Serve Delicious Weeknight Suppers-Fast Tips

Plan Ahead

Keep it simple. -Choose dishes with a limited number of ingredients that use simple cooking techniques.

Make a list - Put aside some time once a week to plan a menu ideas for the week ahead. Check your pantry for the staples you'll need or should replenish and your freezer/refrigerator.

Shop and stock - With shopping list in hand, navigate the supermarkeet for staples, sale items, and all the components you'll need for the week's menu. This eliminates mid week trips. Once you get home, be sure to wrap, pack, and store perishables properly.

Cook Ahead - Weekends are great for making large batches of soups, stews, or casseroles. Serve some that evening and freeze the rest for another day. If you can, prepare a few basic foods that can be incorporated into meals during the week ahead; cook up a pot of rice or make pasta sauce, or roast some potatoes or a mix of seasonal vegetables..

Prepped and premade foods

Prepared rotisserie chicken, chili, soups, pasta dishes, pot pies, etc, as well as salad bar items can form the basis of a heartly no cook dinner.

Frozen vegetables aren't just for side dishes. Available in a variety of styles and combinations, including ethnic mixes like Asian and Mediterranean, use them in a stir fry or toss with noodles or pasta.

Meats, fish, and poultry - are sold in cuts from roasts to prepared kobobs, seasoned or mirinated and ready for grilling, steaming, stir frying and sauteing.

Shopping Shortcuts

Stock up when there's a sale on meats, pooultry, seafood or frozen foods you use. For meats, poultry, and seafood, separate what you plan to cook within two days and freeze the rest immediately. For quicker defrosting, wrap the items in a meal size portions.

• Choose items that naturally cook up fast. Use chicken tenders instead of whole chicken pieces, substitute thinly sliced medallions of pork instead of a thick loin chops; select vegetables cut into the same matchstick-size pieces, which will cook evenly and more quickly than whole or large pieces.

Think outside the box - or bottle or package. Flavored spice blends in any of a variety of flavors can be mixed into ground beef or meatballs, burgers, or meatloaf with an exotic twist. Bottled creamy salad dressing can top mashed or baked potatoes instead of butter or sour cream, or saute fresh vegetables with a tablespoon of vinagrette dressing instead of oil. Use garlic flavored oil or spreadable cheese thinned with alittle milk to make a sauce for pasta, noodles or vegetables.