r/workingmoms • u/Expert-Bee7038 • 1d ago
Only Working Moms responses please. Dinner!
Wtf are y’all making for dinner 😵💫
I get home with both kids (5yo and 17mo) around 5/5:30 and they are starving.
Do you have any favorite dinners that are ready in 10 minutes or less that are decently healthy?
Is the answer to try some meal prep? We were gym bros once upon a time and so I’ve only meal prepped for that.
Something’s that are making this tricky:
- My 5 yo doesn’t want the same dinner 2 nights in a row unless it’s cup o noodle. I’ve tried. lol
- we all hate crockpot meals. I’ve tried so many - I don’t mind pot roast or some soups.
- I also hate freezer meals. I tried them both times I was pregnant to have for PP and they all went uneaten.
We do have a Costco and a Sam’s that I usually end up at every other week!
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u/kytai 1d ago
I just put out bowls of fruit and vegetables. The kids happily eat them while I cook actual dinner. Or don’t, sometimes we just do charcuterie and call it a day.
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u/Mysterious-Kale-4842 12h ago
Yess this. It kills 3 birds: they cheer up bc they're no longer hangry, I can actually get the real dinner cooked, and I dont worry so much if they don't eat whatever veggies I make for dinner bc they've already had a helping as the snack
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u/MightSuperb7555 1d ago
I do think the answer is meal prep plus turn leftovers into new meals. Roast chicken with sides (heat up day of) next day is shredded chicken quesadillas/tacos etc. I do a lot of bean bowls with various toppings. Lots of scramble leftovers in with eggs or put an egg on it. Also soups freeze well and taste much less frozen than other foods.
I pre chop all my veggies on the weekend so they can go immediately to cooking when dinner time rolls around.
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u/1WetMyPlants 1d ago
Yes, OP mentioned Costco. We get roast chickens all the time and do a quick noodle dish and veggie to go with. Then the leftovers become chicken enchiladas, soup, butter chicken (I freeze a homemade non-spicy sauce that my kids love), etc. Costco also has some good heat and eat meal options.
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u/dailysunshineKO 1d ago
We do the same thing. Buy Trader Joe’s vegetable fried rice & add scrambled egg, leftover chicken, & more veggies to it.
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u/lindslinds27 1d ago
What specifically do you hate about crockpot meals?
What specifically do you hate about freezer meals?
I was a hater of both until i found my ways, maybe you just need a new approach.
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u/NorthernPossibility 1d ago
Not OP but my problem is mushy and bland. Everything ends up mushy and bland. I’ve tried soooo many hacks but still it all ends up with mushy veg/potatoes and chewy, tasteless meat.
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u/lindslinds27 1d ago
Here’s an example of good and easy crock pot meals I do often that aren’t tasteless, bland nor mushy and don’t require a ton of work. I feel like you’re referring to the plethora of cream cheese based crap recipes rampant online-those suck.
-crock pot chuck roast French dip sandwiches. Get the meat on the in morning, let it cook all day. After work prep is ~10 mins. Toast some rolls with provolone cheese and make up the sandwiches.
-crock pot carnitas tacos. Same idea, prep meat in morning. Come home, 10-20 minute prep for tortillas and tacos toppings. Can also do this with chicken for shredded chicken.
-crock pot chili. Follow a recipe. It’s not bland, easy to prep in the morning. Chili is a healthy and well balanced meal.
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u/rusty___shacklef0rd 1d ago
I dunno, it's hard to blame an appliance for food being "bland"...
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u/TraditionalCookie472 1d ago
Agreed. My husband handles the food and does crock pot meals weekly. It’s always tasty!
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u/NorthernPossibility 1d ago
For sure! But it’s not an issue I have with other food prepared other ways (even using similar ingredients/spice blends) so it definitely be something I’m doing wrong specifically with the crockpot.
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u/Old_Jellyfish1283 16h ago
Spices simmered for 8+ hours, crockpot style, are often going to be just boiled to all hell by the end. More robust seasonings like onion and garlic will usually be fine, but other seasonings (especially leafy ones like basil) will kind of disappear into an indistinguishable, mushy mess. Have you tried adding fresh seasoning at the end and letting that simmer for just 10-15 mins? You can also brighten it up at the end by adding some sort of acid, like a fresh squeeze of lemon or lime, or some balsamic vinegar.
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u/Expert-Bee7038 2h ago
I feel like with crock pot meals everything ends up mushy and just blah. The lack of texture and different flavors gets to me.
I’m open to trying a few new things in it though! We love a taco - so im going to add carnitas to next weeks meal plan and give it a shot!!
I will do chili in the fall/winter!
Tbh maybe part of my problem right now is that it’s still 100* and I’m just hot and grumpy 😂
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u/Elrohwen 1d ago
Meal prep and meal planning is the answer. I would never meal prep in the individual little containers for dinner (for work lunch it’s great though) but cooking large amounts on the weekends and reheating during the week day is what allows us to eat homemade food every day. Cooking on weekdays is not sustainable, especially once your kids start doing activities.
I cook two large meals on the weekends that will last us at least three nights worth of leftovers. Then I plan one more thing to cook midweek and will often prep some components (a sauce, chop veggies, whatever). Sometimes I’ll fully make the third thing so that I just have to throw it in the oven on a week night.
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u/AutogeneratedName200 1d ago
When we’re really tight on time I do kid charcuterie: crackers, cheese, deli meat or pepperoni/salami, some fruit, baby carrot. Next easiest would be eggs (one kid likes fried one like scrambled, but easy and quick either way) with fruit & toast (which husband and I would do as an egg sando or a open a can of beans and do a bfast burrito).
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u/Boo12z 1d ago
We do planning, not a ton of prep! We also have a menu rotation so we’re not reinventing the wheel.
Monday - salad in summer, soup in winter. Usually with an easy protein and most often with a grocery store rotisserie chicken. My kids demolish chopped Greek salad, garden salad, we also do burger salads. In the winter, my entire family will devour Rachel Ray’s broccoli rabe and sausage soup.
Tuesday - taco or taco adjacent. Sometimes fajita with the leftover rotisserie chicken, sometimes quesadillas.
Wednesday - often a sheet pan or rice bowl. Something like pork loin, roast baby potatoes, roasted broccoli.
Thursday - leftovers
Friday - homemade pizza
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u/AylaWandering 😥 sweating and having a bad time 👎🏽 1d ago
Pierogis from Costco, sautéed in a pan. Sour cream or pesto as a topping. Some green vegetable as a side, like frozen green beans or steamed broccoli.
Precooked chicken from Costco, already picked. Corn tortillas, shredded cheese, avocado. Presto! You have chicken tacos.
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u/Expert-Bee7038 2h ago
I had Costco pierogis for dinner! I hadn’t seen them before last week and they’re so good.
My children felt differently, I think they are the real problem here.
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u/Far-Emphasis-3613 1d ago
We do a mix of meal prep, things I made and froze and reheat day of, and quick 15 min “default” meals
We try meal prep all my husband and my breakfast and lunches plus one big dinner with leftovers. A couple times a month I try and make a triple or quadruple batch of something that freezes well and is good to have on hand (soup, a versatile sauce we love, meatballs, rice and beans, homemade veggie burgers, falafel, etc).
The freezer is either full cooked meals that just need to be reheated (my family LOVES the Yummy Toddler Food blog’s pizza rolls and we always have those on hand), or meal components like rice, chicken sausage, a frozen vegetable and a sauce — these all microwave up super well. We also generally use frozen veggies most nights - you just microwave them and boom there’s a healthy side in <2 minutes.
Our default meals list (15 min or less):
- avocado toast with eggs + side of fruit, cottage cheese or microwaved frozen vegetable
- pasta with sauce. If you use Banza or Brami you may not even need to add protein, but if you want to, throw in chicken sausage or frozen meatballs
- salmon. Fun fact, unlike poultry or meat, you can cook fish from frozen in the oven. Wrap it in foil at 425F and it is done in about 15 min. You can make a quick sauce while it cooks or take something from the freezer or a jar.
- charcuterie dinner: crackers, meat, cheese, fruit, crudite, hummus, hard boiled eggs if you have them
- tuna salad sandwiches (ok my husband actually hates tuna salad but this works for me and my toddler 😂)
- pizza toasts: literally take slices of toasted bread, cover them in tomato sauce, top with shredded cheese and maybe some chopped veg if you have, and bake in the oven for 5-10 min. Works best with a thicker bread like sourdough.
- bean and cheese quesadillas
- rice bowl with frozen veg, and frozen edamame or pre-marinated tofu
- smoothies with a side of toast or meat patty (I find you need something to chew on to make the meal feel satiating) - add Greek yogurt or cottage cheese for a protein boost
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u/Jane9812 22h ago
I mean if you don't have time to cook, your family doesn't want meal prep and you don't want freezer meals.. what solution are you looking for? Sounds like you want a private chef.
What I do is meal prep cooked food and freeze it in portions so we can change the menu daily.
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u/Surly_Sailor_420 1d ago
Today I did salmon filet (from Costco frozen section) in the air fryer, with air fried broccoli, and pasta with pesto (also from Costco). I make a bunch of pasta ahead of time and freeze it into family size servings (do the same with rice). Voila, 10 minutes.
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u/mydisplayname1111 1d ago
We have leftovers right when we get home. Then I cook dinner for the next day. So what I am cooking every night is actually tomorrow’s dinner. Sometimes I’ll cook for a few meals on a sunday to give us days of leftovers
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u/Expert-Bee7038 2h ago
I actually really like this!!
I enjoy cooking and want to do it so this might be a nice solution to also get people fed quickly.
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u/purpleonionz 1d ago
Also check out Trader Joe’s five items or less recipes. It’s a blog and also an Instagram page. I’m enjoying a lot of the recipes lately.
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u/taschels 45m ago
What's something memorable from the TJs five items or less Insta page that you've made recently? I love the presentation of her page but haven't jumped into trying anything yet.
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u/bluhippo 1d ago edited 1d ago
My go-to is chicken thighs at 390 Degrees in the airfryer for 9 minutes. We cycle through different seasoning but top hits are pesto, no salt seasoning mix (from Costco) and taco seasoning. I'll either season them right before putting them in the air fryer or put them in a Ziploc bag with seasoning the night before so it's just drop them in the airfryer from the fridge. I have a dual chamber ninja air fryer so I can do chicken in one side and veggies in the other. And I'll heat up frozen green beans in the microwave.
I also made and froze a bunch of turkey and veggie meatballs. Froze them before cooking them and I'll pop a few of those out and cook in the air fryer.
I try to do some meal prepping on Sunday with sauces for pasta - we are in a big noodle phase right now and those reheat well. Blended canned canellini beans with jarred spaghetti sauce (with some veggies and seasonings). It's been a huge hit.
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u/itsaboutpasta 1d ago
Grilled chicken or meatballs in the air fryer can be pretty quick, and you can sneak veggies into the meatballs like shredded zucchini or riced cauliflower. If you batch cook rice or pasta in advance you just need to cook the protein when you get home. But the easiest thing might be giving them a small snack on the way home to quell their hunger and give you time to prep something else. I started doing that to get more fruits/veggies into my toddler when I picked her up from daycare and the habit stuck so we can have a later dinner.
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u/xixi4059 1d ago
Burrito bowls - ground beef or rotisserie chicken, bagged 90 sec rice, get pre made guac, salsa, shredded cheese, whatever else you like. This can turn into tacos another night.
Pasta salad - we do rotini, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli partially steamed, and a dressing. You could add in rotisserie chicken or beans. This is better made ahead of time.
Grill some chicken on Sunday. Use some for a meal Monday and another on Tuesday.
Look up sheet pan meals.
We also do things like the Costco chicken chunks and throw those in an air fryer then serve on top of salad. The kids just eat them with veggies.
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u/proteins911 1d ago
Some favorites:
1) fresh mozzarella/ tomato sandwiches. Heat some nice bread/rolls in the oven or toast. Spread humus, tomato slices, and slices of fresh mozzarella. You can add some pesto too. My toddlers devour this and we do too. Ready in 5 min!
2) bean/cheese nachos. Just heat in the oven for a couple minutes
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u/kayleyishere 1d ago
Prep ingredients, not meals, and buy healthy stuff packaged as single servings if you can. Then heat and combine whatever the kids will eat that day. Some noodles, separate sauce if they'll eat it, meatballs, carrots, guac cups, ham, toast, beans, fruits, yogurt, cornbread, cheese, tortillas, rice. For bigger stuff, for example I can buy a spiral ham on sale, portion it out and freeze it in foil, then defrost reasonable amounts and reheat, and it becomes an ingredient for the week. This way there is enough food ready for "unique" lunches and dinners, and you can adjust based on what the kids decide is gross or not that week 🙄
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u/Tumbleweed_Unicorn 1d ago
Costco protein pasta. IKEA chicken meatballs. We have those at least twice a week each
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u/PuzzleTechnician 1d ago
I’ve had some luck with Trader Joe’s prepped ingredients and being able to throw together something that’s “semi-homemade”. A few examples: their flat breads, pizza sauce, and toppings (cooks in the oven in 8 minutes and I’ll put a salad on the side); dumpling bake in red curry coconut sauce + rice and whatever veggie I have; their pre-marinated meats grilled up with rice or freezer fries
There are a few Instagram accounts that just do quick easy traders joes meals I follow for inspo.
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u/graybird22 1d ago
Easy things that I make often: pasta and salads, tacos, frozen pizza or homemade on pre-made crusts, hamburgers or any grilled meat with some easy sides like rice, fries, mashed potatoes, or mac & cheese and a veggie, smoked sausage, scrambled eggs mixed with ham and egg noodles.
I also like to make large amounts of pulled pork for either bbq or carnitas (in crock pot or instant pot), chili, or braised beef for tacos and freeze the extra to have again in a few weeks/months.
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u/Quanyn 1d ago
I can broil or seer chicken, beef, pork, paneer or shrimp very quickly for a protein..3 minutes each side, sliced small. I have a thermometer to check. I usually add some seasoning. I can make some veggies very quick. It depends on the season, but asparagus is fast, so are cut cucumbers. If you can buy cut up broccoli, that can be fast too roasted at a high temperature. I do canned baked beans, they are quick. You can also add cut up fruit to the meal as dessert very quickly. An air fryer will also cook things quickly.
The chicken I make is usually Allrecipes Spicy Garlic Lime seasoning, but I eliminate the hot stuff.
Steak is just seasoned with salt and pepper, then A1 during eating.
Shrimp is so fast then served with cocktail sauce. Paneer seered is great with Thai peanut or bbq sauces. If you have some rice, the sauces will flavor that too, and you can add some cut up veggies. For pork, I usually make a quick pan sauce of garlic, shallot, wine, butter, lemon juice and a sweetener…not under 10 though.
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u/Otherwise_Job_8545 1d ago
We do poke bowls quite often. The kids like fake crab or salmon (can be smoked to make it super duper quick) or tuna, and then just Microwave edamame, cut up avocado and cucumber
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u/Ok-Refrigerator 1d ago
Put a small snack plate right away, then aim for dinner later, like 7pm. It's a much more relaxed pace.
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u/sillywilly007 1d ago
I try to bulk cook proteins (haha how often does it actually happen though 😵💫) and then use a different base / sauces to serve it so it’s not the same thing every day but still the same protein - so chicken can be rebranded into chicken salad, chicken and pasta, chicken tacos or bowls etc. I usually have ready in the fridge so I just warm it up or I can make pasta / quesadillas pretty quick.
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u/makeroniear 1d ago
Make ingredients and then everyone can have their version with the same ingredients. Monday is the worst for me and we eat at 745. But the rest of the week is amazing. Tonight I didn't finish cooking til 9 but I did an extra large batch because my sister is sharing with me this week. My kids are 3 & 7.
Grill everything you can:
- Peppers, onion, eggplant, squash, any other veg they can stand.
- chicken and sausage
Cook on stove: rice and pasta (one pot each - whatever size makes sense for your family).
Make it a salad either a bag of greens (always on hand), or plate it however you want. I always have tahini or hummus on hand because that is our go to sauce.
True 10 minute meal:
I make tacos with a 1/2 minced turkey +1/2 minced red cabbage filling weekly. We have leftovers for another day so it adds additional variety. Buy Taco Bell seasoning mix, shredded lettuce and any other toppings (my husband minces his own white onion on the weekend 🙄 like an overachiever). Slap the mince in a pan (my IKEA wok) and it is done in 7 minutes - heat some taco shells or tortillas and eat.
I know I should prep this and cook on Sunday, but work avoidance gets ahold of me!
Let them assemble.
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u/LovelyLostSoul 1d ago
We did taco bowls with 90 microwave rice tonight. My husband did the ground beef, I opened a bag of cheese, black olives, cut up tomatoes, and then started the rice when he was adding the taco packet to the meat. Dinner was on the table in 12? minutes!! You could vary type of rice, toppings etc. chips or bowl or hard shell etc.
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u/somebodysomewherein 1d ago
Costco has these frozen breaded tilapia filets. Pop a few in the toaster oven, salsa, cheese, salad mix, taco shells. You got fish tacos!
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u/Fluid-Village-ahaha 8M/5M. Working mom by choice 1d ago
Airfryer! Best quick meals.
Also we do not eat the same as kids often. My oldest now eats a lot of food (steaks, while fish etc) but 5yo is still at a diet of 5 things.
Meatballs from TJ (microwave), Dino chicken nuggets, hot dogs… fed kid = happy kid.
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u/Tarte138 1d ago
I hate leftovers, so I cook most weekdays, but I find shortcuts. Making extra rice 1 day and later in the week doing a fried rice or stuffed peppers. I'll do sweet potatos and black bean tacos 1 week. Freeze extras for chili. These leftover hacks along with some pre prepped veg are a life saver!
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u/SuitablePen8468 18h ago
Scrambled eggs, sausage, toast, fruit
Chicken breast (if you cut it into cubes you can cook it on the stove top very quickly) with a side of rice (microwaved) and a raw veggie.
Pasta, meatballs, salad or raw veggie on the side.
Anything Kevin’s brand takes 3 minutes to cook. It’s pricey but good.
Frozen fish in the air fryer
Tacos - ground beef, salsa, cheese, refried beans on the side.
Also, would your 5 year old be okay with eating the same thing every other day? So, Monday, Wednesday tacos, Tuesday, Thursday pasta?
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u/laceygirl27 17h ago
Look into 5 dinners 1 hour. It was a lifesaver when I worked and I still use quite a few recipes from there. Basically, it builds menu options that you can have prepared and ready to be put in the oven or dump slow cooker. And they genuinely only take about an hour of prep on the weekends. I'd typically do about 3-4 and have pizza or some other easy dinner the other days.
One example is pork. Combine a half loin roast in a ziplock bag with 2 sliced apples, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Let sit in the refrigerator and dump into the slow cooker the morning you want it. There are oven ones as well, so combine everything in a 9x13 and have it ready in the fridge to pop into the oven when you get home.
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u/RanOutofCookies 17h ago
What I’ve been doing to some success is what my Chinese mom did - make family dishes and then serve it with rice as a base. When everyone is tired of that, I do pasta. So things can be interchangeable and made quickly, you don’t have to think much. Chicken thighs with a spice rub, sauntered broccoli, and rice. Salmon, asparagus, and rice. Korean pork belly, cauliflower, rice. Don’t think about making a whole “dish” and more about basic components that everyone will eat and it’s a lot less stressful.
I think there are easy ways to make different pasta dishes by mixing up the sauces. My husband is vegetarian who is not a huge tomato sauce fan, so any pasta I make has meat on the side, so it’s a little faster. Use Boursin or cream cheese for the sauce, or make a garlic and olive oil pasta. You can also take a ripe avocado and make that into a sauce. Add corn to the pasta or fresh herbs. Trader Joe’s has a large selection of fresh ravioli and that’s easy to pair with other ingredients. Sweet corn, cheese, and basil ravioli - add corn and basil and butter in the pan and toss boiled ravioli in that. It’s an easy way to keep things interesting.
I like to sometimes mix it up with unexpected things. An Irish soda bread can have cheese and other things mixed into it (not authentic) and be quickly worked up once you have the steps down. Serve it alongside some veg or a rotisserie chicken. Muffins and pancakes are super easy too, especially if you get a mix and add stuff to it. Leftover Mac and cheese in a pancake might be your dish.
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u/mehmars 14h ago
Meal planning and meal prep. I have some time to cook during the week right now, so I will usually cook enough to last us a day or two, and I don't really experiment with any new recipes unless its a weekend or the spirit moves me to try something new during the week when I'm buying groceries. One of those meals is usually a crockpot meal. I would say if you only like some meals in the crockpot, stick to those tried-and-true ones. I only have 2-3 recipes that I will use the crockpot for that I'll rotate through.
I could probably do more meal prepping over the weekend so there is less cooking and prep during the week, but most weekends are busy and/or I'm solo parenting while my husband is at drill.
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u/Fancy_Wishbone_1921 13h ago
French toast! It’s just bread and eggs basically so I feel like it has some nutrition
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u/AbbreviationsLazy369 13h ago
We have pizza puffs tonight. Grands biscuits + pizza sauce + pepperoni +cheese.
Mac & cheese or Alfredo pasta with broccoli is always popular
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u/socialmonkey123 6h ago
Chicken Milanese is a weekly go to. Buy store-made chicken cutlets, and for adults top with arugula, tomatoes, parm and some olive oil/balsamic. For the kids, chicken cutlets and whatever other components they will eat that week! Only cooking is just heating the cutlets!
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u/oops_i_mommed_again 1d ago
Costco: rotisserie chicken, meatloaf, tacos and Mac and cheese
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u/Expert-Bee7038 2h ago
I haven’t done Costco meatloaf! That might actually be a hit at our house. Thanks!
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u/Dandylion71888 1d ago
Grilled chicken tacos. You can prep and season everything in advance and just throw it on the grill including the veggies in a pan on the grill. We also seasoned black beans and my kids will snack on the raw peppers while I’m cooking.
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u/CrazyElephantBones 1d ago
Anything on a sheet tray
Sheet pan baked gnocchi with veg + sauce
Sheet pan fajitas
Sheet pan sausage and peppers
Sheet pan homemade pizza
Sheet pan really anything protien+veg and then make some rice on the stove or one of those microwave bags
I love sheet trays lol
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u/readytopartyy 1d ago
We started something that has been working well. We make two larger casserole type dinners on Sunday. We take turns, and it's nice time to be creative and try a recipe while the other parent takes the lead on the kids. About 2ish hours of work but we then just reheat dinner during the week. We've done some double batches and freeze the extra one, and now have a decent amount of frozen meals if we don't feel like cooking that Sunday. We always have fresh fruit, either a salad bag or frozen veggies, with safe foods of bread and cheese if they don't like the meal. It has taken a lot of stress off during the week. I hate the idea of meal prep but making two dinners doesn't feel as bad.
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u/DangerousLow710 1d ago
Put chicken breasts in instapot, shred a rotisserie or get fully cooked shredded chicken from the deli - whatever is your effort preference. Nuke some steamable broccoli and mix all three with Mac n cheese. This combo: chicken, broccoli, pasta (& cheese) can be done up or down, clean or processed, and super easy crowd pleaser.
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u/lightestsquire 1d ago
My go to: pasta with meat sauce, baked salmon & a veggie, tuna patties, beef tacos
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u/Familiar_Teaching215 1d ago
I usually make the protein I need for a dinner or two on Sunday when I have more time at home! Monday or Tuesday coming home from work and only having to cook sides is a lot more doable.
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u/SunnyRyter 1d ago
MIL does Pancakes or "Breakfast for Dinner" when too tired to cook (i.e. eggs, cereal, waffles).
In a pinch for time, I do: 1. quesadillas. If you cook a bunch of turkey taco meat, easy to make turkey tacos with cheese. Or open a can of black beans for fiber and protein. 2. I have cut fruit on hand (i.e. watermelon) or cut some (i.e. peaches are in season now) as a side to any dish. 3. Occasionally PBJ or turkey and cheese rolls in lavash. 4. Frozen chicken nuggets and boxed mashed potatoes. Add a little garlic powder and paprika to give it a little UMPH. Or go with boxed Mac n Cheese, throw in some frozen peas for the veg. 5. Canned Tuna: make tuna salad sammies. My son loves it with olives and pickles. Add sweet potato chips on the side (there is a great one in Avocado oil at CostCo we enjoy). 6. Rotisserie chicken. Boil some noodles, throw on pasta sauce and cheese. Done in 10-12 min. Generally I meal prep and batch cook sunday nights and put in containers in the week to grab and reheat and eat.
My FIL loves instant soups and BIL loves frozen or dried ramen noodles but I tend to avoid them due to high sodium. COSTCO has frozen individually packed stir-fry and noodles.
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u/bestbirdy 1d ago
Ready in ten minutes is a tall order unless you’re willing to meal prep or reheat.
These are my go-to Costco meals which can be done in 15-20 min:
Rotisserie chicken with pasta and pre-made marinara sauce, served with roasted green beans (15 min at 425, olive oil and salt. Can cook while the water and pasta boils)
Salmon with roasted sweet potatoes and onions and a salad. You can use the salad kits if that’s your jam. If I have the energy I marinade the salmon a night or two before (love a miso marinade with some honey and garlic).
Grain bowls - Costco should have a quinoa and chickpea mix. But if not you can buy some precooked rice or quinoa. Add avocado, cheese, smoked salmon or rotisserie chicken, with some kind of dressing (I like green goddess).
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u/basafit 1d ago
Here are our fave easy meals by level of effort:
Deconstructed tacos (10 mins low, no cook): black beans, shredded cheese, avocados, grape tomatoes, tortillas, sometimes actual meat
Instant pot shrimp boil (~30-45 mins, low cook): damn delicious recipe with shrimp, potatoes, sausage, and corn - doesn’t come out mushy at all
Stir fry (~20 mins, high cook): chicken breast and Kirkland frozen stir fry veg in a wok, rice in rice cooker
Meat/baked potatoes/veg (~30-45 mins, med cook): chicken breast/chicken legs/pork tenderloin/etc, bake potatoes, sauté veg of choice in pan
Also a PSA that you can get a 20 piece chicken McNugget and two medium fries for ~$15 and a large dominos pizza for ~$9 because some days are like that…
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u/Tarte138 1d ago
Chop up pre cooked sausage, saute with onions, peppers and serve with rice and peas
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u/lookhereisay 21h ago
We just double up when we do cook and portion it into the freezer. A meat with tomato sauce can become chilli (add beans and spices, serve with rice), cottage bit (top with mash and serve with frozen veg), bolognese (add Italian herbs serve with pasta).
That way they aren’t eating the same thing and getting bored or suddenly refusing. Also if you’re cutting up an onion already, might as well cut up two etc.
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u/NationalClerk1990 17h ago
We went through the exact same phase with my kids. I eventually stopped trying to make a completely different dinner every night and started keeping a few “emergency” meals in rotation. Quesadillas with whatever protein/veggies I had, scrambled eggs and toast, and pasta with a quick sauce were probably the biggest lifesavers.
Meal prep definitely helped, but I found that having ingredients prepped was more useful than having whole meals prepared. I could throw dinner together in 10 minutes without everyone eating the same thing three nights in a row.
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u/NationalReindeer 14h ago
Love my instant pot for “set it and forget it”.
Pinch of Yum has a lot of good IP recipes. I love their spaghetti
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u/Notthatkindofdoc813 13h ago edited 13h ago
Pesto pasta. We always have jars of pesto on hand for when I don’t want to make it from scratch. This is their #1 favorite and it’s so easy. It’s also in rotation with mac n cheese for my daughter’s daycare lunch.
Pasta with clam sauce, which is surprisingly fast to make. We just always have a bag of onions on hand, butter and a jar of minced garlic in the fridge, and cans of chopped clams in the pantry. The only prep is chopping the onion for the food processor.
Shrimp scampi. Longer than 10 minutes but it’s still considered a fast and easy meal in our house. A lot of the base ingredients are the same as the clam sauce, and shrimp thaws and cooks up pretty quickly.
Scrambled or fried eggs. Egg salad on occasion as well if I can prepare it ahead of time.
We just always have the ingredients for all of the meals above and they are in rotation with other randoms like grilled cheese, quesadillas, chicken (grilled, nuggets, strips, it depends).
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u/CrazyTumbleweed122 11h ago
Prepping is the way to go. Prep on Sunday. It’s not that bad. My kids eat what I put out. I don’t think they know refusal is an option.
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u/Capable-Selection816 9h ago
Dinner is my villain too. Not the cooking. The deciding. Every single day, at the exact hour my brain has nothing left.
I finally realized it's not a cooking problem, it's a decision fatigue problem. So I stopped deciding at 5pm. Same five meals on rotation Monday to Friday, grocery list built around them. Saturdays we wing it.
Nobody noticed the rotation for two months. Two months of mental space I got back for free.
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u/Designer-Chef7820 2h ago
Solidarity. I have a rotation of precooked meats (air fried, slow cooked, or store bought) that I serve alongside a carb, fruit, and a vegetable. Most of the time my 23 MO asks for “mac a cheese” but sometimes doesn’t even eat it if that’s what I serve. Sadly she isn’t on the quesadilla or waffle life yet. And here I thought she would be sampling cheeses and leek soup à la Bringing up Bebe… I was wrong 🤣 Husband and I eat Factor, versions of my kids food, or other air fried delicacies after she goes to bed usually. Which results in 1.5 dinners for me unfortunately.
I feel like an incompetent mom for feeding her basically the same foods (with variety but not as much as I’d like) and microwaving/air frying everything. I used to scratch cook 4-5x weekly or meal prep for my husband and I so it feels like I’m letting everyone down. Today Daycare closed early for a storm that didn’t happen so I found myself at home w her at 4. We played, as soon as I started cooking she started having meltdowns, dinner didn’t turn out as amazing as I wanted but was still good, and she only took one bite. And by took I mean the bite went in her mouth… it was not eaten… she SPAT IT OUT ON THE FLOOR and proceeded to have an epic tantrum. I finally got her down at 8 PM but then had to clean up from the one pot meal which desire being “one pot” also required a spatula, cutting board, knife, serving spoon, cheese grater, plates, and several wrappers.
Anyway I will no longer feel bad for being a microwave mom until she’s old enough to appreciate my efforts. So like 30 years from now 😅
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u/Expert-Bee7038 2h ago
Cooking a meal when you’re 99% sure your kid won’t eat it anyways is a special form of torture 😩
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u/Designer-Chef7820 1h ago
The sad thing is I thought she’d like it. But it hasn’t been in regular rotation for 6 months or so. But yes, please sign me up to torture myself now AND later. Motherhood I swear!
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u/GrouchyYoung 1d ago
Why is a 5yo dictating what’s served for the whole household? They can eat what’s served or they can have toast or cereal for dinner.
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u/DIYtowardsFI 1d ago
That’s going to be an unpopular opinion but I completely agree. Cut out snacks and they’ll be hungry for dinner.
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u/purpleonionz 1d ago
Cheese quesadillas. Rice and beans. Cereal.