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Post by karinms on Jul 9, 2016 15:18:32 GMT
...how do you handle dinner time when you have only minutes a day or are just plain exhausted and yet starving.
I'm working a new job where a slow week is 55 hours... and I'm trying to get a handle on dinner time. We have a few meals we have frozen portions to and can whip one up without much effort. I'm looking for more ideas though.
Share your best tricks and tips please.
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Post by secondlife on Jul 9, 2016 15:30:27 GMT
I do a lot of crockpot meals, and things that are easy to prep ahead and reheat like tacos.
Chicken salad using rotisserie chicken.
Soup and sandwich.
Casseroles that can be made ahead and baked when you get home.
We like natural chicken sausage like from Costco and some roasted veggies, one pan and easy cleanup.
Breakfast for dinner.
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Post by Merge on Jul 9, 2016 15:38:50 GMT
1. Revise your expectations around what "dinner" needs to be. Omelettes and fruit can be dinner. A bagged salad and rotisserie chicken can be dinner. Tacos made with a can of seasoned black beans can be dinner. Sandwiches or panini can be dinner. (Cooking meatless a few nights a week makes for much faster meals IMO - it's usually meat prep that takes the longest.)
2. Enlist the whole family to do some pre-preparation on Sunday afternoon/evening. Veggies can be chopped, meat trimmed and portioned, sauces made, etc. Some dishes can be completely pre-assembled and just cooked or heated through on the day you eat them. I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of freezer meals - I think taste and texture suffer to some extent - but the Rachael Ray "Week in a Day" series has good ideas about pre-cooking meals just for that week. Even if you don't do a whole week, you can make one or two good meals that you can use that week and then supplement with quick, throw-together things like omelettes or sandwiches.
3. Crock pot. Not every day, because you'll get tired of the stewed texture of things pretty quickly, but shredded meat for sandwiches or tacos once a week or every other week works well. Stay away from chicken recipes because they rarely do well with an 8-10 hour cooking time. You want to be cooking tough cuts of beef or pork for that amount of time.
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Post by mikklynn on Jul 9, 2016 16:04:56 GMT
I used to use a service called Let's Dish. You go there and make 4 or 8 meals at a time for your freezer. It really speeds things up. The price seems a little high, but I came to realize it actually saved money. There is no waste. You aren't buying a whole bunch of celery, for example, to get a cup of celery.
I did this for about 5 years, until DH's health issues forced him on a very strict diet.
With just the 2 of us, I'd split all the meals in two.
I also used their service to prepare the meals for me some months.
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Post by nlwilkins on Jul 9, 2016 16:10:33 GMT
When I was working and had to come home and quickly put a meal on the table it helped to have a formula, meat, veggie, and starch. The starch usually was rice or potatoes. I did lots of skillet dishes too, the kind where the meat, veggies and starch were all in the same pan. Of course in those days it was OK to use cream of mushroom soup a lot and canned foods were also not frowned on. That made things a lot eaiser. Frito Pie was served as a meal with smiles all around and we did not realize how bad these things were. But we survivied!
I guess what I am saying is that every meal does not have to be a high nutrition, low calorie, healthfood type meal. There are times when it just is not possible. Of course, you don't want to make Frito pie every week, but maybe once a month?
Oh and I also saved the easy meals for later in the week when I was more worn out. Also, early in the week I would cook a meal with built in leftovers to serve again later in the week. A large pot of spaghetti does not take much more time to cook than a regular size pot. Then the leftover is served casserole style with lots of cheese on top later in the week. Adding a salad to a leftover meal helps to keep it appetizing.
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Post by Basket1lady on Jul 9, 2016 16:13:08 GMT
I'm a SAHM, but drove carpool for years, with a 6 pm pickup. So I still had no time to make dinner. Now I volunteer terr at the high school theatre and don't get out of school u Gil 6 pm when practice is over.
Once a month, have a cooking day. Roast chicken, make up hamburger patties, brown ground beef,, make a soup, a chili, a casserole, a pasta sauce. Make it in large enough quantities to make at least 3 meals.
There are a ton of meals you can make with shredded or cubed chicken. Curry chicken salad, tacos, enchiladas, casseroles, soup, jambalaya, ... Same thing with ground beef.
Freeze things in freezer ziplock bags, squeezing the air out. Lay them flat on a baking sheet in the freezer. They take up less room this way and you can stack them up. Label everything! If you have a side by side freezer (too small for a baking sheet), use a cutting board.
Even if it's not every meal for the week, it will keep you out of a drive through for several nights.
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May 10, 2024 4:15:28 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2016 16:21:33 GMT
Crockpot, crockpot and grill.
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Post by Linda on Jul 9, 2016 16:25:16 GMT
crockpot
- we like shredded chicken (boneless chicken with BBQ sauce - then shred and serve on rolls with coleslaw)
-chili - I make mine in the crockpot and it usually makes enough for 2 meals at least
easy meals:
-main dish salad (used bagged salad, add prepared veggies (peapods, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes...), slice up a cucumber and add an easy protein (shredded cheese, those pre-cooked chicken or beef strips that just need warming up, hardboiled egg, a leftover chicken patty or chicken breast sliced up)
-tacos are quick and easy - especially if you prepare the meat in advance (on a weekend - brown and season 5lb of beef mince (ground beef) and freeze in meal size portions)
-lunchmeat sandwiches (fun on rolls - Kings Hawaiian has some cute mini sub rolls) served with coleslaw and/or potato salad from the deli
- smoked sausage - sliced up with peppers, onions, sliced potatoes and sauteeed in a skillet - or skip the potatoes and serve in a sub roll
-chicken patty sandwiches with applesauce on the side - I add lettuce and tomato to mine to add a little vegetable to the meal
-bratwurst on rolls - I serve mine with rotenkraut (red cabbage - from a jar) and fried apples (from a tin)
-hotdogs and beans are quick and easy - especially on one of those nights when you're super tired and super hungry...I like to always have that in reserve
-meatball subs (bag of frozen meatballs cooked in a jar of pasta sauce - serve on sub rolls with mozzarella and/or parmesan cheese) - deli coleslaw or bagged salad are nice sides for that
-spaghetti or ravioli (frozen or fresh) with jarred sauce and a bagged salad
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Post by Rainy_Day_Woman on Jul 9, 2016 16:27:32 GMT
Instant pot is saving me currently. I used to do crock pot meals but never really liked them. Pressure cooking is so much better tastewise. I usually prep the night before or the morning of, and then just throw it in the fridge. I pop it in when I get home and usually dinner is ready in 20 minutes. It isn't perfect but it saves me on my really bad days.  |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jul 9, 2016 16:36:17 GMT
I let go and let DH take over that job!  Really, I did. But here are some tips for things that we've done to help speed things up or provide a little variety. Make double batches of anything you can freeze and reheat later. It doesn't take proportionally longer to make two pans of lasagna, chicken pot pie, quiche or enchiladas than it does to make one. Double up and freeze the extra one so you can pull it out and reheat it on a different day. There are a LOT of recipes that can be made ahead and frozen. If you buy hamburger in multiple pound packages, you can cook it all at once when you're making the first meal and freeze the rest of the precooked meat in ziplock freezer bags to save you some time later. It can be thrown into plain spaghetti sauce, enchiladas, tacos, or casserole and saves you that step. If uncooked freezer meals are your thing, there are loads of recipes and links to blogs on Pinterest where people show you exactly what to buy and to do to prep a bunch of different meals at once and freeze everything so all you have to do later is pull one out, dump it all in the crockpot, turn it on and walk away. If you do a search using freezer meals as your search terms, tons of results will pop up. And finally when all else fails, pancakes or waffles from a mix, scrambled eggs or an omelet, cheese quesadillas, or even a frozen bagged chicken and pasta meal from Costco will all feed a family in a pinch. DD and I have waffles pretty regularly for dinner on Wednesday nights when DH is off for one of his leagues. It's something I know she'll eat, there won't be a ton of leftovers, they take almost no time to make or clean up and I almost always have what I need to make them in the house all the time. |
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Post by *sprout* on Jul 9, 2016 16:43:21 GMT
Check out Pinterest. There are lots of yummy 30 minute meals.
One thing that really helps me is menu planning.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2016 19:06:12 GMT
Dinner is usually a big salad, sandwiches, quesadilla or eggs. Nothing fancy at all. We are all too tired to really eat by the time dinner hits.
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Post by myshelly on Jul 9, 2016 19:14:49 GMT
Lately it's been prepared foods from Costco
At the beginning of the week I buy a giant fruit tray, a giant salad, and a couple of premade meals like their quiche.
At dinner time I just set it on the counter.
Everyone gets some fruit, gets some salad on their plate, and warms up a slice of quiche. Done.
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Post by Dori~Mama~Bear on Jul 9, 2016 19:16:00 GMT
I prepare foods that I can freeze. I can make a home made meal from scratch in 10 or 15 minutes because of preparing and freezing most of the meal. I even freeze rice.
Amanda makes kick ass rice and she makes big batches of it. We put it in the fridge over night so it gets really cold, then we get the plastic wrap out and usually weigh the rice so we get the amount we want then we wrap it in the plastic wrap and then put them in a gallon zip lock bag.
I can make fried rice with it in 10 minutes.
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Post by cmputerdazed on Jul 9, 2016 19:34:34 GMT
it seems like sides are the hardest for me so I try to have things like twice baked potatoes in the freezer. When I do baked potatoes I do a bunch. Like ten or 12. We eat baked potatoes and the rest I make into twice baked and freeze then put in zip locks. I do the same with freezing ham fried rice then do a quick meat to put over it. I do cook all my hamburger at one time then put it is separate baggies for what ever. I also either buy or make meatballs to use with spaghetti sauce (leftover or bottled) for meatball sandwiches. Also, a roast on Saturday night, cook all night, for Sunday dinner then french dips and or bbq during the week. Costco rotisserie chicken is a life saver. de bone it and use first cuts for dinner. Next for bbq in tinfoil in the oven with the twice baked potatoes and the third with chicken enchiladas for example. slow cook sweet pork then use it for two or three meals or freeze for later. I am sorry you are having so many hours away from home it has to be exhausting. I have that sometimes but it is not all the time. Good luck.
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Post by txdancermom on Jul 9, 2016 20:12:54 GMT
Plan ahead. During the summer when I shop I plan what we are going to eat all week, and if possible grill all the meat that we are going to have on sunday night, then all I need to do is heat a vegatable or other side dish. but it is a lot easier now that there are only 2 of us at home.
Even in winter, I try to fix as much ahead as I can so I am only reheating when we want to eat or doing minimal cooking of rice or pasta.
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