Easy meals

[Anonymous]

Sauté onions and peppers. Add some seasoning: fajita, Turkish, Italian, whatever you feel like. Then remove that and brown some chopped meat. Dump in a can of diced tomatoes and a bit of tomato paste, salt, and pepper. Put the onions and peppers back in. Stir and then stir in a bunch of spinach from a prewashed box. If you feel like stirring in some drained cannellini, kidney, or garbanzo beans to bulk it up, go for it.

While you’re doing all that, make rice in your instapot or else heat up some tortillas.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a rice cooker? If so, get a jar of Trader Joes green or yellow curry. Heat it up. Throw in some protein (my kids like salmon) and green beans. Ready in about 20 min.

[Anonymous]

Dinner salads, pasta, and tacos are my go-tos for nights when we have almost no time to cook. Grain bowls are also easy to throw together, but require some advanced planning.

[Anonymous]

Meal delivery services, both the ready-to-eat and the cook-them-yourself types make meal planning and execution pretty easy, albeit at a financial cost.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all the ideas. My kids basically refuse to eat Mexican unfortunately so that eliminates a lot of easy taco or tortilla meals or those involving beans. We tend to stick with asian and pastas.

I haven't done a lot of prepping but will now have to, so question for you preppers. If I slice meat and marinate for stir fry, would that last a few days in the fridge just marinating? If I need to blanch a veggie, like broccoli, can I do that night before and leave blanched veggies in the fridge?

And I just want to say how amazing all of you are who can juggle sports or activities after school and getting a decent dinner ready each night. My kids don't do a ton of activities and one of the main reasons I dont push it is I would not be able to handle the cooking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For me a 20 min meal is about meal assembly with pre-made ingredients like making bowls with precooked chicken, microwaveable rice and veggies. Or quesadillas. Or a salad with leftover chicken. Sometimes it’s just frozen chicken fingers and fries. If I only have 20 min and want to cook protein, it will be a steak or burger.

I always see people mention tacos but tacos are not fast between browning the ground beef, making the sauce, warming shells and chopping/shredding toppings. Thats more of a 30 min meal.

I am trying to use my crockpot more but my teen-young adult kids aren’t crockpot meal fans.

You don't have to make any sauce, brown any shells, or shred anything for tacos! Any meal can be complicated if you complicate it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have a rice cooker? If so, get a jar of Trader Joes green or yellow curry. Heat it up. Throw in some protein (my kids like salmon) and green beans. Ready in about 20 min.

Yes curries are a staple around here though my kids are a bit iffy on them. I have never tried salmon though! Will have to experiment. I assume you chop up the salmon?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the ideas. My kids basically refuse to eat Mexican unfortunately so that eliminates a lot of easy taco or tortilla meals or those involving beans. We tend to stick with asian and pastas.

I haven't done a lot of prepping but will now have to, so question for you preppers. If I slice meat and marinate for stir fry, would that last a few days in the fridge just marinating? If I need to blanch a veggie, like broccoli, can I do that night before and leave blanched veggies in the fridge?

And I just want to say how amazing all of you are who can juggle sports or activities after school and getting a decent dinner ready each night. My kids don't do a ton of activities and one of the main reasons I dont push it is I would not be able to handle the cooking.

If your kids will eat stir fry, what I used to do is buy chicken in bulk and then into stir fry pieces and freeze in packs by the amount I use. Then the night before, I put a pack in the fridge to defrost. I never tried to, but you probably could freeze it in a marinade.

I do think the one downside of 20 minute meals is you give up some quality. So you could just try the recipe without blanching the vegetable. See if it makes a big difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quesadilla - can be with refried beans (from a can) and cheese, just cheese or make a pizza quessadilla eith tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese

Scrambled eggs (or sunny side up or omletre) along with biscuits (use Bisquik), while biscuits are cooking (9 minutes), steam veggies and cook eggs

Tacos - saute your meat (ground beef or turkey), add can of diced tomatoes, can of black or red beans, can or frozen corn. Add seasoning, serve in a tortilla, with chips, or over a bed of bagged lettuce (that's me eating the lettuce)

Start a pot of pasta and steam veggies. Thaw frozen shrimp and sautee with garlic and lemon juice, throw in parsley in the end, combine for am easy scampi

Bag of meatballs from Costco, jarred sauce, steam veggies and put up a pot of pasta

I tried a Swedish meatball from the sample person at Costco last week. At first the aroma made me realize I was hungry but eating it the excessive salt and mushy texture was horrible. I usually have a couple of prepared meals in the freezer for emergency purposes but I don't think I've ever had one that tasted satisfying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the ideas. My kids basically refuse to eat Mexican unfortunately so that eliminates a lot of easy taco or tortilla meals or those involving beans. We tend to stick with asian and pastas.

I haven't done a lot of prepping but will now have to, so question for you preppers. If I slice meat and marinate for stir fry, would that last a few days in the fridge just marinating? If I need to blanch a veggie, like broccoli, can I do that night before and leave blanched veggies in the fridge?

And I just want to say how amazing all of you are who can juggle sports or activities after school and getting a decent dinner ready each night. My kids don't do a ton of activities and one of the main reasons I dont push it is I would not be able to handle the cooking.

If your kids will eat stir fry, what I used to do is buy chicken in bulk and then into stir fry pieces and freeze in packs by the amount I use. Then the night before, I put a pack in the fridge to defrost. I never tried to, but you probably could freeze it in a marinade.

I do think the one downside of 20 minute meals is you give up some quality. So you could just try the recipe without blanching the vegetable. See if it makes a big difference.

I think as long as the marinade is acidic it might be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have a rice cooker? If so, get a jar of Trader Joes green or yellow curry. Heat it up. Throw in some protein (my kids like salmon) and green beans. Ready in about 20 min.

Yes curries are a staple around here though my kids are a bit iffy on them. I have never tried salmon though! Will have to experiment. I assume you chop up the salmon?

I'm PP. I just drop in the entire filet, no skin though. I use the pre-portioned frozen filets.

[Anonymous]

you can help yourself out in this area by prepping meat ahead and vacuum sealing it. then you have the meat, say chicken. tonight i made pizza with aldi dough, grated cheese, onions, and bbq sauce. easy.

prep real spaghetti sauce. it will make enough for 5 or more meals.

you can prep casseroles ahead and pop in oven after work. you can make 12 or more meals in one day.

you can marinate boneless chicken in bags and just throw in on a pan and into the oven. 20 minutes.

steam bags for vegetables. veg cooks in the microwave for under 10 minutes.

premake meatballs. you can make several pounds at a time and either use with gravy or spaghetti sauce.

pork tenderloin from aldi or anywhere. cheap and cooks in under 30 minutes.

you could prep your veg for the week on sunday.

yes, you still have to cook, but things like these make getting a dinner made pretty easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quesadilla - can be with refried beans (from a can) and cheese, just cheese or make a pizza quessadilla eith tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese

Scrambled eggs (or sunny side up or omletre) along with biscuits (use Bisquik), while biscuits are cooking (9 minutes), steam veggies and cook eggs

Tacos - saute your meat (ground beef or turkey), add can of diced tomatoes, can of black or red beans, can or frozen corn. Add seasoning, serve in a tortilla, with chips, or over a bed of bagged lettuce (that's me eating the lettuce)

Start a pot of pasta and steam veggies. Thaw frozen shrimp and sautee with garlic and lemon juice, throw in parsley in the end, combine for am easy scampi

Bag of meatballs from Costco, jarred sauce, steam veggies and put up a pot of pasta

I tried a Swedish meatball from the sample person at Costco last week. At first the aroma made me realize I was hungry but eating it the excessive salt and mushy texture was horrible. I usually have a couple of prepared meals in the freezer for emergency purposes but I don't think I've ever had one that tasted satisfying.

I agree about frozen meals. Rarely satisfying and salt is a serious issue. I also realize my family (kids included) are just very picky eaters. That said, give the frozen Ikea swedish meatballs a try. I find them to be pretty decent with some lingonberry sauce to balance out the saltiness (which is not too horrible for frozen meal). I have a pack of unopened costco swedish meatballs in my deep freezer and you are not making me excited to try them!

[Anonymous]

Idea 1: sausage hot dogs — toast buns in toaster/oven and saute precooked sausage. Chop and then Sauté broccolini or pre cut green beans in same pan as sausage (add salt and squeeze of lemon). Add pickled onions and condiments to sausage as desired.

Idea 2: ricotta pasta. Boil pasta, cut cherry tomatoes and grate Parmesan while boiling. Once pasta is done, put in separate boil and add small tub of ricotta, add tomato, add Parmesan, add squeeze of lemon, add half a cup to a cup of pasta water. Mix together. Can also add handful of spinach. Done.

Idea 3: easy pasta salad. Make pasta ahead of time and put in fridge. Add olive oil, a whole round box of Boursin cheese, halved cherry tomatoes, fresh spinach, balsamic vinegar, feta to taste. (Other stuff you could add: olives, cucumber slices)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quesadilla - can be with refried beans (from a can) and cheese, just cheese or make a pizza quessadilla eith tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese

Scrambled eggs (or sunny side up or omletre) along with biscuits (use Bisquik), while biscuits are cooking (9 minutes), steam veggies and cook eggs

Tacos - saute your meat (ground beef or turkey), add can of diced tomatoes, can of black or red beans, can or frozen corn. Add seasoning, serve in a tortilla, with chips, or over a bed of bagged lettuce (that's me eating the lettuce)

Start a pot of pasta and steam veggies. Thaw frozen shrimp and sautee with garlic and lemon juice, throw in parsley in the end, combine for am easy scampi

Bag of meatballs from Costco, jarred sauce, steam veggies and put up a pot of pasta

I tried a Swedish meatball from the sample person at Costco last week. At first the aroma made me realize I was hungry but eating it the excessive salt and mushy texture was horrible. I usually have a couple of prepared meals in the freezer for emergency purposes but I don't think I've ever had one that tasted satisfying.

Costco sells a bag of Italian Style Beef meatballs, that are perfect for any kind of sauce you want to use. And for teenage boys who are always hungry and need more protein. If I wanted Swedish meatballs and didn't want to make them myself, I'd go to Ikea!