Monday through Friday dinner can seem overwhelming enough without all of the additional things you need to do to keep a family together. To help you beat some of the stress here are a few helpful hints to help make dinnertime a little less stressful.

• Vegetables: Make your own frozen vegetables by buying bags of individual vegetables and combine mixtures in freezer bags. You can also purchase fresh vegetables, dice, slice, add onion, garlic and other seasonings for a quick stir-fry or side dish.

• Pancakes and Waffles: Don’t throw out extra mix, instead make the extra pancakes or waffles and freeze for dinner another night. Scramble a few eggs and microwave some bacon for a change. The kids will love the idea.

• Salads: Make your own salad mixture and store in the refridgerator in zip lock bags for up to three days. Wash and tear the lettuce, spinach, add carrots, mushrooms, cheese, etc…

• When preparing entrees double the recipe. Freeze the extra for dinner next week.

• Spaghetti Sauce: Household staple! When making sauce, triple or quadruple the recipe, freeze the additional sauce in freezer bags for dinner later in the month. Having sauce on hand makes dinner quick and easy, just boil some pasta, make hamburger steaks, pizza, etc…

• Buy in Bulk: Why make unnecessary trips to the grocery store, if you can buy in bulk? Make space in the garage for an additional freezer and some shelf space. Cereals, condiments, syrup, sugar, four, rice, cookies, jelly peanut butter are just a few of the items for dry storage. The additional freezer can save so much time and money in the long run, if you shop for items on sale and freeze them. Chicken, pork, beef, frozen vegetables, ice cream, etc…

• Want meatloaf in a hurry? Instead of waiting for a whole loaf to bake, press the uncooked meatloaf mixture in muffin tins-you’ll cut the baking time in half. Don’t forget to double the recipe and freeze leftovers for later.

• When making pasta dishes that are mixed with frozen vegetables, simply add the vegetables to the boiling pasta during the last several minutes of cooking time for crisp tender vegetables.