I'm returning to work next week, and I'm really anxious about how I'm going to do this. By the time I pick up LO from daycare and come home, she is already tired, so I need to get her ready for bed pretty quickly. I need some FAST nutritious meals for dinner for DH and I. What are your quick meals? Do you prepare meals on the weekends and just reheat? How do you do it?
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How fast is "fast"? 15 mins? 30? I can get most meals done in 30 but I am a fast cooker!
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I only make dinner 2-3 nights a week. I make enough for two nights. So I might make something on Sunday that we also eat Monday. Then Tuesday I make something that we eat on Wednesday as well. I make something on Thursday and then we order out on Saturday or something.
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I prep on Sundays, cut up all veggies, ect. I can get a meal on the table in 30 minutes in most situations. Google 30 minutes meal ideas, and just weed through them to find the healthy ones. Also, crockpot = best friend. Dinner is ready when you get home so you can enjoy more time with LO! I use it at least 2x a week, if not more.
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oh, and also, I only make convenience dinners, really. Especially lately now that I'm really nauseous.
A typical dinner might be a roast chicken from the grocery store with steamer veggies for LO--DH doesn't like plain roast chicken so after I feed LO her dinner, I pull the rest of the meat off and like, throw a thai curry sauce on the rest of it (jarred) and throw in a frozen pack of veggies and just let it simmer till DH gets home.
Everything I make is super simple like that.
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I prep on Sundays. I make crockpot meals and meat dishes which I can put in the freezer. I chop and roast veggies. I make a big pot of rice and/or pasta.
Monday we had quesadillas, roasted butternut squash and black bean w/broccoli. Last night we had pasta with meatballs (meatballs made on Sunday). Tonight is baked chicken with rice and veggies (everything was made on Sunday).
When I don't have anything prepped I go for quick like pasta and veggies or thaw some type of ground meat in the microwave to add in.
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I use an online meal planning service. It sends you a PDF grocery list, list of things to prep on Sunday, recipes for 5 dinners, and nutrition info. It takes us about 30 mins to get a healthy home-cooked meal on the table.
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Most of my dinners consist of a protein, starch, and veggie. Hubs will throw marinade on the meat when he gets home, I come in start the sides while he cooks the meat on the grill or broiler. Other wise we'll do crockpot meals (but i found those hard to get together in the morning.) Or a pasta dish, digorno's pizza, PF chang Frozen entree. Any thing that needs to cook awhile is either done the night before or we have it on the weekend.
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We skip carbs alot, so a quick meal for us is baked marinated chicken and microwaved steam fresh veggies.
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A mix of crock-pot, convenience items (like rotisserie chicken or pre-cooked sausage), "fend for yourself"/leftover night and easy meals. I make a lot of stir-fry/tossed-pasta type meals with a protein and a bag of frozen vegetables.
The biggest part for me is planning ahead - I only have time to go to the store on the weekend, so I have to plan what we are going to eat and get the stuff then.
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If traffic isn't awful I stop by home and spend 5 minutes prepping dinner before picking LO up from daycare. Pre-heat the oven and pull out some meat or chop a veggie. I find something that takes me 5 minutes alone can take 20 min with LO.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: we eat like that, too. A simple meat is easy and quick, seared and cooked in a pan. Steamed veggies are quick.
I make a batch of rice over the weekend and we eat out of that all week when I don't have another starch planned. I buy frozen rolls and breads for a quick addition to a meal, too. We toast them up in the toaster oven while cooking everything else.
Also - crockpot. Example - tonight I have Mrs. Paintbrushes Korean Tacos in the crockpot. All I need to do when I get home is warm up the rice and tortillas and we're ready to go.
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We cook a few nights a week and make double so we don't have to cook some nights. If we don't have anything ready for LO's dinner, then I'll do scrambled eggs, toast and fruit and yogurt or something. We do a lot of chicken cooked in advance with steamed veggies and Uncle Ben's bistro express brown rice (microwave in 90 seconds).
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Can you tag team with DH to get bedtime covered while you make dinner?
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When I first returned to work we did a lot of takeout. Not the healthiest option, but I just couldn't figure out how/when to cook. Eventually we got in a groove and ended up getting LO in bed before making dinner (she'd be in bed by 6 - she needed it).
I've found that meal planning and doing all the shopping and prep on weekends to be the most helpful. We do a lot of simple meals skipping starch - just protein and veg. Example: pork tenderloin (purchase premarinated) and roasted asparagus. Put each on their own cookie sheet and 20 minutes later, dinner is ready. Also, slow cooker meals with minimal morning prep are my favorite (or when more chopping is involved, do it the night before) - dinner is ready when you get home.
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Advance prep/use the freezer/cook extra. For example, this week I did:
- Saturday, cooked a lb of ground beef and a lb of turkey sausage and put them in the freezer for dinners this week. Used half the ground beef for tacos.
- Sunday: Made chicken pot pie for dinner
- Monday: ate leftovers from the freezer (if I am making a lot, like chicken in the crockpot, always freeze the leftovers for a quick meal). This was balsamic chicken and mashed potatoes (both in the freezer) plus steamer bag of veggies
- Tuesday: Husband's extracurricular night so I ate leftover chicken pot pie
- Tonight: Will cook pasta and combine the precooked turkey sausage, some steamer broccoli, diced tomatoes and parmesan for a sauce.
- Thurs: Tacos again with ground beef already cooked and seasoned in the freezer
- Fri: always takeoutSo basically... if I am cooking, I make extra and freeze. I try to prep in advance. And, we usually end up having grilled cheese or eggs once or twice a week.
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I prep on weekends as much as I can so that I can get dinner on the table in about 15-30 min. I plan quick stuff during the week. If we're going to have tacos, for example, I cook the meat up during the week. I'll buy extra, cook it all up, and freeze half for the next time.
Some of my easy meals this month:
chicken quesdaillas
turkey hash
soup
roast beef sandwiches
stuffed peppers
stir fry
pork tenderloin+potatoes
fish+veggies+rice
homemade pizza
chiliAnd we always have a leftover night to scrounge up crap out of the fridge
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We do a lot of quick simple meals.
Meat - Add some seasoning and bake/broil
Veggies - Saute in pan or steam in microwave
Starch - Baked Potato in microwave or microwave rice -
We have some simple go to meals that we know we can get done easily. I always do "long" recipes on the weekends, usually Sunday nights (something like enchiladas or chicken pot pie, etc.) On weeknights we do chicken sausage with broccoli and sweet potatoes, pork pitas, quesadillas, baked chicken or baked fish.
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My cooking isn't winning any innovation awards, I just cook what I know and repeat a lot.
I am not a fan of the crockpot for things other than soup or pulled pork. That doesn't leave me a lot of options, so I rely on my oven, because the biggest issue is washing dishes...during the week I really don't want to be dealing with a lot of pots and pans.
I typically cook and freeze a few servings of one thing on the weekend and I plan on double meals. For example, I'll cook enough salmon or steaks on Sunday night to eat it twice and then Monday's meal is a salmon or steak salad.
For things that freeze well, usually something saucy, like a coq au vin, chicken/chick pea curry, etc. The challenge is remembering to take it out of the freezer the night before!
Oh, and I forgot about oven bags! I can put a whole meal in there, put it in the fridge and then bake it off later. It's so easy when all the prep is done ahead.
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