Please share your go-to easy weekly meals, especially ones that can be made in advance!

[Anonymous]

Both my husband and I work full time with two young children. I am exhausted when I come home and would love some easy meal ideas. I would really love some meal ideas that can be made in advance (frozen or not). Also ones that are toddler and kid friendly.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

An easy favorite in my house -

Chicken Quesadillas.

Time-savers: buy shredded cheese. You can also buy pre-cooked chicken strips (frozen) or cooked chicken breasts from the deli counter.

I doctor up the chicken with mild green chiles (can) and liquid smoke.

Kids love to assemble the quesadillas. We seal them in foil & no clean-up mess.

[Anonymous]

OP, you could be me . DH and I both work full time, and have a 2yo and a 5yo. One thing that really helps me is having a PLAN before I get home. If I stand in the kitchen thinking "what am I going to make for dinner??", then all bets are off. I try to spend 10-20 minutes the night before organizing a few things, pulling something out of the freezer if necessary. Weekly meal planning is ideal, but doesn't always happen.

Some staples that I like to make ahead in big batches, and freeze single-meal-size portions: ground beef, rice, chicken (poach a bunch of breasts, or roast a whole chicken over the weekend - freeze & shred the leftovers), meatballs (bake a huge batch in the oven). Combine these with fresh veggies to make meals throughout the week.

Some of our weeknight favorites:

- Tacos: chop the veggies the night before, and pull a bag of frozen ground beef from the freezer. When you get home, combine the ground beef, a can of diced tomatoes and your favorite taco seasoning in a skillet. Let that simmer while you and the kids set the table.

- Skillet chicken: Pound skinless/boneless chicken breasts flat, or slice and butterfly. They should be around 1/2 inch thick, otherwise they take too long too cook. Heat 1-2 Tb olive oil in a large skillet; season the chicken with your favorite herbs or spices; pan-fry in the olive oil. Sometimes I add about 1/4 cup of water or broth and cover the skillet to poach the chicken; it ends up milder in flavor and more moist. My favorite seasonings: Italian herb mix; garlic powder & lemon pepper; see the Penzey's thread for other ideas. While the chicken is cooking, steam some veggies (broccoli is a fav in our house) and/or make a salad, and warm up a bag of frozen leftover brown rice in the microwave.

- Seafood. It generally cooks much faster than chicken or beef, and is yummy and healthy too! Costco has bags of individually-wrapped Sockeye fillets that are actually quite good. I pull 2-3 out of the freezer the night before. Then grill (on a sheet of foil with a bit of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic) or roast in a 450-deg oven for about 10-15 minutes. Stir together some ginger, garlic, soy sauce and brown sugar; use that to baste the salmon in the oven. Cook up some veggies and garlic bread while the salmon is cooking.

- Meatballs: If you don't have cooked ones in the freezer, make up a batch of meatball mix the night before. My fav recipe is: combine a slice of bread and 2-3 Tb milk in a bowl; add 1 egg and mix with a fork; add 2 cloves minced garlic, 2 thinly sliced scallions and 2 Tb Italian seasoning; add 1 lb ground turkey; mix to combine. Store in a bowl in the fridge overnight. Then, heat 2 Tb olive oil in a deep skillet. Add a bunch of chopped basil, 2-3 Tb tomato paste, and a can of crushed tomatoes. Bring to a simmer. Form the meatballs, drop into the tomato sauce, cover, and simmer for about 10-15 minutes until cooked through. Serve with pasta and veggie. My kids love helping to make the meatballs.

-Dinner salad: when all else fails, chop some lettuce and a variety of veggies, add some of the shredded chicken from the freezer (thaw overnight, or in the microwave), may a couple of chopped hard-boiled eggs or diced ham if you have any handy. My kids prefer having the items separate on their plate, with a puddle of dressing for dipping.

Sorry this got to be so long, I love thinking about food . Hope it helps.

[Anonymous]

Baked potatoes stuffed with broccoli and peas topped with cheddar, a bit o bacon and Greek yogurt. My husband likes an egg on top. Potatoes can be made a couple days ahead and just warmed in oven. Also works well with sweet potatoes.

[Anonymous]

Depending on your food budget ...

On a Sunday you might buy a whole chicken, a couple lbs of salmon, a bag of frozen shrimp, ground turkey meat (hard to find organic), and a bunch of kale, chorizo, and canned beans.

Sunday make kale soup (can be really easy and quick) and have for dinner later in the week with good crusty bread and some parm. cheese.

Sunday roast the chicken over a bed of onions and carrots and have with salad Tuesday night.

Monday night put oven to 375, put salmon on foil covered baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, salt and some lemon (other herbs good too), on another sheet add asparagus drizzled with similar stuff. Give asparagus a head start and add salmon for last minutes (I use a thermometer and pull fish at 135). It's about 10 minutes of prep and not much more than 30 minutes of cooking time.

Wed. do tacos (meat can be browned on weekend).

Thursday shrimp baked with a package of once frozen thawed spinach, a can of tomatoes, and a topping of feta cheese. (Can be done ahead or just pull out shrimp and spinach to thaw before work and layer and bake when home. Little prep about 30min cooking time.)

Friday kale soup.

[Anonymous]

Last night had grilled scallops with spaghetti and spinach in garlic and olive oil. Took 35 minutes to prepare including lighting the charcoal grill.

[Anonymous]

grilled meat, chicken or fish. roasted or steamed vegetables. Vegetables made in large batches.

[Anonymous]

Buitoni, TJ's, or Aldi tortellini with a jar of sauce, salad, bread. Not flashy, but tasty and efficient!

I also make GIANT batches of Ina Garten's cheddar corn chowder and freeze it for weeknights.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cheddar-corn-chowder-recipe/index.html

Stuff makes me swoon...

[Anonymous]

If you don't mind the added calories I highly recommend replacing shredded or cubed chicken breast with slow cooked pork shoulder. Besides being cheaper I find that it holds up to freezing and reheating much better than white meat chicken does.

[Anonymous]

Spaghetti and meatballs, using the premade, fully cooked meatballs. We like the Harris Teeter turkey meatballs, from the refrigerated/ready-made meat area. (Usually b/w the raw meat & the lunch meats.)

Also, cook one or two dishes on the weekend.... voila! Leftovers = dinner.

[Anonymous]

Almost all of our quick weeknight recipes have come from Real Simple magazine. There's also a RS cookbook. We also use several from Everyday Food (no longer a separate magazine from the other Martha Stewart one, but there is an EF cookbook).

[Anonymous]

If you use a crockpot: fill the bottom with small, whole potatoes - I like yukon golds. Add half bottle of italian dressing, sprinkle parmesean cheese over, add a little dried basil and parsley. Add frozed chicken breasts. Repeat dressing, cheese, and herbs. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Stir in a bag of baby spinach about 5 min before serving.

[Anonymous]

I have three little ones and cook a few things on Sundays to be out to use during the week- I sometimes spend a few hours doing this on Sunday but it is worth it.

Roast a chicken. Have for dinner tha night with veggies and rolls. Shred the rest and put in fridge.

Cook soup- my current fav is tomato/ roasted red pepper basil with a bit of cream. That can be lunches or made with a quick salad and/ or grilled cheese for a fast dinner.

Use shredded chicken to make enchiladas. You can ether put this together in Sunday with the shredded chicken or throw together another night. I keep in fridge and re- heat.

We also eat shrimp a lot. Just roast in the oven with some butter, lemon, salt and pepper. Add a veggie and maybe some cooked pasta. This is usually best day of but everything can be prepped except the shrimp before hand.

We will grill out extras on he weekend to use during the week. Whenever you grill, add something to it and put t aside for another meal. You can do this with just about anything.

[Anonymous]

Make a big batch of pesto (basil is cheap and plentiful at farmers markets right now) and freeze - toss with pasta or tortellini, make a salad, and you have dinner. This is particularly welcome in winter when the pesto you made in summer will taste SO good. Another recipe I recently discovered that my kids really love - and calling it a recipe is a stretch - is this: slice an onion, put in the bottom of a crock pot, put a boneless pork loin roast on top (or pork shoulder...can even still be frozen!) and pour over that a jar of pepperoncini with its brine. Cook all day while you are at work. Pull apart/shred the meat with a couple of forks when you get home, serve on crusty rolls or baguette with or without some sliced provolone cheese. Seriously, you won't believe how easy and delicious this is.

[Anonymous]

Scrambled eggs with the filling of your choice -- doesn't get any quicker than this (unless you are my DH who takes forever to chop anything). Add a salad, bread, and/or fruit to go with. We often serve fruit as part of dinner rather than dessert. I find I eat more of it this way (if it's dessert I fill up on other stuff first and don't ever get to the fruit).

Salmon and catfish cook up quickly in the oven, 20 mins max. I turn the oven on to heat when I get home, and by the time I've changed and fed the cats, it is hot. Stick the fish in, then during the first 5 mins it's in there, wash and roughly chop a couple heads of broccoli. Spread out on a baking sheet lined with foil and drizzled with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Pop that in the oven and roast along with the fish for the remaining 10 or 15 mins, stirring once or twice. When fish and broccoli are done, serve up with lime or lemon wedges to squeeze over the whole thing. Add bread or a starch (bulgur cooks up very fast and requires no attention) if you want. I don't care for plain fish (though many people do), so I usually brush the catfish with a homemade cajun-type spice mix before baking, and with the salmon I might mix together some Greek yogurt, chopped dill, and salt to spread over top once it comes out of the oven. The lime and lemon go well with those too. I love citrus.

Salad with pre-washed greens and toppings of choice. I might do hard-boiled or poached eggs, or cheese, or any leftover meat-type protein. Olive oil and vinegar to top.

Soups are great if made in advance. Unfortunately my DH doesn't care for soup that much, but before I met him I used to make a giant pot of soup on the weekend, freeze half of it, and eat the rest for dinner throughout the week with some kind of vegetable.

Sometimes we do random self-assembly meals. Stick out plates of cubed cheese, sliced hard salami, some kind of vegetable (sauteed or roasted kale, sauteed chard, the aforementioned broccoli, sliced and baked sweet potato, etc), sliced fruit, and other random stuff. Let everyone help themselves to all or some of the offerings. This works well when there are some leftovers, but not enough to make a meal. As long as most of the food groups are represented, or I figure we'll hit the missing ones earlier or later in the week, I don't really care if it doesn't "go" together.