Hellobee Boards

1. Buy a roast chicken once a week. Serve it for dinner with a microwave bag of rice and steamer bag of frozen veg.

2. Strip all the remaining meat off the chicken carcass (or have your husband do it). Next day it goes into pasta with a jar of marinara or Alfredo sauce with frozen spinach or broccoli.

3. Make a roast beef. Buy 3-4lb roast and rub it with a packet of onion soup mix and put it in a 500F oven for 6 minutes per pound. Then turn the oven off, don’t open the door, and leave it alone for at least 2 hours. I’ve even done this RIGHT before I go to bed and leave it alone all night and slice in the morning. Slice and serve with a tub of storebought mashed potatoes and frozen veg or salad and a packet of au jus or gravy.

4, Strips of leftover roast beef can be stirfry - bag of frozen stirfry veggies and a jar of sauce over rice. Or it can be tacos/fajitas. Or it can be stroganoff over egg noodles.

5. French bread pizza and salad. Split a baguette, spread it with cheese and sauce and toppings and broil in the oven and serve with bag salad.

6. Any leftover roast can be chopped up and put on big entree salads.

7. Keep a bag of frozen meatballs on hand. Spaghetti and meatballs, meatball subs, just eaten plain dipped in BBQ sauce - just add some fresh fruit and raw veggies with a dip.

You can alternate the roast with pork loin or a big batch of chicken breasts but I like the beef because it’s so hands off. But the pork or chicken can be thrown in with simple dry seasonings and be done in 45 minutes.

If you’re going to serve breakfast for dinner, you can serve a fruit smoothie with spinach thrown in as a treat/beverage.

Oh you can also make a double batch of meat sauce for spaghetti and then add chili spices and beans and corn to one batch for an extra meal with tortilla chips or cornbread.

We don’t do lots of meat/poultry so that saves time. We make something big on the weekends that will last a few days and part of which can be frozen (soup or chili every weekend). Sometimes during weeknights I like to do things that I can make a version of for the grown ups, and a version of for the kids. My DH and I like salads but the kids don’t so they’ll get a tuna sandwich plus veggies and we’ll get salad with tuna, or something like that with beans (fancy burritos for the grown ups, deconstructed burritos for the kids). Those are also things you don’t have to worry about walking away from mid-prep if baby starts being clingy, unlike something that might burn in the oven or on the stove. It’s easy to keep things veggie-heavy that way too.

We only eat meat 1-2x per week so idk if that’s okay with you (my toddler is moderately picky but if I put cheese or ketchup on anything she’ll eat it). My weekly plan usually includes a rotating schedule of at least two of my super quick meals per week (these take under ten minutes to make). Lately it’s pea soup (frozen peas + chicken bullion) and grilled cheese, or a big spinach and cheddar omelette (this typically has a crazy amount of frozen spinach in it). The omelette is especially my “okay wtf happened to today I guess we’re having eggs for dinner” meal. To add bulk for my husband I’ll add cheese and then some buttered toast or something.

But I typically just prep things slowly over the week and usually spend less than 30 minutes a day actively cooking. It’s honestly usually more like 10-15. For example: I’ll microwave a big spaghetti squash and use half in a spaghetti bake (with 1/2 box of pasta, 1 jar of marinara, Italian spice mix). And then half in a Mac-N-cheese dish (quick roux, add milk, cheese, frozen peas, and 1/2 box pasta). **Side note: I also frequently take half this cheese sauce and then add a frozen peas, carrots and broccoli, then slap a pie crust on top and call it pot pie.

So that’s two nights of dinners where the major prep (cleaning and cooking a spaghetti squash, and boiling pasta), can happen at any time of day. And doesn’t have to really be actively attended to.

I definitely rely on rolling over parts of dinners, so one sauce gets doubled or tripled and I’ll make two dinnners (one for the freezer, one for tonight). and we eat a lot of beans/rice/quinoa, and frozen veg. I may make a big spaghetti bake and we’ll have that for dinner one night. Then have leftovers the next night as a side along with rotisserie chicken. So zero cooking and just reheating.

Tonight we had a “Mexican rice and beans” where I sauté an onion, added a can of tomatoes, rice and quinoa, then once the rice and quinoa are cooked I folded in a bunch of chopped kale and a bag of Bird’s Eye “southwest blend” frozen veg (black beans, bell peppers, onions). This can be served with chips and salsa. And later this week we’ll have rice and beans again but it’ll be rice and lentils with some curry spices and Kabocha squash.

I also have a short list of dinners for my toddler that I’m okay giving her that require zero prep. For me these are used sparingly but include plain rice and quinoa (I cook these together in the rice cooker and almost always have some in the fridge), plain tofu, cottage cheese, or peanut butter toast. I also sometimes just give her a bowl of frozen peas microwaved with butter and a little salt.

I have also cooked dinner with my baby on my back in the Ergo. And I tend to pre-chop ingredients whenever I have the chance. So if I have ten minutes during breakfast I’ll clean and chop a pumpkin.

And in the summer we eat a lot of wraps and big sandwiches. My favorite thing in the world is a big wrap with tons of crunchy lettuce and grilled eggplant and mushrooms. And we love garbanzo “tuna” salad sandwiches. Takes ten minutes to make and assemble dinner

I have two kids, 3 years and 8 months. The best thing I did was to set a consistent schedule. I don’t have to think much and plan each week because the schedule stays the same for a couple of months. The visual I made also had the happy effect of reducing my preschooler’s resistance to the food I serve. She’s just like, “Oh, okay. It’s pasta night.”

I’ve been doing wildtree freezer meal prep then having frozen schwans mashed potatoes and broccoli in the freezer. It’s not glamorous but my grocery shopping is way down and it’s easy.

I also keep pre prepared taco meat and spaghetti sauce in the freezer.

Yup weekly menu templates saved my life for awhile. I don’t do it anymore but there was a period for maybe a year we did this. It gives enough flexibility to do things differently each week but you know what you’re doing. It was like:

Monday Curry or Asian (can be meatless)
Tuesday Meat and Two Veg (sheetpan meals are great for this - make lots of meat)
Wednesday Pasta (Use leftover meat from Tuesday)
Thursday Big Salad in warm weather using leftover meat. Crockpot meal in cold weather.
Friday Pizza Night
Saturday Leftovers
Sunday Leftovers