Mix and match foods based on availability

Congratulations to Ryan Huval for his winning bid for the Cypress Bayou Casino • Hotel / The Daily Iberian Cajun-Creole Cookbook Cook-off dinner package. His party of 10 will be the first of our readers to test the new recipes by area cooks submitting their creations for the annual cookbook to be published in September.

Whether it is the heat or the late hour of sunset, finding time to cook seems to be harder every day. Simple recipes might make the job easier and more versatile if the same menu is repeated too often in your household.

The great thing about summer is the abundance of fresh foods. Teche Area farmers markets, as well as the harvest fresh fruits and vegetables at area grocery stores, makes meal preparation exciting and very flexible.

Keeping Fresh Foods Handy

Home gardens are another way of insuring fresh vegetables and fruits are always available for meal planning. Whether preparing a full meal with meat, starches and vegetables, or one dish meals like salads or pasta dishes, fresh foods can stretch a family meal to include neighbors or visiting relatives without exploding the pocketbook.

Households in which both parents work and kids have summer extracurricular commitments can get a little hectic, particularly on weeknights. Parents who want to prepare nutritious dinners may feel it’s impossible to do so without making elaborate, time-consuming recipes. But there are ways for busy, time-strapped parents to make sure weeknight dinners are both healthy and simple.

Stock A Healthy Pantry

When grocery shopping, purchase some healthy nonperishable foods that you can rely on in a pinch. Instead of stocking the freezer with unhealthy yet easily prepared frozen foods that are often loaded with saturated fat, stock your pantry with whole grain pastas. Whole grain pastas are lower in calories and higher in fiber and contain more nutrients than refined white pastas. And once water is boiled, whole grain pastas can be prepared in roughly 10 minutes, with vegetables, too.

Rely On A Slow Cooker

One of the simplest ways to prepare healthy meals that won’t take much time to prepare each night is to use a slow cooker. Set dinner in the slow cooker in the morning before leaving for work or darting off for family activities, and a fully prepared, healthy meal will be ready to be served at day’s end.

Prep As A Family

Families who share the responsibility of making dinner on weeknights may find it easier to prepare healthy meals. Younger children may not be able to join in the preparation of too many dishes, but middle school and high school students can help out by chopping vegetables while their parents work on other parts of the meal. Preparing meals can take as much time, if not more, than cooking meals, so making meal prep a family affair can save a substantial amount of time.

Cook Meals In Advance

Families who are hesitant to use slow cookers may benefit by preparing healthy meals over the weekend and then refrigerating or freezing them so they can be cooked on weeknights. If planning to freeze meals prepared in advance, remember to remove them from the freezer the night before and place them in the refrigerator so they are thawed out when you arrive home from work to place them in the oven.

Choose Simple Recipes

Trying new recipes is one of the joys of cooking. But trying new recipes on weeknights can be time-consuming because cooks have yet to grow accustomed to each step in the recipe. When looking for new weeknight recipes, look for meals that can be prepared in five steps or less, leaving the more complicated recipes for weekend meals.

Get creative by combining unusual things like the items suggested in today’s recipes.