Cooking often takes time, which most of us have very little of these days. So why not learn how to prepare meals for your family and still have time to enjoy one another? Rachel Paxton, author of the Creative Homemaking Recipe of the Week Club Cookbook, shares some advice!

Plan ahead
1. Plan meals at least a week in advance to incorporate the use of leftovers. For example, have baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy for dinner Sunday, and then use the leftover gravy as the base of beef stroganoff Monday.

2. If you know you're not going to have time to cook one evening, prepare two dinners the night before and just reheat one the next night.

3. When preparing a meal using grated cheese, chopped onions, etc., prepare more than the recipe calls for and refrigerate the rest for another meal.

4. Clean your kitchen workspace as you go. When you're done, there will be little left to clean.

5. On grocery shopping day, have your children help individually wrap their cookies, snacks, etc., for their lunches. Makes lunch preparation for the rest of the week a breeze and snacks don't disappear before lunches are made.

6. Don't hide your cookbooks away. Organize them where you can get to them easily, and you will use them a lot more.

7. Keep a notepad on the front of the refrigerator for your shopping list. When you run out of something write it on the list right away. Encourage family members to do the same.

8. Prepare favorite beverages like lemonade, tea or Kool-Aid in gallon-sized pitchers, and you won't have to make them as often.

About the author: Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of the Creative Homemaking Recipe of the Week Club Cookbook, a cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. Check out Rachel at her Creative Homemaking site and in the Home and Garden section of Suite 101.

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