Easy Dinner

We've all got busy lives today, and by the end of a workday, chances are you're looking for some easy dinner ideas, nutritious and delicious but still easy and quick. It's hard enough to find time to spend with your family or for other leisure activities without spending a couple of hours in the kitchen. Well, here's some good news. If you stock your pantry properly, you can have an easy dinner your family will love on the table, from start to finish in less than half an hour.

The best and easiest way to get a quickly prepared homemade meal to the table is to not use a recipe. Radical as this may sound, there's no need to gasp in shock. Trust me, even a beginning cook can turn out some pretty darn good dishes using this method.

Recipes require lookup and perhaps a stop at the grocery to pick up the celery salt missing from your current stocks. This is simply a waste of time.

Begin by stocking your pantry with rice and various pasta. Just these two grains can form the basis of at least a hundred different dishes. Potatoes and onions are other staples to have on hand.

Canned soups, especially creamed and cheese sauce soups are invaluable in producing a quick dinner recipe. Other canned goods that provide convenient variety for your creations include, according to your tastes, sliced olives, black beans, water chestnuts, pimientos, mushroom buttons, artichoke hearts, baby corn and hard chow mein noodles. Always have chicken and beef bouillon on hand.

For the freezer, be sure to have a couple of the large bags of mixed vegetables. There are many mixtures to choose from and they're quite economical.

Stock a variety of spices. The seasoning of a dish changes the entire character and flavor of your creation and is essential to the easy dinner method. Recommended choices include Basil, French Tarragon, Thyme, Chinese Five-Spice, Sage, Oregano or Marjoram, Rosemary, Cumin and Cayenne. If you're not sure of yourself in the seasoning department, there are many herb charts online which tell you which seasonings complement which foods.

Now all you need to do is mix and match. A bed of seasoned rice or pasta topped with bits of chicken, vegetables of your choice, with or without a sauce provides a delicious and easy dinner. It is after all, a matter of taste – yours. You know what tastes good to you. This type of one-dish meal is extremely versatile. For a more formal take on the easy dinner idea, serve your meat, vegetables and grain or potatoes separately. You still have the same latitude with flavors, although separate pans are usually required.

A dinner salad with artisan bread and some leftover pot roast is an easy dinner idea indeed. Give this free association method a shot. You may find you're a really terrific cook!