The Simple Action That Gives You Extra Motivation To Make Dinner

One of the most inconvenient truths of the modern age: You do, in fact, have food at home. When you grow up, you learn your mom was right to tell you that when you wheedled her for McDonald's on the ride home from soccer practice. After all, you probably spent a whole lot of money on groceries (or at least, far more than you would have liked), and it would be a terrible shame if all that food went to waste, wouldn't it? But when you've been away at work all day — or let's face it, even if you haven't been away at work all day — it can be hard to muster the energy to cook. Don't worry, though: there's a handy way to get yourself in the cooking mindset, and it's to set your table ahead of time.

Why is that? Well, first off, it's one less thing to do when you get home. Instead of worrying about setting the table and cooking dinner and doing dishes, you only have to worry about the latter two. Plus, you can plan for unexpected issues. If you run the dishwasher late at night to save money, you'll have fresh dinnerware to set in the morning. You'll know well in advance if anything is damaged or missing, so you can fix the situation by the evening. That goes a long way if you want to host a dinner without becoming an internet villain. For another thing, you're essentially putting the end result in perspective. Much as a long-distance runner finds the motivation to keep going by imagining themself crossing the finish line, you might find the motivation to cook by seeing a fully set table waiting expectantly for you.

Now, we understand that making dinnertime completely pain-free is not always as easy as setting the table. If it were possible to Jedi mind trick yourself into cooking every time you reach for the Chinese takeout menu, you would have saved yourself a great deal of money by now. Still, there are other approaches to take that might further encourage you to tough it out and make something for dinner after a long day. Setting the table beforehand helps, but so does planning your meals several days in advance and even prepping your ingredients and storing them in the fridge to cut out some of the more labor-intensive steps. Then, there are ways to simplify the meals themselves.

There is, of course, the humble slow cooker. Throw stuff into the pot in the morning, leave it burbling pleasantly away on your countertop, and return to a wonderfully fragrant house and a hot meal waiting for you. There are several surprising foods you can make in a slow cooker, so expand your horizons to see how you can ease your dinner routine. If you're not a slow cooker fan, you're not out of luck, either. There is no shortage of easy limited-ingredient or one-pan meals for the realistic weeknight cook that will nourish you and the family without being a total hassle to make. Want to whip up some quick pasta? Make a grilled cheese sandwich, using mayo instead of butter to get it extra crispy? Go right ahead! And hey — who said that boxed mac and cheese or frozen lasagna doesn't count? You're still eating at home without a $30 charge from Uber Eats, aren't you?