Working all week and having to come home to cook dinner for your family could be the least favorite thing that you do.
After spending hours working away, you may not have the energy nor time to make a delicious family meal. There may be times where you will throw those ready seasoned nuggets or something in the oven or prepare microwave dinners, and you feel like you are letting yourself and your family down.
The last thing you want is your family telling you that the dinner you made was not enjoyable or that you continuously make the same meal day in and day out.
You may not believe me, but you can and will be able to make a home cook delicious meals in 15 minutes or less!
Just follow my advice, and you’ll for sure, make your family members think you have some superpowers.
Use a good kitchen appliance
Your journey to making quick, delicious home-cook meals start with the type of appliance you use. I guess that you’ve heard of a slow cooker before, and pressure cooker.
For a while, many of us used the slow cooker to ensure we had a delicious meal when we came home from a long day of work. We would put all the ingredients in the pot in the morning or the night before, let it slow cook throughout the day, and when we’re ready to eat dinner, it is already prepared.
The pressure cooker was a loved appliance by many who loved that juicy melt-in-your-mouth tender food. Pressure cookers and slow cookers allow the dish to marinate in the seasonings you put in your pot, which makes the dish delicious.
Well, in our day in age, someone had an idea to combine the best of both worlds. They were smart enough to combine many of the cooking methods we use into one versatile kitchen appliance, the Instant Pot.
The Instant Pot is the kitchen appliance that is becoming popular and is slowly becoming a staple kitchen appliance in our households.
The way this kitchen appliance is designed, you do not have to worry about getting burned from the steam, like pressure cookers do, if you are unaware of handling it. The Instant Pot is “burn-proof,” it has many safety features where it does not open unless all the pressure is released, it stays locked until it is safe to open.
It is also double-walled insulated, so it keeps the heat and pressure in much better than the standard pressure cooker. Therefore, it cooks much faster than a conventional pressure cooker. And this feature is what is going to allow you to make those delicious meals in 15 minutes or less.
Prepare for the week
What will save you tons of time and aggravation when coming home to cook a meal for your family is setting yourself up for success. You can take a moment in your weekend to put together your meal plan for the week.
Depending on your family, you may need to plan 4-10 meals for the week. Knowing what you will cook for the week will save you time each evening thinking about what you will make. It frees up your mind daily, rather than every day thinking about it, you spend one day maybe 10-15 minutes to plan for the week.
Knowing what you will prepare for the week will help you be organized and help you prepare for making your evening meals.
Shop for the week
Once you have your meal plans for the week, go through your kitchen and pantry to see what ingredients you need, write them down, and then go shopping.
When you have a list ready, shopping ends up being faster, you require less thinking, and you are all set for the upcoming week.
Roster of meals
Another great feature about owning an Instant Pot, is that because of its popularity, there are many recipes online which you can follow.
I feel that there are endless recipes, and the ones that I follow and the meals I make at home are delicious. You can find all sorts of meal plans to make 15-minute meals or less.
Check out some here: [insert a link from our blog]
The beauty of the internet is that if you are stuck one day and not sure what to make, you can go online and gather delicious meal ideas for the week.
Compile a list of your family’s favorite meals and create your roster. By doing this, it will make your weekly meal planning easy. It’s like picking random things without wasting your time thinking about it, and no matter what you choose, it will always be a hit.
You don’t ever have to worry that what you decide to make for that week will not go over well with your family. Just make sure that your roster is long enough so that you have many options to choose from, and you can cook different meals throughout the week and month.
Of course, you know your family well, if they love particular dishes and you are more of a routine type family, then it’s much easier for you, you can always make the favorites, there is less meal planning for you.
Organize recipes and use smart assistant tools
The old way was to keep your recipes in a recipe book. Now, what I do, is I use my google chrome to save my favorite recipes, which I find online and bookmark them.
It makes it easier for me to find my recipes, and then I use my google home recite to me how to make the meal step-by-step. It’s like having a head chef right there with me, telling me what I need to do next.
Set-up your kitchen for success
I may be giving away that I have a little OCD, but I organize my fridge where I put the ingredients close together, which I will use for each meal.
I also keep a pretty organized pantry, similar to the fridge, so that I know what I will be using for the next meal.
By doing this, when I am ready to make that meal, I grab what I need and set it up on my counter. I even put the ingredients is an assembly line according to the recipe instructions, so that they are ready to go into the pot when they are up next. I typically do this when the recipe calls for little sauteing.
Multi-task a little
One of the things that will speed up your meal making time is that you turn on your Instant Pot so that it can pre-heat, and while it’s doing that, organize your ingredients so that they are ready for you to dump them into the pot.
Any chopping you need to do, you can do that while the instant pot is warming up. Anything you need to set up for your meal can also be done during the pre-heating time so that when it’s ready to go, you are also prepared to go.
Since you are doing 100 percent of the cooking in an instant pot, you can dump all the ingredients in and allow it cook as you tidy up the kitchen and set the dinner table.
Around the time the meal is ready, everything is pretty set, and as a bonus many times, there is minimal clean up since I do a little cleaning while it’s cooking.
Buy the right groceries
Purchasing ingredients that are pre-minced, such as garlic, pre-washed, canned beans, pre-made salsa, and pre-made sauces, will save you lots of time.
It may take you some time to find which of the brands you like the most, but, once you have them, it makes your life comfortable, and allows you to make your meals quickly since many of the ingredients are already prepared, and all you have to do is throw them in your Instant Pot.
Involve the rest of the family
I think this is the best advice on the list of how to make delicious and fast meals for your family. Involve them in your process.
Whether there are two or four of you in the household, you can always use a little help, and it makes for great family time.
For example, if someone is home before you, then ask them to take out the ingredients needed for the meal and set it up on the kitchen counter.
You can also ask them to pick out from your meal roster, which meal(s) they look forward to having during the upcoming week.
I find that when everyone has some involvement, the meal tastes better, and it makes for a happy home.
Conclusion
Making a delicious meal for your family in 15 minutes seems impossible. Still, by doing the preparation and using the right tools, you will set yourself up for success and be able to do the impossible.
At the beginning of this journey, it will be challenging. Give these ideas a try, and you will be able to find your groove and what works best for you and your lifestyle.
It might seem tedious and time-consuming in the beginning. Once you set yourself up for success, especially by having your Instant Pot on hand, your meal roster to choose from, and your family helping you, then you will be cooking delicious meals in no time!
