More Menu Planning Tips to minimize your last minute work

This more menu planning tips page is designed to reduce your last minute work in the kitchen. A really key tip to minimize last minute work is to use easy recipes that reduce the preparation and servings tasks for every course you serve, whether appetizers, salad main course or dessert.

Appetizers
You can serve appetizers in the living room before dinner, at the table as a starter course, or both. I highly recommend planning for appetizers in the living room, especially if you are hosting alone.

With easy recipes for hors d’oeuvres to serve in the living room, you don’t need to worry about an appetizer course at the table. It saves you from rushing in and out of the kitchen with a soup course or other starter that has to be served and removed before the main course.

So choose recipes that are easy to serve in the living room.

It’s thoughtful to set out something for people who may be watching their diet. Raw vegetables and dip fill this bill to perfection.

Plates of cheese and crackers, and maybe some pate, all are tried and true recipes that work for the living room Besides, people like them!

Get more menu planning tips for make ahead appetizers here.

For me, it’s easiest to serve it along with the main course. In other words, I serve it as a side dish, I think of this salad almost as an extra vegetable, not a star dish in itself.

Again, it’s like the appetizer question – if you make it a separate course and you don’t have help, you have to run back and forth in the middle of dinner.

So I recommend serving salad along with the main course.

If you want, you can set your table with side plates for salad. Or (easiest of all) you can just let people serve themselves salad onto their dinner plate. If the salad bowl is on the table, they can decide whether to eat their salad before, with or after the main course.

Salads that go with main courses are the simple ones, some greens, and some colour like radishes, tomatoes, carrots or red peppers, with a simple dressing.

More menu planning tips for the main course
A standard “meat and potatoes” main course includes a serving of meat, potatoes or rice, and one or more vegetables. Depending on how heavy the food is, you may want to add a basket of great bread or dinner rolls.

A stress-free main course choice is meat and potatoes that can cook together in the oven. That way you only have to steam your vegetables in the last few minutes before dinner.

My Valentine's Dinner Page is a fine example of this. The rack of lamb dinner looks like you slaved for hours, but it couldn't be more simple to make. You can cook the lamb and the potatoes in the same pan in the oven.

Main course menu planning like this keeps you with your guests except for a very few minutes just before dinner.

I served a dinner for ten over the holidays, stress-free. I did it by making the turkey and the gravy ahead of time.

And by using one little secret so my guests could enjoy that turkey aroma when they arrived.

Find out the secret of my success with make ahead turkey.

Of course one pot main courses are great solutions too. Look for recipes for dishes like - boeuf bourgignon and coq-au-vin (chicken in wine). You can also look for crockpot recipes that let you cook meat and vegetables together.

Often one vegetable is enough if you are serving a salad. But if you do want to serve two vegetables, try packages of mixed vegetables. The Oriental Mix packages have a slightly exotic look that’s perfect for something a little out of the ordinary for a dinner party.

These menu planning choices are delicious, minimize stress for you, and let you spend as much time as possible with your guests.

More menu planning tips - store bought dessert is perfect If you make dessert yourself, go for something you can make the day before. By dessert time you will be ready to relax, not start cooking again.

But really, folks, store bought desserts like ice cream, cheesecake, pies, little tarts, or just fruit and chocolate are old favorites your guests will love.

And that's the basics of simple, workable menu planning
More menu planning tips means dinners designed to make your guests the stars, without making you the slave!

Here’s to easy recipes for easy menu planning.

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