| Every working parent who juggles home, family and | | | | to use the next day. Avoid thawing foods at room |
| work know how difficult it is to create healthy and | | | | temperature as this easily makes it easier for |
| delicious meals in such short spans of time. While | | | | pathogens and food borne illnesses to get and |
| cooking healthy meals isn't really that difficult, what | | | | develop in the food. |
| makes it hard is the lack of time. With that, a little | | | | One of the easiest examples to cook for leftovers is |
| advanced planning is all that's needed to make sure | | | | by cooking poultry like turkey cutlets and chicken |
| that you are able to make the most out of the limited | | | | breasts. You can easily cook them inlarge quantities, |
| time you spend for cooking. | | | | and you can separate and store them in batches. You |
| A good idea in cooking and preparing meals is to | | | | can store the extra in the refrigerator for use on the |
| create several main foods that you can prepare in | | | | following day. |
| advance and in large quantities. These can then be | | | | The remaining batch can be cooked with your choice |
| used to create several recipes, or can be served | | | | of sauce, seasoning, spices or even vegetables and |
| differently for consecutive nights. This is actually | | | | served for dinner immediately! |
| different from simply preparing a huge batch of food | | | | What's great about this strategy is that you can |
| and reheating left overs until the week ends. Trust me, | | | | quicken your cooking time the next evening, without |
| your family will notice and appreciate the difference. | | | | having to serve the same thing over again. All you |
| Here are some key tips for cooking this way. One of | | | | have to do is to take the extra portion and prepare it |
| the first things to do is to immediately separate what | | | | in another different manner. |
| you would use for the next days to come from the | | | | Aside from poultry, rice is also one great staple for |
| meal that you will be placing on the table. By | | | | planned meals. You can start cooking rice in large |
| refrigerating unused portions immediately, you are | | | | quantities and refrigerate the rest. You can place add |
| preventing the growth of food borne illnesses. | | | | some ground tomatoes or sauce to the remaining. On |
| Store the foods in shallow containers so that they cool | | | | the second night, you can take the remaining rice, add |
| quickly in the refrigerator. Thick foods like puddings, | | | | some cuts of meat or shrimp or some sliced |
| stews and meat slices should be stored in containers | | | | vegetables. You can also combine the leftover rice |
| and bowls two inches or shallower. They should also | | | | with the poultry or beef that you have previously |
| be stirred on an occasional basis while it cools. | | | | cooked as well. Rice is very easy to cook and very |
| When you refrigerate foods left over from what you | | | | easy to use and store and freeze. |
| have prepared, make sure that you use them within | | | | So, regardless of how short you are of time, it should |
| one or two days. If you want to store foods longer | | | | not be an excuse for you not to be able to create |
| than that, use the freezer and thaw portions overnight | | | | healthy and delicious meals for your family. |