Healthy dinners for family

[Anonymous]

Hello -

I am really struggling to cook healthy meals for my family. My husband doesn’t cook so it’s left to me. I work part-time (but seems full time these days) and I just feel like I am trying to figure meals out throughout the week and last-minute. I know there’s meal planning on Sundays but we like to spend that day as a family. Does anyone have suggestions on what works for them or is there a website you recommend with easy recipes? With school pickup, activities, work etc, it’s been hard getting healthy foods on the table.

[Anonymous]

Websites: Skinnytaste, Forks over Knives, Iowa Girl Eats, Dinner: A Love Story

At our house, my staple meals are lentil soup, tacos with ground turkey, baked chicken/broccoli/sweet potatoes, turkey meatballs with chick pea pasta & red sauce, baked fish with kale, roast chicken with a green salad, Frittata with spinach, black beans & rice.

[Anonymous]

You can spend Sundays with your family and still do a little planning (not precooking, just planning). My system is committing to go to one grocery store once a week only and to plan simple meals with that timing in mind. Write down your plan for each night of the week when you are going to cook and then go to the store and get everything you need for the week. As PP wrote, keep a few simple meals in your rotation that you use and can make easily and quickly. Even if you end up switching a meal or two around because things come up, you wont find yourself deciding after work that you need to go buy food for dinner and you will already have a meal in mind. If you get into the habit of doing this every week at the time that works best for you, you will reduce the times that you are at a loss for what to feed your family.

PP had good ideas. We also do things like chili and tacos, veggie risotto, baked potatoes with toppings/cheese, stir fries, curry using jarred sauce over rice or couscous. I like to roast a whole chicken and then use the chicken meat in things. Also use things like chicken sausage to serve as the protein in a meal because it lasts a long time in the fridge and is easy to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Websites: Skinnytaste, Forks over Knives, Iowa Girl Eats, Dinner: A Love Story

At our house, my staple meals are lentil soup, tacos with ground turkey, baked chicken/broccoli/sweet potatoes, turkey meatballs with chick pea pasta & red sauce, baked fish with kale, roast chicken with a green salad, Frittata with spinach, black beans & rice.

Do you mind posting recipes for these staple meals? Look delicious thanks

[Anonymous]

My go to healthy meal is fajitas on a sheet pan. They can go in tortillas, a salad, over rice, etc. Very versatile, easy, and tasty!

[Anonymous]

I recently created the following system to solve this problem, and it's working really well:

Monday: Rice bowls. I vary them week to week so people don't get board, and sometimes the base isn't even rice -- it could be cous cous or similar. Sometimes it's rice and bean bowls with taco fixings, sometimes I fry up some tofu and broccoli, etc. There are tons of ideas online -- I don't have a specific resources, I just google "rice bowl ideas" and see what comes up. One thing I like about it is that it usually involves very little actual cooking. It's mostly chopping different toppings and putting them in bowls, and then maybe cooking a protein and vegetable in a single skillet.

Tuesday: Leftover rice bowls.

Wednesday: Pasta dish. We alternate between traditional past and whole grain or even red lentil pasta. I look for veggie heavy dishes and have no issue with fattier sauces that include butter or cream -- our kids are little and I consider these good fats for them, plus it usually means they'll do a better job of eating the proteins and vegetables. Also, a creamier sauce is a great base for throwing in pretty much any greens you have in the fridge (spinach, kale, arugula, etc.) and wilting them in, and that's how my kids get a lot of their greens since they will not eat salad. I also love mushroom pastas.

Thursday: Leftover pasta

Friday: We eat out or do something easy from the freezer

Saturday: DH handles

Sunday: leftovers of whatever DH made on Saturday

So I only cook twice a week and DH cooks once. If he couldn't cook at all, I'd stock the freezer with things that are easy to reheat and then do super easy roast veggie sides. So like freeze up a bunch of individual bean and cheese burritos, and then roast up some squash on a sheet pan at the same time I reheat them.

But having the rice/pasta system means I always basically know what I'm making and often have many fo the core ingredients on hand already. So I just have to chose the protein/sauce/veggie but I can rotate through 4-5 options and since it's just once a week, it doesn't get too repetitive.

[Anonymous]

Freezer is your friend. Freeze steaks, chicken, hamburger patties. But I remove everything from its original packaging and put it in a freezer ziplock.

Even ground meat is great frozen if you remove it from original packaging and put kind of flat in freezer bag (I try to make it less than width of my large frying pan).

Try to buy enough meat for the week all at once and freeze.

Frozen steak or lamb chops - put in fridge overnight. Or, let it thaw a few hours on granite counter. I flip halfway through.

Frozen hamburgers- toss Frozen right into pan with lid on low medium to get it defrosted.

Frozen ground beef - same thing. Great for taco nights.

Frozen chicken - toss frozen into crock pot all day on low. Can pour cream of chicken Campbells soup in there too on top.

Or, even better, pull apart cooked chicken and toss it in a cream pasta. That sauce is roughly 1/3 broth, 2/3 cream chicken soup, and little olive oil. I toss it right onto cooked spaghetti.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Freezer is your friend. Freeze steaks, chicken, hamburger patties. But I remove everything from its original packaging and put it in a freezer ziplock.

Even ground meat is great frozen if you remove it from original packaging and put kind of flat in freezer bag (I try to make it less than width of my large frying pan).

Try to buy enough meat for the week all at once and freeze.

Frozen steak or lamb chops - put in fridge overnight. Or, let it thaw a few hours on granite counter. I flip halfway through.

Frozen hamburgers- toss Frozen right into pan with lid on low medium to get it defrosted.

Frozen ground beef - same thing. Great for taco nights.

Frozen chicken - toss frozen into crock pot all day on low. Can pour cream of chicken Campbells soup in there too on top.

Or, even better, pull apart cooked chicken and toss it in a cream pasta. That sauce is roughly 1/3 broth, 2/3 cream chicken soup, and little olive oil. I toss it right onto cooked spaghetti.

I forgot -

Freeze fresh hamburger buns. I probably have 24 in my freezer. I toss those in the toaster.

Freeze French bread - I cut it into thirds, toss in freezer bag, and reheat in oven when needed.

[Anonymous]

We cook as a family. We do a lot of what some might consider chores or errands as a family. Turn on some music and do it together.

[Anonymous]

Budget bytes has a bunch of quick practical (and cheap!) ideas for meals

[Anonymous]

Baked ziti with Banza chickpea pasta, Raos marinara, mozzerella, chicken sausage and tons of peppers/onions/zucchini.

Turkey meatballs (dark ground turkey, ricotta, parsley, basil, salt and red pepper flakes) bake and cover with sauce

Grain free chicken Parmesan from Defined Dish. Love this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Freezer is your friend. Freeze steaks, chicken, hamburger patties. But I remove everything from its original packaging and put it in a freezer ziplock.

Even ground meat is great frozen if you remove it from original packaging and put kind of flat in freezer bag (I try to make it less than width of my large frying pan).

Try to buy enough meat for the week all at once and freeze.

Frozen steak or lamb chops - put in fridge overnight. Or, let it thaw a few hours on granite counter. I flip halfway through.

Frozen hamburgers- toss Frozen right into pan with lid on low medium to get it defrosted.

Frozen ground beef - same thing. Great for taco nights.

Frozen chicken - toss frozen into crock pot all day on low. Can pour cream of chicken Campbells soup in there too on top.

Or, even better, pull apart cooked chicken and toss it in a cream pasta. That sauce is roughly 1/3 broth, 2/3 cream chicken soup, and little olive oil. I toss it right onto cooked spaghetti.

I forgot -

Freeze fresh hamburger buns. I probably have 24 in my freezer. I toss those in the toaster.

Freeze French bread - I cut it into thirds, toss in freezer bag, and reheat in oven when needed.

I think you missed the healthy part of her request.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Freezer is your friend. Freeze steaks, chicken, hamburger patties. But I remove everything from its original packaging and put it in a freezer ziplock.

Even ground meat is great frozen if you remove it from original packaging and put kind of flat in freezer bag (I try to make it less than width of my large frying pan).

Try to buy enough meat for the week all at once and freeze.

Frozen steak or lamb chops - put in fridge overnight. Or, let it thaw a few hours on granite counter. I flip halfway through.

Frozen hamburgers- toss Frozen right into pan with lid on low medium to get it defrosted.

Frozen ground beef - same thing. Great for taco nights.

Frozen chicken - toss frozen into crock pot all day on low. Can pour cream of chicken Campbells soup in there too on top.

Or, even better, pull apart cooked chicken and toss it in a cream pasta. That sauce is roughly 1/3 broth, 2/3 cream chicken soup, and little olive oil. I toss it right onto cooked spaghetti.

I forgot -

Freeze fresh hamburger buns. I probably have 24 in my freezer. I toss those in the toaster.

Freeze French bread - I cut it into thirds, toss in freezer bag, and reheat in oven when needed.

I think you missed the healthy part of her request.

I don't cook this way, generally, but OP needs to define "healthy." I think the lack of responses here is due to not knowing where that line is vs. asking for good weeknight meals.

[Anonymous]

We’re two full-time working professionals with three kids and a dog.

For the past few months we’ve been subscribing to Sunbasket—super healthy, many meals are super fast, and very tasty. I buy three meal kits a week, cook fish at least once a week, and then get other simple things, like a rotisserie chicken with bags of steamed vegetables.

[Anonymous]

Anything with more than like 5 ingredients overwhelm me. So I see recipes that looks good and print them out then never make them. We do rotisserie chicken once a week, we have with bagged salad, DD has tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, celery cut up with it and sometimes rice ( the kind you nuke in the microwave for 90 seconds. Another favorite is vegetarian tacos or nachos. Veggie beef crumbles mixed with black beans then Old El Paso mild seasoning. Serve with shredded cheese, Avacado, chopped tomatoes. Costco sells precooked chicken skewers, they just need heating and are very tasty. Serve with whatever you like……….. I grew up in a family where dinner had to be a meat, starch and a vegetable. I had to get out of this mindset. We’ve been known to have avacado toast with an egg on it for dinner. Or a bagel with egg and cheese and fruit.