Working Parents - What the heck for dinner

[Anonymous]

Ugh, we are at wits end. I get home early since I wake up at 5, but it’s killing me. So I would like to shift to a more normal 8-4 schedule, but how do you dinner.

Even a simple dinner takes a while:
Oven roasted chicken shawarma. - 15 min prep

Salad - wash romaine leaves and dice, slice onions, tomatoes, carrots and mix dressing - 15 min

Simple paella - dice onions, garlic, peppers, toss in rice and shrimp, and water and simmer for 45 min.

If im a rock star I can get that out in an hour, maybe.

And that’s a dead simple meal unless we eat frozen or take out. What are other people doing — I do wished my parents had encouraged me to SAH, this juggle sucks.

[Anonymous]

Tonight we made pasta with sauce and mushrooms. Look for sheet pan dinners. Japanese curry is a quick dinner. I would not make paella during the week.

[Anonymous]

Me again. We also do burgers and tacos.

[Anonymous]

Ravioli, tacos, dumplings and edamame, sushi

[Anonymous]

That's not a dead simple meal.

Put rice on to cook, in a pot or rice cooker. Or pasta, or farro, etc.
Two big chicken breasts in large pan. Cook on medium 7-8 minutes each side.
Pop frozen/canned veggie in the microwave, or put fresh veggie in the oven to roast when you start the rice.

On the table in 30 minutes, max.

[Anonymous]

We clearly have different ideas of simple meals. https://www.aldi.us/products/seasonal-products/seasonal-detail/ps/p/rana-meat-lasagna-1/ Tonight I made this (it our family’s favorite pre-made lasagna) + bagged salad.

Over the weekend DH sous vided some pork which we seared real quick and served over cous cous + steamed frozen broccoli. Tomorrow we’ll eat it again as leftovers.

We also do stuff like rotisserie chicken + rice + frozen veg. We also usually do 1 night of takeout when schedules collide.

Paella would definitely be a weekend meal.

[Anonymous]

Any recipe for Japanese curry meal?

Tonight we had pan-roasted chicken thighs and TJ chicken fried rice, adding extra veggies and eggs. 30 min max and kids liked it.

[Anonymous]

^ meant to specify we sous vided the pork Sunday to quickly cook on Monday might,

[Anonymous]

8-4 doesn't mean you're prepping dinner right at 4, so you're right that it takes planning. No matter how much time we have after school it still feels like a fire drill. If you want truly quick, you're going to have to deal with something frozen or from a mix or do some kind of meal prep in advance. We sacrifice a bit of time on Sundays to make the week work.

Here is our rotation of "easy" dinners:

-Chili made over the weekend, serve with corn muffins (20 min), avocado, etc.

-Trader Joe's gyoza with Trader Joe's vegetarian fried rice, plus a vegetable. The rice can be heated up in the oven at 350 while you heat the gyoza on the stove, or you can stir fry it with a couple of scrambled eggs.

-Breakfast for dinner: pancakes on the stovetop while you have sausage patties in the oven. The pancakes take 20 minutes, tops. Serve with something like a spinach salad, broccoli, etc. depending on what your kids will tolerate with breakfast food.

-Penne with meat sauce. Pasta from a box, sauce from a jar, heat the ground beef and add all 3 to a glass dish. Heat in a 350 oven if you have time. If not, just add the meat to the sauce and serve. Even a very small kid can prep salad to go with it.

-Sausage and peppers + roasted potatoes. This is pretty hands off but there is some prep and you have to be home in time to give the potatoes ~40 minutes in the oven. If you don't have time for the oven, you take slightly larger Yukon golds, cut them into wedges, microwave for ~4 minutes, add olive oil and salt and pepper and then crisp them in the oven for a short time.

My kids can't eat dairy, but if you can, your life is even better and you can do things like quesadillas, grilled cheeses, paninis, Mac and cheese made over the weekend and heated up and paired with a vegetable, etc.

The biggest thing we did to set ourselves up for meal success is have the kids sit with us on the day we grocery shop to plan out the weeks' meals around activities and the hot lunch menu. Them seeing the work that goes into thinking through a menu that doesn't have overlap and fits with the day's schedule instantly killed any dinnertime complaining about meal repeat frequency, meal content, etc.

[Anonymous]

So no one is using fresh vegetables at all? Just frozen or CANNED??

We can't have frozen dinners or even much take out because of my DH low sodium diet restrictions.

I mean, yeah, we make mac and cheese but that's like my last choice since its nutritionally bereft.

We don't want just pasta and can of jarred sauce -- my side of family has history of diabetes, thats why something like whole grain rice with vegetables in a paella is better than rice cooker white rice or frozen fried rice.

[Anonymous]

We make several meals worth of chicken at once and reheat. Eat with salad made that day. I vary the flavor of chicken but not much else.

If we're out of chicken, then pasta, soup, or frozen fish sticks. Tacos are too many different things to cut up but we have them sometimes.

DH and I alternate dinner and dishes. Tonight was his night for dinner but he had to go out so he prepped it for me to heat up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any recipe for Japanese curry meal?

Tonight we had pan-roasted chicken thighs and TJ chicken fried rice, adding extra veggies and eggs. 30 min max and kids liked it.

Get golden curry packets that come in a box
Cut in large chunks (not slices) -
Carrots
Sweet potato
White potato
Onion
*I add thinly sliced seitan but that’s optional

Put all in instant pot with 1/3 c water and put golden curry packet on top. Cook on STEW for 12-15 mins.

Serve over white rice

[Anonymous]

We use fresh veggies or salad every night. One pot meals are great. Oven roasted meals are great. Most of our meals take a total of 30-45 from start to finish but we aren't standing over the stove the entire time. We also make it family time. Sometimes DH and I just chit chat. Sometimes the whole family does. Sometimes DS will help one of us cook.

Tonight was some sauteed green beans with garlic and Parmesan with some oven roasted salmon.

Tomorrow I'm doing a salad with a lot of ingredients but I prepped some of them tonight because I had time. Will pair it with some sauteed jerk chicken.

I make a huge batch of homemade sauce and meatballs and freeze it. Will take some out for Thursday and pair with leftover salad.

Yesterday we did steak tips with roasted broccoli, sweet potatoes, and purple potatoes.

[Anonymous]

How do people make tacos quickly?

1) sautee beef

2) wash and shred lettuce

3) wash and shred cilantro, onion, dice tomatoes.

4) shred cheese or I guess use anti-caking agent cheese

It seems as much work or more than a salad?

[Anonymous]

Four ideas:
Search for “cheater pad Thai” from happy herbivore - very fast recipe

Fried rice with rice, whatever veg you have or frozen mixed veg, cubed tofu, minced garlic, minced ginger, hoisin, soy sauce, sake

Thai curry:
Put 1-2 tbsp of curry paste in pan with coconut milk, simmer. Add frozen oriental veg, sheeked edamame or seitan, and simmer. Add cashews or Thai basil as garnish or in last minute of simmer. Serve over rice.

Omelet with sautéed mushroom slices and baby spinach

“Black bean salsa soup” - from happy herbivore again, add chopped fresh peppers or other veg

I have a list of very fast healthy recipes that I go to. It’s much easier with an instant pot to cook fast things, but 3/4 above don’t need it.