Your best “I can’t even” dinners
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Anonymous
| I have a one month old and a two year old. There’s been a lot of takeout, frozen meals, and eggs for dinner lately, but I want to start making something at least a few nights a week. What’s your go-to meal on a night when you want or need to eat something homemade but have very little time or energy to cook? We call these “I can’t even” recipes in our house. Things like frozen dumplings steamed with (pre-washed/cut) broccoli and rice from the freezer, chicken dumped in an instant pot with masala sauce. |
Anonymous
| I really like baked chicken, because everything else can get made while that's cooking. You can get skin-on chicken and sprinkle minced garlic and minced onion and throw it in the oven for an hour, then cut up some new potatoes and sprinkle Everything But the Bagel seasoning and put that in the oven too. Then eat raw veggies or a salad while it's cooking. |
Anonymous
| Buitoni Tortellini. Cooks in 6 minutes. Add jarred sauce and a fruit or veg. We had it once a week when the kids were little whichever night was the busiest. |
Anonymous
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This food and wine bolognese is made from scratch but takes only 20 minutes or so. We have it once a week! Everyone loves:
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/pasta-bolognese---qfs |
Anonymous
| Taco night with impossible meat or just canned refried beans and cheese and tomatoes/avocado if we have it. Dumplings from freezer, heated frozen peas with butter. Hot dogs and chicken sausages with a side salad. |
Anonymous
| Pizza dough from TJ, jarred tomato sauce, cheese. Easy salad or raw veggies. |
Anonymous
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Sheet pan recipes. Meat (chicken, salmon, or sausage), veggies and seasoning on one sheet pan in the oven.
Pasta and sauce with steamed veggies |
Anonymous
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Tonight we’re having chicken noodle soup.
I use 2 Ramen packets but do 5 cups of water instead of 4. Then I’m adding rotisserie chicken leftovers, chopped carrots and chopped celery. DD is having strawberries with hers that the neighbor brought over. It’s dinner in less than 10 mins. |
Anonymous
| Last night we had avocado on WG toast with a fried egg on top. It’s one of my 10yo’s favorite meals. Done in about 5-6 mins. |
Anonymous
| Boxed mac n cheese cooked in the instant pot. Cooks in 4 min, all in the same pot. |
Anonymous
+1! For when I don't even have the energy to cook pasta and drain the water after. |
Anonymous
| Peanut butter noddles! Peanut butter sauce: peanut butter, soy sauce, chili sauce. Fresh grated ginger and garlic if you're feeling extra. Toss in boiled Asian/ramen noodles. You can do the whole thing is 10 minutes and its so good. |
Anonymous
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My easy meal is
- Quinoa Peas Pilaf (stovetop, pot) - 10 minutes - Green mung bean daal in a pressure cooker with veggi tampering (stovetop, pressure cooker) - 15 minutes. - Chicken Keema and green beans (stove top, pan) - 20 minutes - Yogurt Raita with onions, tomatoes and cilantro (no cooking, just assembling)- 6 minutes. - potatoes with cumin (microwave) - 10 minutes I can have the whole meal ready in under 30 minutes or sometimes less depending on if I have some stuff premade. I make everything at once. |
Anonymous
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Cube and season a couple big sweet potatoes and roast for 30-40 minutes. Mix with greens, black beans, gains and veg for grain bowls, or with black beans, hot sauce, radishes, cilantro and onions in tacos.
Also, when we were in that phase we bought the Make-Ahead Cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen and would do one of the freezer meals a couple times a month. One recipe will make enough for 4 nights of meals for a family with kids that age. So two recipes means 8 nights of dinners. Really nice to have that in the freezer when you just don’t feel like cooking. |
Anonymous
| We always have ingredients for breakfast (pancakes, eggs, various breakfast meats, grits, etc), so that one is common. And I always have frozen pasties from The Pure Pasty in my freezer. Perfect for nights I don’t want to cook at all. |