. Then, when I started eating meat again, I turned to her Express Lane cookbook to figure out what to cook. Fritschner’s recipes are easy but still delicious, innovative while still appealing to kids.
My new All-Clad 6 Quart Saute Pan. Rick cringes when I get it out if it’s his night to do dinner, even though it’s not that hard to clean. It’s just daunting in its 13″ stainless steel greatness. Even though it’s way huger than the burner, the copper core conducts heat and the entire inside gets hot. I can cook four or even six boneless chicken breast halves or four nice strip steaks in it. An excellent, though expensive, purchase.
The slow cooker. Last weekend I made Beef Burgundy and today I’m making Green Chili Chicken. The aroma wafts throughout the house the whole day. But the best part about it is that I get the main part of dinner prepped in the morning and have very little to do by evening. Some days there’s so much going on that I don’t want to knock off at 5 pm just to cook. Those are days I’m glad I planned ahead.
I have a very basic 6-quart Rival Crockpot with a stoneware insert. Cook’s Country recommends a $150 All-Clad model, but I don’t think you need to spend that much to get a decent one.
What are your can’t-do-without dinner resources?