Time management, for me, begins with having adequate space and supplies.
Our kitchen is our gathering place and thus, becomes the most cluttered the fastest. At least once a week, I pull out the trash bin and methodically go through any and all papers stacked around. I bought a standing file and sort all mail and papers into the files and go through that semi-monthly. This keeps my counters somewhat clear and my papers mostly organized.
Before food shopping, create a loose meal plan for the week with food staples that can be interchanged between recipes, such as sauces, stews, soups and/or chilis. Always have on hand no-salt canned veggies, especially those wonderful petite diced tomatoes. If I have those on hand, I can whip up a simple tasty meal in minutes. When my girls were little, some staple items included canned veggies, fruits, and things like dry milk and stocks for soups, etc.
Buy her a Betty Crocker cookbook & The Joy of Cooking....my two favorite cook books and I have LOTS of them, believe me. I actually need a new BC cook book, as the pages in mine are so well worn it's falling apart. I never used them and one day I was bored and started browsing through and wow, I was impressed at the ease of use and description and options available. I always tweak the recipes to my liking and love them!
Some easy meals I've thrown together:
One can of petite diced tomatoes with juices and basil & garlic seasoning in it, simmer with fresh garlic, light onions, few capers and some black greek olives. Toss with penne, a dollop of ricotta and sprinkle some parm on there - YUM. A real family pleaser. I serve it with salad and ital bread, if on hand. Otherwise, it's filling on its own. *If you want meat, I sometimes will add cooked italian sausage cut up and one more can of the tomatoes without the juices.
Sautee some onions till soft in olive oil/butter. Cut some chicken cutlets into chunks, roll in a bowl with flour and your favorite seasonings (I use adobo and italian), add to pan with a small amount of chicken broth. Optional: In a small bowl, mix milk and flour to make a thicker sauce in the pan, or just add more broth for something thinner. Before the chicken is cooked, I add some sort of veggie, either brocolli, string beans, snap peas, or squash...whatever. Serve over rice.
In the morning before work, I will throw a pork loin roast into the crock and two regular sized cans of chicken broth, then add water to just cover meat. Add in some big chunks of onion and one or two cloves of garlic and 1/2 sliced jalapeno/chile pepper. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4/5. You can set up the fixins for some really great burritos/tacos, such as lettuce, sour cream, black olives, tomatoes, cheese, & salsa - either the night before or right then or before serving. Just before serviing, place the meat with a little juice under the broiler and let the top crisp. Serve with warm tortillas - very yummy and easy. And there are usually leftovers for another meal.
About once every other week, I go through my veggie drawer and pull everything out and just sautee or grill up all the veggies using some soy sauce for flavoring. I make a big pot of rice and just serve the veggies over the rice with some soy or duck sauce. YUM. I love this - my H not so much. difficult child says it's her favorite. I usually keep a can of water chestnuts on hand for this dish and use all sorts of veggies - any kind will work really.
Sometimes, when I get back from grocery shopping, if I'm feeling ultra organized, I will not only break up the meats into meal sized ziplocs, but I will sometimes throw in a marinade or some kind of seasoning rub so when I want to use it, it's ready for the grill or to add to a dish. Also, when I shop, I will buy the italian bread even if I am not going to use it right away and break it into two pieces, wrap tightly and freeze. Pop it into the oven in foil and it softens right up. I have found that ciabatta bread works best.
Sometimes I will make a double sized meal and freezone one half, such as ziti or lasagna or chili, etc.
