My super quick - 15 min meal go-to is:

Pasta with pesto
sauteed veggie (asparagus last night)
pan-fried tilapia (coated with seasoned quick-mix flour)

Unfortunately we do not eat leftovers very often. Pre-cooking meals is not an option for us.

I love the Mexican layer dip idea! Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than crock pot meals, another idea is to make one meal on the weekend like a lasagna, cheesy broccoli chicken & rice casserole, enchiladas, etc. that can cover a dinner or two during the week.

Super quick meals for us are breakfast for dinner and stir frys with pre chopped and washed veggies and usually shrimp since it cooks so fast.

We like convenience foods from Trader Joes - fish nuggets, frozen meatballs in the crock pot with a jar of sauce, frozen turkey bolognese just cook pasta, chicken sausage sauteed w/fire grilled frozen onion/pepper mix, frozen brown rice that cooks in 3 minutes, etc. It's not perfect health food, but it is usually better than take out or fast food.

Not much.

Depends on what you get for fast food, but I do think something like organic chicken sausage with sauteed veggies and organic brown rice is generally healthier, cheaper than fast food, and can be prepared in about 10 minutes. It sounded like OP is looking for some easy meals that aren't pizza or chicken nuggets.

I just made a big batch of Shepard's pie. I doubled the recipe and can get three or four meals from it.

I cook the meat,carrots and gravy part and then freeze it in family size glass containers. The morning of, I put the container in the fridge to thaw while I'm at work. When I come home I just make fresh mashed potatoes to add to the top and cook in the oven for 45 minutes.

This doesn't really fit the OP's time requirements, but I thought I'd share for others....

Parmesan crusted chicken- easiest thing ever- I make it in the toaster!

1/2 cup mayo (light is fine) mixed w 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese - you can do this in advance and leave in fridge

Cover chicken with this mixture and then cover with Italian bread crumbs.

Cook on 400 for 15-20 mins depending on how big chicken breasts are

I serve with steamed frozen veggies and microwave rice when in a pinch

It's definitely a challenge to get dinner on the table by 6:00 at our house, but usually we do manage to eat around 6:30. DH usually can get home by 6 or 6:30. We would ideally start getting DS (almost 3) upstairs for bath/changing/etc. by 7:15 for an 8:00 bedtime, but it's more realistic for us to shoot for 7:45 upstairs, 8:15-8:30 sleeping. Family dinner is the only time we all have together during a weekday, so we decided we would push back bedtime as required to make sure we could have that time most days.

Some strategies that help:
- prepping ingredients ahead of time (I'll devote an hour or two at the beginning of the week to chop up several onions, peel carrots, mince garlic, etc. Prep cuts of meat. Mix together sauces/dressings that can keep for several days.)

- "double duty" elements where you can cook a larger quantity of a meat or grain and use it in different recipes. Like yesterday, we had a crockpot pork roast that cooked all day while I was at work. Got home and dressed it with a barbecue sauce and we had bbq sandwiches for dinner. Tomorrow night, I'm using the leftover meat with a tomato sauce over quinoa patties for an Italian-type dish.

- quick backup meals. If something goes haywire at work, or DS is starving and just NOT going to wait, I usually have something stashed away that I can whip up quickly, like 10-15 minutes or less. Our house favorite is breakfast for dinner: scrambled eggs, and waffles/pancakes (I keep a bunch in the freezer, just make a few extra whenever we cook them and then put in ziploc baggies).

- meal plan and grocery shop on weekends. I make a list of the dinners for the week and make sure we have everything on hand as there is definitely no time to run to the store on weeknights. I use Relayfoods some weeks and have it delivered so I can cook/prep instead of spending 2 hours trekking out to grocery shop.

- Careful recipe/food selection. I have some cookbooks I don't touch except for "weekend meals" because I know they require roasting, simmering sauces, etc. I learned the hard way to make sure I really read a recipe and/or think through all the prep and cooking required for a dish before trying to cram it in to a weeknight dinner. A few quick recipe source favorites include: weelicious, supernatural every day (heidi swanson), smitten kitchen. I'll often just pick a protein we can cook quickly and simply, like fish, and then add on a vegetable and starch. Frozen vegetables are a great time saver. Quick steam and sprinkle some parmesan cheese, and on the table in 5 minutes.

One of our easiest weeknight dinners is a Mexican layer dip. In a 9x13 pan you layer refried beans, guacamole, salsa, diced tomatoes, chopped olives and shredded cheese. My mom also adds things like sour cream, but to me that makes it less healthy.

Serve it with a spoon, or with baked or whole grain tortilla chips and my little one has loved it since she was a year old. Yes, it's lots of things out of cans, but it's also things that are fairly healthy - protein, healthy fats, veggies.

We grill a lot on the weekends and we'll do huge batches of boneless chicken breasts or thighs. On nights when DH won't be home in time to eat with DD, I'll reheat one of those, steam veggies in the microwave or toss a salad for her, and give her some fresh fruit or maybe a piece of cheese or even some applesauce. There was a huge battle on DCUM last year about whether pasta and jarred sauce was "homemade" but to me whole grain pasta and a veggie-loaded jarred organic marinara or pesto is healthier than frozen chicken nuggets, and I'll add in some frozen chopped spinach with the pasta to cook. On nights when she's had a rough day and just wants comfort food, I'll make her a pb&j or let her have cereal and milk.

As a family I try to use the slow cooker one time per week or I have a number of cookbooks that are quick prep and short ingredient lists. The Culinary Institute of America even has one, so quick doesn't have to mean lots of processed.

Anonymous wrote:Other than crock pot meals, another idea is to make one meal on the weekend like a lasagna, cheesy broccoli chicken & rice casserole, enchiladas, etc. that can cover a dinner or two during the week.

Super quick meals for us are breakfast for dinner and stir frys with pre chopped and washed veggies and usually shrimp since it cooks so fast.

We like convenience foods from Trader Joes - fish nuggets, frozen meatballs in the crock pot with a jar of sauce, frozen turkey bolognese just cook pasta, chicken sausage sauteed w/fire grilled frozen onion/pepper mix, frozen brown rice that cooks in 3 minutes, etc. It's not perfect health food, but it is usually better than take out or fast food.

Not much.

Other than crock pot meals, another idea is to make one meal on the weekend like a lasagna, cheesy broccoli chicken & rice casserole, enchiladas, etc. that can cover a dinner or two during the week.

Super quick meals for us are breakfast for dinner and stir frys with pre chopped and washed veggies and usually shrimp since it cooks so fast.

We like convenience foods from Trader Joes - fish nuggets, frozen meatballs in the crock pot with a jar of sauce, frozen turkey bolognese just cook pasta, chicken sausage sauteed w/fire grilled frozen onion/pepper mix, frozen brown rice that cooks in 3 minutes, etc. It's not perfect health food, but it is usually better than take out or fast food.

Not trying to shill be we use (or have used) both advance meal-prep services (i.e. Dream Dinners, Let's Dish) and ingredient delivery (Blue Apron, Plated). Currently I'm more into the latter, because it seems fresher and I tend to like the recipes more but it does require weeknight cooking. Usually the recipes take about mins. of active cooking.

This saves at least a little of my sanity.

We usually have a crockpot meal that we serve at least twice a week, but when we are desperate, our go to is apples and peanut butter. If I offer that delicacy, you would think that I was promising candy and soda for dinner, the excitement level is so high. Then I can get my own dinner after bedtime.

Check out the food forum, it has tons of ideas like this.

Slow cooker recipes
Stir fries (I prep veggies beforehand)
Pasta dishes (start the water boiling, prep ingredients, done in the time it takes to cook pasta. Example: pasta with sausage, sauteed kale/collard greens/broccolini, and white beans)
Quinoa or farro salads (add beans, veggies, etc. TJ's makes quick-cook farro, barley, and bulgur.)
Breakfast for dinner--make waffles ahead of time and keep them in the freezer. Heat in the toaster/toaster oven and scramble eggs with cheese and veggies.

I usually do a crock pot recipe on the weekend to serve for a few days. I keep steamed veggies ready.

But then again, my little guy is on 15 months old, so it easy to just give him beans, hummus on toast, cheese and yogurt for dinner. I don't really prepare "meals" for him yet.

He eats by himself because he eats right when we get home at 5:30. We eat after he goes to bed.

Curious what other people feed their families on weeknights. I feel like I have to choose between giving my kid convenience foods like frozen pizza or chicken nuggets or cooking a healthier meal and having her eat way too late. Would also love to be able to have the youngest eat with us, but since we have to start her bath routine at 6:30, that's often not doable when I don't get home until 6:00 pm. so typically I bathe both kids together, get the youngest down and then make dinner for the oldest. DH works late more than half of the nights, so I am often solo. Nanny will feed the baby food I have prepared but doesn't cook. Older child is in preschool all day.