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Crock pot chicken tacos! Chicken breasts, taco seasoning, and salsa. It’s always a hit with our kids.

Edited to add that on weekends I like to make and freeze extras of our favorite foods for quick and easy weeknight meals. So, right now I have black bean burgers, a lasagna, a pot pie, and all the pieces for chicken fajitas in our freezer (sliced up chicken, peppers, onions), so I have options to pull from. I just need to remember to get the bigger items out of the freezer a couple days ahead of time.

My husband is gone 2-5 nights a week for work. The big thing for me is I try not to cook those nights, we just heat up leftovers. So on a day or morning when DH is home I try to cook 3 or 4 meals for the week and then just cycle through them each night. So just our regular recipes.

If I have to cook I typically will do breakfast for dinner, mac and cheese with veggies mixed in, frozen meatballs with pasta - just really easy, quick meals.

Good luck!

Do you mind eating the same thing for several days in a row? You could make just one or two meals on sunday and eat them for dinner.

I guess I would start with what your LO eats, then build your meal around it? Such as sweet potatoes - then add your protein and veggie. Yours is now a stuffed sweet potato and you are eating the same thing as LO.

Soups are great, just strain out the broth for your LO, stews might be a little easier.
Sandwiches
Pasta - with sauce or pesto
Sheet pan oven roasted veggies

What were you cooking for the three of you? Which of those do the both of you like and you can cook easily?
I would start with what you know and can do and go from there!

I do all the cooking and I work late 2 nights of the week so DW and DS (and now DS2!) are by themselves. I keep it mainly to heat and eat only. Every meal I make is eaten twice during the week or re-done to use the leftovers. Crock pot beef or pork is one night and then made into quesadillas another. Big pasta dishes reheat well like Mac and cheese, lasagne, baked whatever. Big batches of soup from the instapot are good too. So I would plan two or three of your regular meals to be larger and then 2-3 nights are taken care of. If we don’t have leftovers, I always have a frozen pizza, Kraft dinner, eggs, grilled cheese on hand.

Do you have a Trader Joe’s nearby? They are my go to for easy weeknight dinners.
Frozen: fried rice, sweet potato gnocchi, orange chicken, pizza crusts and pizzas, cauliflower gnocchi, frozen veg
Their filled pastas (fridge case) are good too.
I really enjoy cooking but only if I have the time and no kids around (which is not my life). So I want easy or else I resort to eating bizarre kitchen sink salads every night

I feel your pain! Chick fil a is so easy. I have the same situation at my house. I'm home with the kids 3-4 (or more) nights a week. I'm terrible about cooking and I work full time.

Tacos. Tacos, and more tacos.

I will make so many at a time and wrap them individually in tin foil and put them in the fridge. We are all so time-restricted at my house, that we will eat them cold, on the go, at times. For my 2 year old, I make like a taco-bowl and mix it all together.

It's the easiest thing to do. Obviously I do other stuff too, but that is my go-to.

You might find it a lot easier to cook on nights when you're on your own if you've prepped a bit ahead of time. I also hate spending too much time in the kitchen if it's just me and the kids eating.

Here's a couple things that might help:
-wash/cut most of your veggies when you get home from the store. I almost always have bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, and onions washed, cut and ready to go in my fridge. And I usually have avocados, tomatoes and pre-washed lettuce available too.
-cook extra chicken on a night you're cooking for the whole family (or pick up a rotisserie chicken)
-when you cook brown rice/quinoa, double or triple the batch and freeze in 1-2 cup servings. Then you just have to heat it up.

With those ingredients I can pull together tacos/burritos, pasta, a salad with protein and rice, etc. with minimal effort. My kids are equally happy with some leftover chicken, slice of toast with butter and sautéed veggies than if I spent 3 times as long making enchiladas or a chicken pot pie. To keep it interesting I usually have sauces in the freezer too. If I have leftover pesto, pasta sauce, etc. I'll freeze it in a silicone ice cub tray and can pop 1 or 2 out to add some different flavors.

I feel like we eat the same thing practically everyday.

Pasta and meatballs. I’ll either use ground turkey or my grocery’s store pre-seasoned and perfectly round meatballs. I cook it in spaghetti sauce, but barely give LO any of it. Less mess. Side of veggie (peas or tring beans) and side of fruit.

Rotisssere chicken or smoked beef sausage, butter noodle pasta or rice pilaf and side of veggies and fruit. Sometimes I’ll make broccoli for myself or just have pre-packages salad.