Top 5 Tips for Making Quick, Easy Dinners

Quick easy meals don't have to be limited to things like jarred pasta sauce, box meals, hot dogs and hamburgers. You can make quick easy dinners that still taste great and that are healthy too, as long as you understand a few basic principles.
Follow the tips below to start your own transition to becoming a quick easy chef extraordinaire!
1. Keep a well-stocked kitchen.
It's hard to throw together a meal on the spur of a moment, if you don't have all the ingredients on hand. So it is important to keep a generous supply of fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grain products, seasonings and other staples on hand in your pantry, freezer and refrigerator at all times. Other items you should keep on hand would include olive oil, cooking spray, bread crumbs, cooking wine, canned tomatoes, canned beans, milk, lemon juice and shredded cheese.
Of course, the tastes of you and your family will dictate the items you want to keep on hand, but the list above will at least get you started in the right direction.
2. Plan your meals for a week in advance.
Even if you keep a well-stocked kitchen, it's a good idea to plan your meals out in advance. That way, you can be sure to have everything you need, especially if any of the components are not something you normally stock.
To plan your meals, you can go with your tried and true recipe file, or look for inspiration in online recipe sites like Thrown-Together-Meals.com, AllRecipes.com or Cook.com. You can also find lots of great recipes at FoodNetwork.com.
3. Develop your understanding of how to pair flavors.
Different flavors go well together. Learning how to combine them takes practice. I love to create my own recipes, but it took 2 years of following other cooks' recipes to learn the best ways to put different foods and seasonings together.
Don't be afraid to experiment, but be prepared for some disasters! When you do experience success, write down your recipe so that you can use it again.
4. Prepare foods in advance for later use, whenever you can.
There are several ways to do this. You could pre-chop onions, bell peppers, mushrooms and garlic and store them in plastic containers in your refrigerator or freezer for later use. I find prepping the vegetables, which I use in every meal, to be the most time-consuming part of making dinner.
When making a meal, make extra of certain components of the meal, and then use those extras in a second meal on another day. For instance, if you are making pot roast, buy a larger cut of beef than you need and use the leftovers for roast beef hoagies in another meal.
Make a whole week's worth of meals on the weekend and freeze them. Then, the day of the meal, thaw it out and do any last-minute preparations. This can be a big time saver, if you are disciplined enough to do it!
5. Learn essential cooking skills and practice them with the right tools.
This is actually two tips in one. No matter how much you practice a skill, you will never get good at it until you have the right tools to perform the skill. For instance, having a great set of knives is essential to making quick, easy dinners. And then learning the right way to use the knives is the next step.
Look on cooking websites for videos and tutorials on how to do basic cooking skills. I have also learned a lot by watching cooking shows, as well as competition shows like Food Network Star and Top Chef.
So, now you have some easy tips to follow that can help you learn how to throw together quick, healthy dinners for you and your loved ones.
Kathi MacNaughton has a passion for creating unique, quick and healthy meals for dinner. For great quick and easy dinner ideas, along with cooking tips and hundreds of free recipes, please visit http://www.Thrown-Together-Meals.com or contribute your own unique quick, easy dinner recipe.
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