by Pat Lunsford

Created on: August 13, 2008   Last Updated: October 30, 2009

Having to help my husband with our business along with caring for our children and my blind father, deciding what to have for dinner was always a challenge for me. However, I believe I have mastered it.

I started writing down quick and easy to prepare meals and each time I came up with another, I added it to the list. I kept the list on my computer and made a copy that I kept in my purse so that I could access it anytime or anywhere.

Over time, the list became a lifesaver for me. However, I learned to prepare some things in advance, such as chopped peppers and onions. Once every few weeks, I would chop bags full and store them in the freezer so that I could just reach into the bag, pinch off what I needed, and toss it into the pot.

There are also a lot of time savers you can take advantage of like packaged hamburger patties. It may cost a few cents more but if you're like me and you're in a hurry, you're happy to pay a little extra to buy the time.

Dinner #1:

The meeting with my daughter's teacher had taken longer than I had anticipated. It was getting late and my husband wanted me to accompany him to his partner's house right after dinner that evening. When I got to my car, I took out the dinner list and decided what to have. We'd had hot dogs the night before so it had to be something more nutritious.

I swung by the supermarket and picked up a fully cooked rotisserie chicken, a can of cream of chicken soup, two cans of green beans, a pack of garlic bread, and a pint of coleslaw. When I got home, I peeled and diced two potatoes, covered them with extra water and put them on to boil. I cut the chicken up, covered it with the soup, covered it and slid it into the preheated oven (350 degrees).

Then I opened the green beans, dumped them into a pot, added butter and put it on the stove to boil. The potatoes were done by then and I drained the water off into a large dish. With the hand mixer, I creamed the potatoes right in the pot. Then with a whisk, I used the stock from the potatoes and whipped up a bowl of instant potatoes then folded the real potatoes in with it. (It works!)

Within forty-five minutes of getting home, I had dinner on the table and it looked and tasted as if I'd spent two hours preparing it. We sat down to a nice home cooked meal.

* Creamy chicken

* Buttery green beans

* "Real " mashed potatoes

* Cole slaw

* Garlic bread

Dinner #2

It was the same type of situation. I needed a quick, easy dinner and had nothing prepared. I glanced over my list

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