My son's soccer has started back up (it's somewhat hilarious - it's like 40 minutes of eight 6 year olds bonking into each other and then at the end they tell them they're not allowed to high five because of COVID) so that means that we're back to, on Monday nights, having to leave the house by 6:10 and so we need some quick dinners. I know I could do it pretty easily since I'm home all day if I did some prep work or just started cooking earlier but between work and the kids wanting to be outside all day and just not being able to psych myself up to it it just isn't happening, and I can only feed them my go-to "cheese between carbs" (grilled cheese sandwich, cheese roll-ups, quesedillas) so many times.
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Breakfast for dinner: scrambled eggs or some sort of scramble with veggies mixed in, toast, and fruit.
Meatball sandwiches - we keep meatballs in our freezer (sometimes homemade, sometimes store bought), heat them up, mix with jarred sauce, put in a roll, top with cheese, and broil for just a couple of minutes. Serve with chips and cut up veggies.
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Do you like crockpot meals? Do you have any allergies?
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Absolutely breakfast for dinner. We will make a big batch of pancakes every time we make them so we have them in the freezer. Then it's a quick reheat with some breakfast sausage we get from Costco.
Otherwise, sandwiches (lunch meat and cheese, PB&J) are always good. My little guy likes hummus spread on a tortilla.
Hot dogs?
We make taco meat in advance and freeze based on the portion size needed. So either in quart sized freezer bags for the whole family or in muffin tins so you can defrost for one or 2 servings. And that is either ground beef or chicken/pork made in the crock pot.
Add a quick fruit and veg and call it a day. And if it's not a gourmet meal, remember it's just one day.
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Angel hair pasta or tortellini cook faster than regular pasta. Toss in some jarred sauce and shredded leftover chicken.
But when we regularly have a day like that I treat that meal like another lunch. I pack it when I prep lunches and we just do lunchy/picnicky food on that night.
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@oldschooolmama: No allergies. I like crockpot meals, the kids are a lot more hit and miss. It would have to be a pretty low-prep one, though.
Breakfast for dinner is a great idea! The kids aren’t really scrambled egg fans (....sigh) but we also make big batches of pancakes/waffles and freeze them and it’s never occurred to me to use those for dinner!
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@erinbaderin: Chicken and waffles can be a fun breakfast for dinner idea too. We use frozen chicken tenders or bites and syrup for dunking.
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We had one of my quick favorites this week.
Chicken - I cook in advance and freeze, then thaw in fridge as needed and serve cold for this. Depending on what you flavor it with, can be used for various meals.
Hummus
Pita or naan - we love the stonefire mini naan breads. I freeze them and then reheat in the toaster oven.
Feta cheese
Cucumber, cherry tomato, pepper, etc sliced upYou can make a wrap, eat it all separately (which is more what my kids will do), make it like a cold pizza
Tonight I’m making another pretty easy one ... broccoli, pasta and smoked turkey sausage. I usually boil the pasta, remove it without dumping the water and then cook the broccoli in it also, and brown the sausage while doing that. Add olive oil, s&p and/or Parmesan to the pasta (or premade pasta sauce). If I’m really in a pinch time-wise, use microwave veggies and microwave pasta pouches. I just like the texture of boiled better for myself but I do both.
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I second meatballs and brinner.
This is also something that I make when I need to whip together a hot meal quick--I usually serve with steamed broccoli.
https://www.food.com/recipe/korean-beef-using-ground-beef-494491
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@bhbee: These sound great! I make a variation of the sausage pasta, using ground italian sausage. I’ll have to try with smoked sometime!
And we love the Stonefire mini naan too. They make excellent mini pizzas in the toaster oven. We keep them in the freezer and they toast from frozen super fast and stay fresh.
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We do "Mediterranean naan wraps": with peppers, kalamata olives, garbanzo beans, lives, banana peppers in Greek dressing. No cook very little prep(just saw @BHBEE suggests something similar!!)
Pasta with cherry tomatoes and garlic
Google one pot creamy tomato pasta. Always a hit. I add sausage
Pizza with sliced tomatoes, garlic and shredded cheese (easier than you think)
Trader Joe's butternut squash ravioli, or falafels
Chicken tacos in the Crock-Pot. Make a huge batch you can have for 2-3 days -
@lindseykaye: they are so good for everything!!
I thought of another one with precooked chicken. Whenever I need to cook chicken, I always make extra and freeze! Again, thaw in fridge and reheats with everything else.
Baked taquitos (using this term loosely I am sure)
Precooked spiced chicken, chopped - I love this easy rub from a budget bytes recipe: 1t chili powder, 1/2t cumin, 1/4t garlic powder, 1/4t salt
Assemble while you preheat:
Lay out tortillas (I love the high fiber ones from Mission or Kroger)
Add refried beans
Add canned black beans (rinsed)
Add chopped chicken
Add cheese
Optional: green onions or taco sauce - also good to add after if kids may not like them, we also add sour cream afterBake 400° about 10m to warm. If you want them extra good spray the tops with cooking spray and sprinkle some kosher salt. Also good lunches so I recommend making extra
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Sheet pan meals with sausage FTW! I make this all the time -- bonus is it only uses one or two pans, depending on how much you need. You just cut up some veggies -- I like some combo of yukon gold potatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, onions, shallots, pretty much anything works -- then put the veggies on a pan or two, toss with olive oil and chopped garlic, and nestle in sausage links (I usually get sweet Italian or bratwurst, the uncooked kind). Turn oven to 400. Roast it all for 20 min, flip sausages over, roast 20 more minutes, done! It's also really good if you add sliced apples, or even whole grapes after the first 20 min. And if I'm feeling fancy, I might make some kind of sauce, like a mustard vinaigrette, but it's great without, too.
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This is my go to 10-minute (if that!) meal:
Spinach feta chicken sausage (or other fully cooked sausage)
Steam in bag frozen spinach
Feta cheese
Couscous
Greek or balsamic dressingStart water in teapot for couscous. Throw spinach in microwave. While this is happening, slice sausage into rounds. When kettle whistles, mix equal parts couscous and water. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Then mix in dressing with couscous. After that, throw cooked spinach, chicken sausage, and feta cheese in and mix it up.
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I know you said you do quesadillas, but what about tacos? Canned beans, tomato, onion, lettuce, cheese, jarred salsa and you’re done.
Do your kids eat fish? We do white fish and green beans with butter and lemon on a sheet pan and it’s ready in like 15 min (you can also do it in a foil pack on the grill if you want to be outside) but not useful if your kids don’t eat fish.
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I’ve basically completely stopped real cooking, like from scratch. Our meals are basically things like pre-cooked meatballs (I have a few go-to brand, like the KidFresh chicken veggie balls), with various sides like steamer broccoli (the frozen microwaved kind), sweet potato fries, baby potatoes (again, the microwave kind), those broccoli stars, cauliflower cakes from Trader Joe’s, Asparagus, etc. So most meals are a combination of microwave/sheet pan in oven but basically no prep except opening bags. I’ve just lost my cooking desire, and I used to love to cook fabulous, interesting things.
We do pasta at least once a week, and that’s super fast. The mains we go through are meatballs, fish sticks, salmon (from frozen, again I just throw it on a sheet pan, nothing fancy,), shrimp, burgers/chicken burgers. In the winter my kids love both tortellini soup and taco soup, which are super easy, and don’t require real cooking.
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