New Brunswick Business Daily

Dinner ideas for a young couple who have hectic work schedules?

Hi my boyfriend and i are both in our early 20s and have really busy work schedules. Its hard to come home to make dinner for us because im so tired-so we result in buying fast food which gets expensive and i know is bad for you. Does anyone have any fast and good dinner ideas for us?

Public Comments

1. I would suggest having prepared foods on hand. One day a week shred some cheese, carrots, lettuce, and have cut up veggies prepared and ready to be cooked/served. When cooking, make two meals at once.If you buy a fast fry steak, cook it and then you can have half of that for fajita's or stir fry and another night use it with rice. A whole chicken, cook it up and separate it into 3 or so portions and keep one handy for 2 days in the fridge if you want it cut up with some pasta, tomatos and whatever else you have on hand. I always have a day where I prepare my meals and plan ahead and if I can cook it, prep it a day in advance I do so. Most of the meals I cook take less than 20 mins to make..not much time at all.
2. Buy a crock pot and look for any magazine published by Taste of Home. They are full of great ideas, you will find them at the super market checkout. or look for them online. http://www.tasteofhome.com/Simple---Delicious-Magazine
3. Buy the Stouffers Contessa, Barilla, Marie Callender, brands skillet meals! plenty of variety and easy to prepare, just get salad or veggies to add to your meals.
4. The fastest way to make healthy food is to learn to stir-fry or saute. I agree on the pre-prep - on Sunday you can cut up veges like brocolli, brussels sprouts, asparagus, anything green. Put them bags so you've got enough for a meal. Get some chicken, pork, beef, that you can cut into squares and put in bags in the freezer. Get a jar of pre-chopped garlic, and get some onions. When get home put the bag of meat in a bowl of warm water, it will defrost quickly. Put some peanut oil in your pan and heat it pretty hot then dump in the meat. Stir it around, hot, until it's browned. Dump it in a small bowl. Add a little more oil, heat it, add the garlic. Then add your veges. Stir them around for a minute then put the meat back in and add a little chicken stock (which you can keep in the fridge.) Cover, turn down the heat and leave for 10 minutes. You're done. You can also keep brown rice on hand by getting a good rice cooker, like the induction heat zojirushi (sp/) You dump in water and rice and it cooks it perfectly AND keeps it warm for a couple of days.