For as long as you can remember, there’s always been a certain pressure to provide your loved ones with a nightly “home-cooked meal.” Although it may sometimes feel like it’s impossible to prepare an elaborate dinner on busy weeknights, these smart tips will show you how to take the stress out of the classic home-cooked meal.

1. Start meal planning. Sure, making a home-cooked meal is difficult if you don’t have all the ingredients or don’t know what to make. By planning a week’s worth of meals on Sunday evening, you can get your cooking schedule under control.
2. Make preparations. Many at-home chefs use their weekends as a time to prepare the bases for the week’s meals. You can cook a dozen chicken breasts, bake a casserole, or even begin to marinate a steak to save yourself time the night of.
3. Choose basic recipes. If you don’t have time to experiment with fancy recipes from cooking magazines, choose recipes that you already know and love. Just because your favorite spaghetti and meatballs is pretty basic doesn’t mean that it’s not home-cooked.
4. Make it from scratch, but not entirely from scratch. Don’t feel like you have to crush your garlic by hand or chop each vegetable individually for your meal to count as home-cooked. Buying frozen veggies or garlic powder works just as well.

10 Secrets of Home Cooks (And How You Can Become One, Too!) [Real Simple]
6 Tips for Stress-Free Family Meals [Right @ Home]
How to Plan Your Weekly Meals, Stress Free [Lifehacker]

CC-BY-SA-2.0/Flickr/Mathew Packer

Marquis at Canyon Ridge and Lighthouse Family Network are together again this year to bring gifts to kids who are in foster care.

We would like to ask anyone who is able to stop by the tree in our office and select an ornament for a child. All you have to do is purchase a gift and return the unwrapped gift with the ornament attached to our office no later than Thursday, December 18.

We appreciate all participation.

DIY-ers know that there’s no shortage of online instructional videos and websites showing you how to make everything from a bed made of wood palettes to your own beaded jewelry. If you’re a crafty girl or guy who loves to build things from scratch, these two creative websites are full of ideas to get your gears turning:

Pretty Handy Girl
Though the name implies that it’s a site for females, Pretty Handy Girl is full of ideas that all types of people will love. From complex home renovation projects to simple arts and crafts ideas, this site will help you make your house look as chic and stylish as a page in a magazine. It also features a peek inside the blogger's toolbox, helping beginning DIY enthusiasts learn which tools are necessary for just about any project.

Makezine
Makezine is a complete online resource for all things DIY, from project instructions and tutorials to meet-ups with other makers in your area. The main page offers interesting articles about incredible projects that other people have made, as well as the latest news from the DIY world. There’s also a database full of how-to guides, video tutorials, and even categories dividing projects by various subjects. Whether you’re a recreational DIY-er or an amateur inventor, Makezine has something for everyone.

CC-BY-2.0/Flickr/rocketboom