| Do you have any ideas for what we can make last minute if there are 2-3 teenagers staying unexpectedly for dinner? Seems to be happening more often and last time I was lucky because we were making burgers and had extras but some nights this definitely wouldn't work so would be great to keep some things in the freezer for these nights. Trying to avoid ordering in all the time. |
|
Costco chicken nuggets (those chick fil a copy ones)
Frozen tortellini Jars of Raos sauce Keep a box of frozen turkey burgers and brats You could just add any of these things to a meal you had already planned. |
| Frozen pizza, frozen ravioli, and just ... extra - extra veg, extra of whatever protein you normally make. These can be leftovers if there's not extra kids for dinner. |
| Stouffers (or similar) frozen lasagna, enchiladas, etc. The family size ones. |
|
i would probably feed them something frozen as mentioned above. i don't have enough of any dinner to feed 3 teenage boys without notice.
if it happens all the time, start making bigger dinners. if no extra teenagers, then leftovers and you can skip cooking once in a while. |
| Frozen meatballs |
| I keep boxes of the Costco taquitos in the freezer for nights when it’s not a dinner I can stretch. They love them. |
This. I’d feed them separately. You’d need at least two lbs of meat extra to feed them. |
| If it was on once in awhile I’d just order pizza. Otherwise I always have pasta and jarred sauce around, plus keep frozen meatballs and garlic bread in the freezer. |
| Or just tell them to go to their respective homes for dinner... |
This isn't Sweden. |
| Honestly usually I just put on a pot of spaghetti. It’s easy and you can keep it on hand. |
| We generally have various kinds of burgers and buns in our freezer. Also ground meat or Costco shredded rotisserie chicken that we can turn into quesadillas or nachos. Frozen ravioli and sauce, insta pot bbq quicken sliders (we usually have chicken thighs in the freezer and bbq sauce + buns), spaghetti and frozen meatballs or meatball sliders. Rice bowls are always popular with grilled salmon or another protein but are more labor intensive. We have a chest freezer and order from Butcher Box and stock up from Costco. Now that I’ve mastered quick defrosting methods there’s a lot I can pull together from stuff on hand. Rice and beans and egg-based stuff (huevos is rancheros, breakfast burritos, omelettes) too |
OP here, thanks. Do you just defrost in the microwave for something like chicken thighs or frozen burgers or just cook from frozen? |
|
Lots of pasta and as others have suggested, frozen family size meals.
If it’s really something I can’t stretch and I’ve already started cooking, I will put out veggies and hummus, fresh fruit or cheese and crackers for everyone to snack on before dinner. That helps the meal go further. I’ve had to learn to roll with it a lot. Some nights it is just my family of three and other nights it’s us and 1-3 additional teenagers. |