Kitchen Shortcuts to Make Mealtimes Easier

Sometimes it's hard to imagine that making a meal at home could be any faster or easier than hitting a drive-thru. Well here's the good news: You don't have to be any great chef to make your own fast, delicious, healthy, and inexpensive meals at home every single day.

FREEZE YOUR OWN HEALTHY FAST FOOD

Make your freezer a microcosm of the grocery store. You'll have a sampling of just about every type of food at your fingertips:

Meats: Individualize portions of meat before you freeze.

Chicken: Buy in quantity and cook all at once, saving untold hours of prep/cooking/clean-up time. Store in serving-sized pieces, or cubed to be added to salads or stove-top dishes.

Breads: Freeze portions of bread, buns, soft tortillas, pita, etc. in original store packaging or divided into freezer bags. Small quantities thaw quickly at room temperature. Pull out just what you need for a meal.

Vegetables: Buying frozen assures that you can have a variety of veggies on hand. Keep a small serving in the freezer, scoop straight into a microwave dish, and you're good to go.

Sauces: When you cook that favorite meat sauce, make an extra large potful. Freeze meal-sized portions in freezer baggies. They stack beautifully flat. Simply reheat from frozen, or along with "no pre-cook" noodles, make a speedy lasagna.

Breakfast foods: Having some frozen bagels, prepared pancake batter (most pancake batters freeze well) and sausages means you're ready to go on weekend mornings.