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February 2012 Moms
katea81
member
What are your go-to dinners?
katea81
member
I'm going to be headed back to work soon (sob) and I have some anxiety about the dinner situation. I know that I'm not going to want to spend time at all in the kitchen making dinner after spending all day away from my son. I'm trying to think of easy to make dinners that I can quickly throw together to minimize some of the time away from him.
So far I have things like grilled cheese/tomato soup, bean burritos, pasta/sauce, baked potato bar with toppings, pizza.
What do you ladies serve for dinner? Any quick things you make after a long day of working when you don't feel like cooking?
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Re: What are your go-to dinners?
One of my go-to dinners is chicken and cheese quesadillas. You mix the following:
-can of cream of chicken soup (I always buy the low fat)
-one can of chicken (or leftover or rotisserie chicken)
-about a half or 3/4 of a bag of cheese (again I use low fat)
Then spoon onto tortillas, fold over, and put in the over for a few minutes at 350 degrees.
I serve with boxed Mexican rice
Also, if you are anywhere near a Trader Joe's, I always stock up on easy freezer dinners there like teriyaki chicken, turkey meatballs, etc.
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We do a lot of mexican dishes b/c they are fast and easy...and can be done healthy too.
I always have taco meat in the freezer. I brown up 2-3 lbs of lean hamburger with onion, peppers and seasoning and portion it out in baggies. I freeze them flat for quick thawing.
I double up any recipe I can and freeze it.
I prep veggies and any meat I can on Mondays when I'm home.
I meal plan and stick to it. I HATE having to come up with dinner the day of, especially on my way home.
We do quick stuff like pasta, salad and bread once a week.
Usually on Fridays we will do a "fend for yourself" night. It's all fair game. My husband likes to make himself fried egg sandwiches and DS1 always wants a cheesy! I'll do leftovers or have a cheesy too.
For lunches on the weekends I've started doing english muffin pizzas. They are so good!
love is for every her, love is for every him, love is for everyone
Two of my go-to options are 1)grilled or breaded chicken breast and 2)a whole roasted chicken
If you grill up a batch of chicken breasts (or whichever pieces your prefer) you can easily create dinner with just a few sides. Add them to a big salad, make a few veggies for the side, add sauce and cheese for chick parm, cut it up and add to sauce with pasta.
Same with roasted chicken. There is very little prep, I cover it with salt (really cover it, like a good coating of sea salt) and bake at 450 for about and hour. It is delicious on its own or you can use the meat in tacos, fajitas, chicken salad, soup...endless possibilities. Plus, while it it cooking you get quality time with LO.
I prepare a lot of things and then freeze them - turkey burgers, chicken breast or patties, boneless pork chops. I buy tons of meat on the weekend and then Sundays I'll trim the chicken breast or make the patties/burgers and freeze for the week. A good quick chicken recipe I do is:
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
Barbecue Sauce
Deli Sliced Cheddar or American cheese.
Cook the chicken breast about 6 minutes on each side, put a spoonful of barbeque sauce on the chicken breast and spread out, put a slice of cheese onto the chicken and allow it to melt.
Sometimes I will cook up bacon and put it under the cheese. You can have this on a roll or by itself. Its tasty and one of DH's favorites. Sides we have instant mashed taters with gravy, mac & cheese (for DH) and I fix myself a small salad.
I am also a big fan of the crock pot - McCormick pulled pork sandwiches are delish and so easy
Although these aren't the healthiest of items we do:
Turkey hot dogs
Chicken nachos--we boil chicken and put it on top of tortilla chips with cheese and zap it in the microwave. Add jalape?os, sour cream, and pico de gallo.
Chicken salad sandwiches -- we usually boil a lot of chicken at once and use some for nachos, chicken salad, or other chicken dishes
Hot italian sausage with pasta and vodka sauce --- only takes maybe 10 minutes to fix pasta and cook sausage in pan.
Fish tacos --- like everyday if it were up to my husband.
We also cook sausage and cook a box of zatarains jambalaya to mix with the sausage
Lastly, we often pick up a baguette, mozzarella ball, and some prosciutto. Slice the bread and put mozzarella and prosciutto on top. We also eat the baguette with just dipping oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar.
Ok, I'm hungry now...I need to remove myself from this thread!
We eat after they're in bed. It's not ideal and I wish we could eat earlier, but by the time we get home with them it's close to 6pm and then we want to spend some time with them (usually about 1/2 hour) and then it's time for baths, bottles, and bed. They're in bed by 7:30pm usually, 8 at the latest. With only two hours to spend with them each day I'm just not willing to take out at least a 1/2 hour to cook/eat.
What I like to do to make things easy when they're asleep is cut up chicken, put enough chicken in a ziploc sandwich bag for H and I, throw a marinade it it and toss it in the freezer. Then I can take out a packet in the morning and make some rice or veggies with it (I usually just toss it on a grill pan).
Mexican, paninis (I have a panini press and make tons of different kinds of sandwiches...we probably have paninis once a week), pasta, turkey burgers, soup (if you do the prep ahead of time or make it on a Sunday, it reheats well and lasts for a while). I get Cooking Light and cut out a ton of recipes from there or search online. They have a good amount of quick dinners. I'm trying to use my crockpot more too.
Some of my favorite soups https://lani-pleasurecooker.blogspot.com/search/label/soup
My favorite panini https://lani-pleasurecooker.blogspot.com/search/label/panini I also like to make tomato mozzarella paninis and roasted veggie with goat cheese.
After 2+ years and multiple treatment cycles,
including an IVF vacation in Costa Rica/Panama,
IVF #2 brought us our miracle baby!
Surprise! Baby Boy is on the way!
Duplicate post
After 2+ years and multiple treatment cycles,
including an IVF vacation in Costa Rica/Panama,
IVF #2 brought us our miracle baby!
Surprise! Baby Boy is on the way!
I"m a big fan of crockpot meals because they're so easy!
One of our favorites is chicken & dumplings. I also do chicken tacos, beef stew, and pork chops in there pretty frequently.
We do a modified version of this recipe for chicken & dumplings (I add carrots & celery as well as extra biscuits and an extra can of soup):
https://www.bubblecrumb.com/2010/02/14/crock-pot-chicken-and-dumplings-recipe/
And for chicken tacos, I use this recipe:
https://mychocolatetherapy.blogspot.com/2012/01/crockpot-chicken-tacos.html
I also have a bazillion recipes pinned on pinterest that I want to try (I got both of these recipes from there, and they've become staples in our house)
I'm so making this chicken and dumpling recipe this weekend! I can't wait to try it!! I'm not a fan of using canned anything (BPA) but I just found this link to making cream soup bases :
https://southernfood.about.com/od/ingredientsubstitutions/r/bl90911a4.htm
I pretty much always have stuff for tacos on hand.
I have a stir-fry for chicken and broccoli that cooks up super fast. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/chicken-and-broccoli-stir-fry-recipe2/index.html
I like to do roast chicken breast (bone-in) - sear the skin in the pan, finish in the over for about 30 minutes. Make quick side dishes while the chicken cooks. https://afoodcentriclife.com/roast-chicken-breasts-the-beauty-of-basics/
Fish is super fast and super easy. Salmon is 12 minutes under the broiler.
I do "weeknight" meatloaf: instead of one big meatloaf that takes an hour, I form them into 6 oz. servings mini-loafs (or put them in ramekins) - cooks in 30 minutes
We love breakfast for dinner! I do everything on my griddle. Here is an awesome pancake recipe (seriously!). I use King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour - makes them a little better for you. https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/simply-perfect-pancakes-recipe
And this dish sounds kind of weird, but I LOVE it. I want to eat tons of it whenever I make it. It is super simple. I normally use spaghetti instead of orecchiette and use regular broccoli most of the time (I tend to have it on-hand). https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Orecchiette-with-Broccoli-Rabe-350
I also like to roast a chicken on the weekends if I have time. I use the meat for quesadillas, toss onto salads, etc. When it is comfort food season, I'll use the chicken in a pot pie (you can buy store bought crust and the roux and veggies are pretty quick).
Another thing I like to do to save time is to cut up veggies ahead of time and store them in the fridge. It definitely saves time when cooking. I keep mine in glass mason jars with screw-on lids.
For side dishes, I like quick and easy things I can steam, saute, or roast. I love cauliflower roasted (25 minutes in a 425 oven - just toss in olive oil and s&p first). I also like roasting asparagus and broccoli. Fresh green beans are great in a quick saute with garlic and ginger (just do a quick par-boil unless you like them crisp).
I like tossing bell peppers in the oven and letting them roast - I'll chop them up and mix them with israeli couscous and drizzle with a balsamic glaze. Add a grilled chicken breast and dinner is done.
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I am just impressed with you all around. I have one kid and I'm dreading cooking dinner at night. With TWO, we'd be eating cold cuts from subway every night! P.S. I want to see more pics of your babies!I looooooooove twins.
My Colton...Growing up so fast!
And Coralee, his baby sister...On the way!
these all sound good...