As a parent, you might constantly be juggling a busy schedule. It can be quite difficult to fit preparing healthy meals into the equation.

Here are some options that will make this far easier and ensure that your family doesn’t miss out. 

Simple Choices

First, it’s great to have a few meals that are simple to prepare and easy to make in your Arsenal. A great example would be bolognese. The Italian classic might seem complex but once you have prepared the mince, it’s just a case of dicing the veg and throwing in the rest of the ingredients. Give it a stir and let it simmer. The longer you leave it, the more rich the sauce will be. So, you can prepare it early in the day and let it simmer in the evening. 

Another classic fast food choice would be a stir fry. The big benefit of the typical stir fry is that it probably takes no more than ten minutes to prepare. You just need to decide what you’re going to include in your mixture, select a protein and throw it all together in the plan. Add a range of sauces to the table so that everyone in the family can customise the stir fry the way they want. You can find more great ten minute meals on taste.com. 

Complete The Work The Day Before

Some delicious and delightful meal choices do take a lot longer to prepare than you would like if you are running on a busy schedule. The way to handle this is to prepare them the day before. You can do this with something like the recipe for tuna macaroni salad at yellowblissroad.com which needs to be left in the fridge for a max of 24 hours before it’s ready to eat. There are lots of meals that will keep until the next day so you can prepare them at least 24 hours before. Alternatively, you could also think about prepping the evening meal in the morning when you might have just a little more free time to work with. 

Use The Right Tools

It might also be worth looking at the different tools that will make cooking on a busy schedule a lot easier. One example would be a slow cooker. This pot will heat up the food slowly through the day, cooking it while you’re out until it’s ready for the evening meal. You can use a slow cooker to create some delicious options such as a beef casserole. This can be the perfect warm winter dish for the whole family. This isn’t the only tool that can make preparing meals easier and faster. 

You might commonly find that you have left over food at the end of the day. If that’s the case, then you could think about investing in a vacuum sealer. These are quite budget friendly and will ensure that you can vacuum pack your food before putting it in the freezer, keeping it fresh and taking up less space. You will need to make sure that you buy the vacuum bags to go with a device like this of course. 

Teach The Kids

Alternatively, you could also think about ensuring that preparing the family evening meal is a family activity. You can teach your kids to cook and prepare food as one of their chores. If you do this, that will take the pressure off you and guarantee that you are not racing around the kitchen after what was probably already quite a busy day at work. It also gives your kids a skill that they are guaranteed to utilise a lot later in life. 

Explore Different Services

Finally, you might want to consider exploring different services that make preparing food on a busy schedule a lot easier. Did you know there are solutions that will send food prepared for you straight to your door each week? Some of these solutions will even allow you to choose what you want to cook and then send you the food ready to cook to match. It will save you a lot of time preparing and even shopping for food. The best part is, if you live in an urban area, services like this are far more affordable than you might expect. 

We hope this helps you understand some of the steps that you can take to guarantee that you do find it a lot easier to prepare healthy, home cooked meals even when you are in a rush. If you take this advice, you’ll be able to make sure that your kids can always access the delicious, healthy meals that they need.