Quick and Easy Challenge

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

One of the most common issues I hear when talking about cooking with other parents is how to get a healthy dinner on the table quickly and easily. It doesn’t matter what your day might involve. Whether you’ve shuttled back and forth between jobs, childcare, activities, and the grocery store, or just spent the day at home keeping the little ones entertained, either scenario is an exhausting proposition, and you may have little energy and time at the end of the day for preparing a delicious, wholesome meal.

I love to cook and, some days, I would love nothing more than to spend an afternoon cooking. But it‘s a whole different animal when you have very young children like I do. I do most of my major cooking after they go to sleep and rarely use the front burners on my stove anymore! But for day to day meals, I still need to cook when they’re around. I’ve tried all the tips the parenting magazines suggest: set up a play area in the kitchen, keep a group of kitchen “toys” just for the kids (and my sons do love whisks and salad spinners), get them involved – and sometimes these things work.

But there seems to be a law that says each minute of undisturbed cooking time equals ten minutes of disaster reconnaissance work. The quieter it seems, the more damage is being done. I turn my back for one second and my sixteen month old is climbing up his highchair, perched precariously to look out the window, or “reorganizing” the spices. It’s enough to drive one batty. So in my home, the faster I can get dinner together, the better!

You can meet the challenge of getting quick dinners together with grace if you have a solid plan of action. That’s where a little advance planning and prep work come in. You can keep a mental file of different dishes that come together quickly, family favorites you have prepared so often you don’t need a recipe. In my house, those are pasta, quesadillas, grilled chicken salad, and turkey meatloaf. I also like recipes that, once you make them the first time, you could do again easily from memory. And of course, since it’s summer, we do lots of grilling.

We recently tried the pre-marinated meat that is offered in the grocery store. It’s so easy to just open the package and throw it on the grill or grill pan. My store has Lemon Garlic, Brown Sugar Barbecue, Italian, and Jerk marinated chicken. I’ve been thinking about buying the club packs of meat and prepping my own marinade to save on the dollar (or more) per pound upcharge the store places on this convenience. You can save a few bucks by doing it at home and make your own personalized creations; then refrigerate or freeze in meal size portions. Then you won’t even need to think about it come dinnertime.

The recipe below combines the tang of lemon, the kick of garlic, and the flavor of fresh herbs such as oregano or rosemary. Try it with chicken breast, chicken pieces, pork chops, or pork tenderloin, and serve with salad or grilled veggies. Dinner couldn’t be simpler.

One of my hubby’s favorite quick and easy meals is the grilled chicken sandwich. He has a special technique down to picking the perfect deli pickle out of the barrel (even I am not normally trusted to select the best pickle). We grill the marinated chicken, adding a slice of cheese and toasting the soft sandwich rolls right on the grill just before the chicken is finished. Add very thinly sliced pickles and a side of sweet potato fries, and I guarantee you won’t be heading to the local family restaurant or fast food place as often once you try your homemade grilled chicken sandwich.

Serves/Makes: 0.75 cup

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 lemons, zested
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh herbs (rosemary or oregano), finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper