What: Use these time saving tips to make sure you and your family have time to come together at the dinner table at the end of the day.

The Lowdown: After running at full tilt all day, the last things most moms feel like doing is figuring out what’s for dinner and cooking a large meal. There are some things you can do, however, so dinner doesn’t feel like one more chore at the end of the day, and you have time to reconnect with your family:

~ Plan ahead. Spend an hour or so over the weekend planning a week’s worth of dinner menus. Knowing what you’re going to make ahead of time means you’ll know when something needs to be thawed and what you’ll need from the grocery store.

~ If meal planning isn’t your thing, you can go to SavingDinner.com and subscribe to the weekly menu-mailer. Each week you’ll receive an email with a shopping list, recipes for dinner each night, and tips for things you can do ahead of time. There are several menu options including regular, low carb, and heart healthy.

~ Use a grocery delivery service. Services such as Peapod.com allow you to order groceries online and have them delivered. You can make your grocery list online while menu planning, and have them delivered at a time that’s convenient for you. This will save you from last minute runs to the store while you try to figure out what’s for dinner.

~ Get out your crockpot. You can spend a few minutes prep time in the morning putting together the ingredients in your crockpot, and you’ll have a meal ready for the family by the time you get home.

~ Double your recipes. Whenever you make a meal, make twice as much as you usually do. This usually takes very little extra time, and you can freeze the extra servings and have dinner ready to go another evening.

~ Keep your favorite take-out menu on hand. You don’t want to have take-out every night, but once in awhile it feels like a treat, and allows you and your family to get to the table together more quickly.

What I say: Last month we had a week where life got very hectic and my family and I found ourselves exhausted and scrounging up dinner at the end of the day. The meals tended not to be the most nutritious (I think my girls were one meal away from turning into grilled cheese sandwiches themselves) and were often eaten hastily in front of the television or while working at the computer. After taking a little time to plan ahead the following week, I realized these steps helped me save time in the long run and made me feel more connected to my family, as we were actually getting the chance to sit down to dinner together.