Simplified Dinners by Simplified Pantry. Another Great Schoolhouse Review

Right up my alley this past month we happily got the chance to test out Simplified Dinners by Simplified Pantry.

Simplified Dinners is a Menu Planning Ebook written by Mystie Winckler designed to take the guess work and hassle out of the usual question of, “What’s for dinner?”

In her intro Mystie sounds like me. Really enjoys cooking but finds the demands of daily life have left little room for long hours in the kitchen pulling together a gourmet meal. Although I have not three children at the hip I understand loving to cook but running out of the time and energy it takes to rifle through cookbooks and browse online recipe sites. You just want to make dinner, and quickly.

Out of her need Mystie created this book. She took an idea, and ran with it. To make dinnertime preparations simpler, and even better than regular old meal planning. She has simplified them.

I like to think of Simplified Dinners as templates for delicious meals. You plug in and cook and voila! Dinner is served!

The Details About Simplified Dinners:

Mystie starts off her ebook with a master list for your pantry. As with most pantry lists it may look daunting to think you have to plug all those things into your kitchen. But stop and think. You probably already have many of these ingredients on hand.

Next come my favorite, the dinnertime templates for…

• Slow Cooker Roast
• Slow Cooker Chicken Pieces
• Chicken in a Pot
• Skillet cutlets with pan sauces
• Marinades
• Foil packet fish (my favorite)
• Stovetop pasta
• Bean Pots
• Fajitas
• Quesadillas
• Taco Bar
• Burritos or Enchiladas
• Taquitos
• Frittata
• Oven Omelette
• Pizza
• Simple Stir Fry
• Potato Hash
• Baked Potato Bar
• Bean Soups
• Stews
• Blended Soups
• Quick Soups
• Main Dish Salads
• Vegetable Side Dishes
• Salads

In each of these sections is a base recipe for a dish and then four to six different combinations of spices, condiments, or additions that will give you a different dish each time.

I’m going to guesstimate (because I do enough counting in homeschool) that with each of these sections where there are 4 to six different change ups listed ( 4 x 26) you get about 104 different dinners for your family in Simplified Dinners. That’s almost a 3rd of your cooking year taken care of! But my family would happily eat one version of the simple stir fry every night.

The Gluten Free Option:

Never fear gluten allergies, Mystie also has a *Gluten and Dairy Free version. Msytie suspected her family had these allergies over 8 years ago and so she created gluten and dairy free menus to feed them. What I love about this version is Mystie does not try to duplicate gluten-full (my name for them) foods with myriads of mixes and expensive ingredients but instead are templates for regular foods with ingredients you can get at your local grocery store.

*I did not cook from the Gluten and Dairy Free version.

How Did We Like it:

I personally really enjoyed this format for meal planning. It was like an ‘aha’ moment for me. Like “Why didn’t I think of that?” Because it takes a lot of time to plan that out that’s why. I’ve really latched on to Simplified Dinners. It has simplified my weekly dinner planning. It also prompted us to eat through the pantry because, like I said, we have much of what is listed in the Master Pantry List already on hand.

So far I’ve made a version of the Foil Packet Fish, Quesadillas (our Friday night staple), and the Simply Stir Fry a few time. Cooking this way has also prompted me to be a little more creative on the fly. My family loves the dishes. I always thought I made a good stir fry but they really raved over the one I created from Simplified Dinners.

Every dish is not for everybody of course. I probably will not be making an oven omelet for dinner as dinner and breakfast foods just don’t jive with me. But I may try it for a nice brunch.

Simple Stir Fry

How to Get It:

Simplified Dinners is a 30 pages long ebook and costs just $12.99.

Mystie also has another product you may be interested in.

Paperless Home Organization

Paperless Home Organization is a 75 page ebook on creating a digital Home Organization Binder. Yes that’s right. A digital binder.

Msytie walks you through step by step managing all of your home organizing details online (and for free or very low cost). I did start to try it but I’m a dyed in the wool paper checklist girl so this did not go well for me.

If you are a digital age mama then this is for you. It goes much better with a tablet (of which I have not) but a computer or laptop will work fine too. While I didn’t complete the whole process of creating a digital binder I did clean up my email inbox (thank you Mystie) using some of the tips given.

She starts with giving you the benefits of going paperless and then helps you set up the (free) online accounts you will need to manage your menu planning, grocery list, family calendars, homeschooling, blogging, keeping it going.

This is a great to the point ebook for going paperless. You can get it for $3.99 here