A hibachi grill in the trunk

My friend Lisa's mom used to lament that dinner would be so much easier to make if she could put a hibachi grill in the trunk. Then, when she was hanging out at soccer practice, she could be making dinner. Then when she got home from taking Lisa and her brother to wherever - swim practice, soccer practice, piano - dinner would be served.  The opposite of tailgating, I guess, where you drive to cook, here you'd drive and magically dinner would cook en route.

I had a similar experience on Friday - not that I was driving around with nicely charred zucchini, but that the rice and beans I'd made for dinner were cooking as I walked in the door at 6pm- a combination of my slow cooker and my rice cooker and some work earlier in the day made all the difference. All I had to do was chop cilantro to go on the beans, take the cabbage slaw out of the refrigerator and cube some jicama to nibble on. Full recipes for the menu here, courtesy of January's Meatless Monday class.

Do you have a tale of a great last minute dinner? Or when work you did in advance paid off for you? Do share- via the comments below here or on Facebook or email.

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