Hellobee Boards

How much time from the minute you get home till dinnertime?

you could make a batch of lasagna one weekend and freeze it in toddler portions. then just thaw as needed. i keep planning on doing this along with muffin tin meat loaves (but you're lo will probably not love that if she doesn't like meat.)

@sorrycharlie: @T.H.O.U.: one of M's favorite things right now is quesadilla! What meats have you tried? We have had really good success with pork tenderloin. I think because it's more tender and juicy than steak or chickeN?

We tried taco seasoning once and she made the worst face and wouldn't eat it. It was too spicy for her. We have to make her meals pretty mild.

Have you tried quiche? You can make crustless quiches in mini muffin pans, freeze them and they're an easy snack or meal. I put any veggie in them but swiss and spinach is a staple in our house. Frozen spinach works fine.

M's meals look like this:
Breakfast things: Eggs and breakfast sausage (patties) or yogurt or oatmeal. I help her eat the oatmeal and yogurt when she lets me. Pancakes, bagels with cream cheese (she licks the cream cheese off), English muffin with butter. Fruit - any and all. I cut apples into thin slices for her to eat or she eats it whole if I'm with her. I find blueberries help her bowels move...

Lunch and Dinner things: Meat, veggie, fruit and either another veggie, a starch (like potato cubes) or crackers.
Preferred veggies: peas (frozen or steamed), green beans, broccoli, carrots.

@mediagirl: Eggs are one of her favorite meals too with a sausage. Surprinsingly she doesn't like scrambled eggs but likes they over hard/fried.

I'll make DS a 'quesadilla' when I need to make something quick. I put lunch meat in it with cheese, or avocados and beans. I use the small flour tortilla shells. He loves them.

Dumplings. I bought a bunch and froze them and would make them when we were eating something he couldn't have. So simple to reheat them.

@sorrycharlie: I usually associate blood in the diaper with an allergy before just a messy one. I would try it again and see if you have the same reaction!

@T.H.O.U.: that's funny, I was going to suggest just the yolk. Maybe try one then the other!

My DH works till 9 three nights a week. So on those nights I'm left scrambling to get LO situated, give her a snack and prep dinner in an hour.

My tips are leftovers. On nights there are no leftovers I usually pan sear some fish for her really quickly, frozen peas or beans or steamed broccoli or edemame. She loves and will eat any meat pound thin and breaded in panko. So that's usually a fall back of mine on those nights.
Shrimp is also a really quick easy one to cook and has protein.

ALso on the meat front I Have discovered LO will eat meat now if I give it to her in whole form. Give her a sliver of pork chip meat, no thanks. Give her the whole pork chop she goes to town. Give her strips off a chicken thigh, no thanks. Give her the whole chicken thigh, she chowed down 3 thighs.

when i'm short on time these are my go to meals:
- ling ling dumplings from costco
- frozen fish sticks from trader joe's
- mini quiches (i usually freeze a big batch)
- pizza
- pasta with red sauce
- rice (we always have it in the rice cooker) immersed with chicken soup/chicken broth.
- chicken nuggets

@sorrycharlie: just wanted to share what I made her last night. I was flying solo and we had no leftovers.
I chopped up some yams really small and threw them in the oven at 420F with some evoo, garlic salt and pepper. If you do 1" cubes they should be done around 30 minutes. While that was going I took some pork loin (I was going to make roasted pork loin later for DH &I) and sliced two really thin pieces. Dipped in egg then breaded with a panko/seasoned bread crumb. I Pan seared that and because it was so thin took no time. I also made a small side of egg noodles with canned tomatoes and frozen peas/carrots/corn.

Home at 5, got LO situated with a snack, dinner on table for her by 6. Some frozen blueberries for dessert.