Food.

Holly_1007

Part of this transition for the boys and I is going to affect all of our mealtimes. So I need some recommendations for quick breakfasts, lunches that can be kept refrigerated and don't need to be heated, and dinners that can be made in a half hour or less. Also need lunchbox recommendations for the boys. Thanks!

kelbel527

I'm going to preface this with the fact that I don't love cooking, DH cooks pretty much every day of the week except his bowling nights.  So I can be a little lazy when it comes to dinner.  Here are my dinner go-tos:

Breakfast for dinner - Switching it up between eggs and pancakes/waffles etc.  I also cook extra breakfast food on the weekend and freeze them (waffles or pancakes).

Pasta - If you like to make your own sauce, make it on the weekends so you just have to reheat.  I have a few go-to jarred sauces that I like.  

Also: Tacos, anything in a crockpot, frozen lasagna (Stouffers makes a really good one if you don't have time to make one ahead of time).  

For breakfast, we reheat frozen breakfast items, or I will make a batch of mini muffins at the beginning of the week.  My boys will eat muffins and fruit everyday for breakfast.  

We bought our lunchbox for Brody at Kohl's, I believe.  We let him pick it out, so it has characters on it (Transformers).  I don't know if you'll find quite as big of a selection past the back to school time.

ETA: We've become experts at getting into a routine with a short mealtime.  Some nights, I don't get home with the boys until 6:15 and they're supposed to be in bed by 7.  It can be really hard, but you get used to it eventually and will find a system that works for you.  

jayja2007

Waffles, frozen burritos, parfaits, etc for breakfast.

Lunches maybe sandwiches (meat, pb&j, tuna or chicken salad), pasta salads, cubed cheeses, fruits and veggies, yogurt and crackers. Maybe make the sandwiches and pasta on your off days.

I suck at getting dinner ready on time so no help there.

redneckmomma25

Muffins for breakfast. You can do an oatmeal, egg or bread type. Frozen pancakes just take a few seconds in the microwave. Smoothies.

Dinners, stir fry, meatballs then you just have to heat and cook pasta. Crock pot stuff.

linzeek44

For lunchboxes, I love ours that are made of neoprene. Built brand or Built BYO (those are at target). Tey an go in the washing machine which means no scrubbing out gunk!

hmp1

For breakfast, and maybe even lunch, I would just set a schedule and do it the same every week so the boys will get used to it and you don't have to think about it in the morning. So like M - yogurt and banana, T - oatmeal and fruit, W - Frozen waffles (love the Vans brand) and fruit, Th - cereal or if you had time earlier in the week heat up a frozen egg burrito or egg muffin, F - sausage patty (my kids love the chicken patties), toast, and fruit. 

I would do the same with lunches for now. Pick 4 or 5 things you know they like and use that as the main meal each week - rolled up deli meat, cold pasta toss, chicken salad, tuna. Toss in some veggie sticks (carrots, snap peas, broccoli...) and an apple sauce or fruit sticks. A handful of pretzels and cheese cubes. 

Dinners - take a look back at some of the meal planning menus. A lot of us are working moms that do quick dinners every night. At least, I am. I never cook anything that takes longer than 30 minutes unless it is crock pot or an occasional baked potato night.

watercolor5

For dinner, I like some of the recipes on thepioneerwoman.com  She has a list of her favorite quick and easy recipes, my favorite of which is her chicken florentine pasta.

I love the better homes and gardens cookbook- I do a quick and easy (and NOT spicy so Sophia will eat it,) chili mac with elbow pasta.  I cook one pound of ground beef with onion and bell pepper until onion is transparent and beef is cooked, then add macaroni, a can of chili beans, can of diced tomatoes, and 8 oz tomato sauce, and it all cooks up in one pot.  I sprinkle cheese on top and serve.

I also love a white bean and sausage rigatoni.  Cook the rigatoni in one pot, and in the other throw in garlic, smoked (cooked) turkey sausage in 1 inch slices, cannellini beans, stewed tomatoes, basil and a handful of spinach.  Cook the pasta in one pot, everything else in the other, and combine with some cheese. 

ETA: all three of these recipes yield leftovers, but require a microwave to heat back up.

I'd avoid Pioneer Woman's vodka pasta... it was way to vodka-y when i made it and just not as yummy as it looked.

smb+jab

For breakfasts I usually do some sort of carb (bagels, frozen wafflesters (made by eggo -easy in the toaster), nature made granola peanut butter squares, muffins etc) and then a fruit or yogurt depending on his mood.

Lunch is a bit easier as we can send in heat up items for his school and he has a pizza day once a week so we only need to send sides those days.  they also provide 2 snacks per day.  So he gets toasted cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, mac and cheese,  left over dinner (pasta, rice etc), carrots, beans, peppers, string cheese, cut up in season fruit, i also send store bought fruit cups (peaches, mixed fruit) apple sauce cups, yogurts, and kid size cereal bars.

Dinners have been a bit more of a challenge for us, but I try for anything that can be done quickly.  Taco night is fast, as is pasta night (i make my own sauce and freeze it in plastic bags that hold our serving since that i can pull out) , we grilled a lot in the summer (but that isn't much help now.. ) Oh breakfast for dinner.  We are in love with waffles and pancakes for dinner, add in bacon or sausage and you have a meal!  its once a week for us.  

melody921

Breakfast: I make large batches of pancakes, waffles, French toast, baked oatmeal or little egg muffin cups and freeze them so I just have to defrost individual portions.

Lunch: We are pretty boring, as my kids eat a sunbutter and jam sandwich, paired with raw veggies and/or fruit most days. Pita and hummus is another big hit in our house, for a cold option.

Dinner: Again, I like to cook ahead and freeze: baked ziti, lasagna, stuffed shells, pasta salad; meatballs; quiche or egg strata; pulled pork or chicken; casseroles; soup, stew or chili. Other options that are easy are crockpot meals, breakfast for dinner, tacos or quesadillas. We almost always abide by the cook once, eat twice philosophy so we're not cooking an entire meal every evening.

Flamingemu

I make big batches of crockpot oats, pancakes, waffles, etc and reheat throughout the week. 

Lunches are generally leftovers or egg salad sandwiches. My kid would eat hard boiled eggs and egg salad for every meal if I let her. 

Her daily lunchbox is some Target special with a zipper top - very important to me. I pack a large cup of milk, cup of oatmeal, banana, yogurt, peas/corn in a 2oz container, 6" wrap with egg salad, grapes, cheese stick, anything extra depending on her hunger levels. If I pack a pancake or waffle for breakfast, she gets a HB egg as part of her morning snack. 

Dinner is hit or miss on fast in my house. I have made a lot of sub par dinners lately, so I won't make suggestions. 

hmp1

Wrong thread, moving this over

PenelopePond

Everyone has already said a lot of good things.  Something that helps me at dinner time is either freezer meals or food prep on the weekends.  Even if you just cut up a bunch of produce that's always a big help for me.  I follow a girl on IG that grills up chicken, pork loins,....any meat really, on the weekend so it's ready to go in the week.  She will also get meat marinating.  I've started that, and I really like having stuff mostly ready.  I think meal planning will be your biggest help.  Plan what you're having, make sure you have everything, and keep what you can for each meal together.  If you're planning on tacos, maybe cook the meat up on the weekend.  If it's spaghetti, make a big batch of sauce, and freeze most of it leaving out what you need for one meal.  Maybe also plan on meals that use similar foods.  If we have tacos one day, have BLTs the next (using up lettuce and tomato).  You could cook a huge roast or chicken and use it for several meals.  And I'd say always have a couple freezer lasagna type meals available in case of emergency.

pharmer78

@Flamingemu can you share your egg salad recipe? I love love love it and haven't had it in ages.  

PenelopePond

For the boys' lunch, check out the Weelicious website.  She has a lot of good looking stuff!

tyrannasaurusjess

Jasper's favorite lunch lately is pizza bagels (or english muffins). I prefer to heat them up for 10 min in the oven if I'm eating them, but both he and H eat them cold, too. We buy the pizza sauce that comes in a squeeze bottle, and they literally take 1 minute to assemble. 

Flamingemu

pharmer78 said:

@Flamingemu can you share your egg salad recipe? I love love love it and haven't had it in ages.  

I don't make anything special. Just harboil a couple of eggs, add enough mayo to make it wet, a splash of yellow mustard, and s&p. 

ellebee2

We operate on a pretty tight schedule during the week (dd up at 630, out the door at 710, home at 545-6ish, in bed by 7). A lot of what works for us food-wise has been mentioned... but here you go anyway.

Breakfasts: yogurt with fruit (usually bananas, oranges or apples, occasionally fruit jarred in water/fruit juice rinsed off), toast with jam and/or cream cheese, cheerios with raisins (sounds weird but dh and dd both live it), oatmeal, waffles made on the weekend and frozen.

Lunches: leftover meat and or veg from dinner, noodles with parm and peas, hummus sandwich, fruit salad (grapes, apples, oranges, whatever we have), crackers and cheese, applesauce. I follow weelicious on ig and she always posts awesome looking kid lunches.

Dinner: we usually feed dd when we get home (what we had the previous night) and make dinner when she's in bed. Go tos are: bbq chicken with rice and veg, pasta with homemade sauce (weekend), soups (again, made on weekend), crockpot meals like beef stew, salsa chicken, etc, frozen chicken/veggie burgers w/ salad.

Hope this helps. It can be overwhelming at first, but you'll find your groove pretty quick.