Meal planning is sinking me...anyone have any easy recipes?

show&tell

I have been trying to meal plan for months now -- I might succeed for one week but the next week every meal we eat is take-out. I want to feed my family good nutritious food but I'm totally stuck. I work and have a 3 year old and a 1 year old and I just can't pull through to plan meals, grocery shop, and cook. My DH doesn't come home from work until after dinner so on many nights I just make some pasta and veggies or peanut butter sandwiches for the kids and they eat on their own. Then DH and I don't have dinner. For a while it was a survival technique -- but now our nutrition has gone downhill and I really need some help. The kids are getting older and I want to get on the right track. Any advice where to look? Any recipes? I like good slow cooker recipes or meals that take 20 minutes to prepare. By the time I get home I have two hungry little ones that would rather be with me than wait for me to cook. Not sure if that made sense -- but what do you do to make it work, I'm totally losing this battle. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

sunandsand

I'm all about the crockpot. Do your kids like bbq? I dump frozen chicken breasts in there, add an entire bottle of bbq, and let sit all day...and done. EASY!

We also do scrambled eggs with sausage/veggies/cheese mixed in once a week.

 Quesadillas are easy. Chicken, cheese, tortillas, cook in a skillet.

Here's another one I do...I buy "stew meat" already cut up from the store and marinate it in a teriaki marinade (I just buy a bottle premade), then I cook that in a skillet, add sugar snap peas, and serve over brown rice. Easy make at home chinese dinner.

I do my own version of a tater tot casserole a la The Duggars.

We use the george foreman grill quite a bit too. Throw some meat on there. 

HTH!

joy143dh

My family is the same way.   I eat dinner with DS around 6. DH gets home around 9/10 and he eats dinner while I eat salad. 

I used to use menus4moms.com - which planned the meals and even had a grocery list.  It got me into the habit of doing 5 dinners/wk, meal planning and creating a grocery list (I'll admit, I had to learn this... it didn't come natural to me at first).   I learned to rotate chicken, fish, steak, pasta, beef.  Now, with that in mind, I find recipes all over the web - allrecipes.com is my favorite - I rate the recipes I've tried and liked and have a customized recipe box.    I would love to start cutting coupons too and planning meals around discounts and deals, but just planning a weekly menu is enough work for me right now.

Many moms will post their weekly menu here if you ask.

show&tell

Thanks these are good suggestions -- I have no idea why this seems so difficult to me. I really love to cook. But I can't figure out how to do it quickly and in the midst of everything else!

 I would LOVE to see some weekly menu's if anyone could share. Thanks!

praline

I just recently started having success with meal planning and shopping etc...but I'm a SAHM so I have an advantage (in that I am not also responsible for a job).

Anyway it's hard for me and like I said it's basically my full time job to do this stuff.  But here are some meals we do:

Crockpot chicken and rice (rice made in the rice cooker), BLT's, Chili Mac Caserole, Tuna Caserole, baked salmon (get a filet of salmon, put it in a shallow pan with some olive oil and salt and pepper and cook it at 400 for 18 min), Taco night (just need to brown some ground beef or turkey and the rest is prepared stuff like salsa, shredded cheese, sour cream), pizza made with a store bought crust, grilled cheese and soup, shrimp curry...this is easy if you use frozen shrimp, some coconut milk and chicken stock...cook until done and add spices and curry paste.

I also like to roast sweet potatos, squash, and beets in the oven.  Takes and hour but it's a nice vegetable without a lot of work.  I buy packaged spinach for salads.  Asparagus can be wrapped in a wet paper towel and warmed in the microwave for three minutes.  I also use frozen steamers for mixed vegetables.  I steam cauliflower, and green beans. 

Good luck!  It's hard, but once you get in a routine it'll be easier.  I always look at the Wednesday circular in our paper and then shop on Sunday when the coupons for the week come out in the Sunday paper.  Going to the store only once a week saves money too.

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shouldbworkin

I only do a big shop e/o week b/c I don't have 1.5 hours to go shopping every week.  On off weeks I just buy veggies and fruit.  I plan everything out in my calendar,  but will switch things around if I have to.  We shop at Costco for easy to prepare things like frozen turkey meatballs and spinach ravioli.  These come in really handy on those nights where I need to cook a real meal, but don't have tons of time.  If I cook, I try to cook 2 meals at once.  I cook a lot on Sundays and will make 2 entrees and double portions of each so that I can freeze some to reheat on another night.  Sometimes I'll prep something for the crock pot when I'm making another meal, put the crock pot in the fridge and start it the next morning.  I love coming home and having dinner be ready already.  It's great for nights that I have late meetings.  Two nights a week we have easy meals, like soup and sandwiches/salad or breakfast for dinner.  They are crowd pleasers and DH can step in for me if necessary.  I make a big salad every Sunday and DH and I eat from that all week as sides for dinner or for dinner with a can of tuna or a grilled chicken breast on top (you can buy those pre-made at the store or make extras when you put some on the grill).