Tips for Prepping School Night Dinners

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Harris Teeter in conjunction with Blog Meets Brand, and I have been compensated for my participation. All opinions are my own.
 
Have you always wanted to make school night dinners epic, but you’re just too tired? I have some exciting news for you. You can make back to school dinners awesome, it just takes a little bit of prepping and work. Here is how you can prep for school night dinners.

Make a list

One trick to making school dinners a reality is by making a list. The list I make consists of the dinners I will make for that week. From that list, I also make a grocery list. This grocery list helps me grab everything I need from the store.

Create a cooking calendar

You may be thinking to yourself…what is a cooking calendar? Well, if you have older kids in the house, like us, you can get everyone involved in school night dinners. You can get your kids involved in the cooking process, as much as you want. It’s quite relieving to get help from the other members of the household. Cooking calendars help everyone have their own night to cook.

Meal prep on the weekends

It took me a while to get on board of meal prepping on the weekends, but now that we do it, I love it. It just takes a few hours for you to meal prep by cutting veggies and prepping meats. Since I do this once a week, meal times have gotten much easier on school nights.

Utilize the crockpot

You should know by now that we’re a slow cooker family through and through. By using the slow cooker, we have been able to save time and energy. One of us puts the food in the crockpot before school and work and dinner is waiting for us at night. Truly, an amazing way to prep for school night dinners and make them a reality.

Make shopping simple

Another way you can prep for school night dinners is by making shopping simple. I shop at Harris Teeter for our groceries and I love every minute of it. Harris Teeter offers low price, private label items that help me stay under budget. I love the Together in Education (when you purchase HT private-label items, the added benefit is that your local school of choice can earn money through this program). Check out this super delicious recipe I’m sharing with you guys below, using private label brand items from Harris Teeter! All the ingredients were bought at Harris Teeter for under $16. Make prepping school night dinners easy on yourself.

Traditional Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• ¼ cup panko bread crumbs
• 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
• ½ medium onion, finely chopped
• ½ tsp. garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 5 Tbsp. butter
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 2 cups of beef stock
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine beef, panko, parsley, onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and egg with your hands until combined.  Don’t over-mix.
2. Roll meatballs, between 12 and 20, depending on your preferred size.  In a large skillet heat olive oil and 1 tbsp. butter.  Add the meatballs and cook, turning carefully, until brown on each side and cooked throughout.  Transfer to a plate and cover.
3. Add four tbsp. of butter and flour to the skillet and whisk until smooth and brown.  Slowly stir in beef broth and cream.  Add Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste.  Bring sauce to a simmer until it starts to thicken.  Add meatballs back to the sauce and serve over noodles, potatoes or rice.