I think it’s great that you want to do this—your kids are at an age that they’ll notice soon the kid dinner vs mommy/daddy dinner. I find family dinner a huge part of how our family is so close. I know your dh wont always be there, but when he can it’s good to make it happen!

A lot of people have “theme” nights like
Meatless Monday
Taco Tuesday
Breakfast for dinner Wednesday
Italian Thursday
Grill Friday
Go out/order out Saturday
Leftovers Sunday

Then you use those themes to switch things up. Don’t always have spaghetti on Thursday, have lasagna one week. Raviolis and salad anther week, pasta Alfredo with spinach the next.

Also consider getting an instant pot or air fryer and basing your recipes around those things.

It’s the planning and thinking about what everyone is going to eat all the time that I hate. These people want three meals a day!

https://www.simplyorganic.com/simply-organic-carnitas-slow-cook-sauce-8-00-fl-oz/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9-7i3_CA6QIVBO21Ch2Ypw6nEAQYBiABEgLnlPD_BwE

Add this packet, water and pork shoulder to crockpot and cook on low for 8 hrs.
Delicious!

Choose 5 or so easy meals that you can do on rotation and can be varied slightly. For example, chicken casserole (or beef, chickpea.. ) in slow cooker. You can cook enough for 2 days and serve with whatever starch and vegetable you have. Add some Moroccan spices and you can serve with couscous.

Microwave baked potatoes served with soup and/or salad.

Pasta with sauce. I always make my own sauce using canned tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and a pinch of sugar. You can add meat, tuna, or roasted veg to the sauce.

Fish with potato wedges or bought oven fries. Serve with frozen peas. I like to use frozen tilapia because it defrosts quickly and only takes a few minutes to cook.

Omelette is your friend. I like adding feta and green veg to mine, then topping with cheddar. But you can add whatever veg you like. Serve with crusty bread and salad.

I love cooking, but even still get so tired of having to plan and prepare meals every night, so I sympathize! My strategy is to keep a running list of easy go to meals, like pasta or tacos. Literally keep a list taped inside a cabinet. If I try something new and it’s a hit and easy I add it to the list. A lot are pantry meals and things I can make from things I usually always have on hand. Keeping stocked on these things helps a lot.

Like PPs, freezer “dump” meals are easy and can be done in bulk ahead. When we first got married my husband couldn’t cook for his life, but loved that he could at least dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker and get it going before leaving for work. Again, it took some work finding recipes we liked and that were easy, but I made a list and next time might make three bags at a time to have on hand.

I’ve also started pre cooking ground beef and freezing it so it’s one less step to do at night.

- Put large pot of water on stove to boil
- Meanwhile, sautée one yellow onion and pour in container of Buitoni Alfredo sauce. Heat through on low.
- When water boiling, dump in two packages of fresh Fettuccine or plus a BIG 10 oz container of fresh baby spinach. Boil for 2 minutes.
- Drain pasta/spinach and return to pasta pot. Pour Alfredo over and toss.
- Serve and sprinkle some fresh pepper and grated parmesan on top. Kids and adults will love it!

I always make a vegetable (or two), a protein, and a starch, and my husband thinks I am an amazing cook.

Vegetables:
Cherry tomatoes & cucumbers
Almost anything roasted with some oil and salt (broccoli, green beans, kale, brussel sprouts)
Wilted spinach (comes together FAST)
Green salad
Amy’s soups


Starch:
Baked potatoes
Bread
Rice
Pasta

Enchiladas

Anonymous wrote:We batch cook on the weekend and freeze food. It's a pleasent 3 hour activity on sunday night, listening to podcasts and sipping wine....Weeknights involve just defrosting food. It is awesome.

I've heard people say this before but 3 hours of cooking sounds just awful to me (even with wine)...

I buy birds eye voila frozen meals.

I call it "bag of dinner".

So easy. Open bag, plop contents in casserole dish, cook, serve.
The chicken alfredo is the family favorite, but there are 8 or 10 varieties of "bag of dinner".

https://www.birdseye.com/product/alfredo-chicken/

Have you tried those meal delivery kist that come with ingredients and recipes that you prepare?

Make something big on Sunday like a stew or casserole, left overs on Monday, meal kit for Tues, Wed, Thursday. Make something easy Friday night. Have another family member cook on Saturdays or get take out.

Anonymous wrote:Quesadillas with just cheese, side of refried beans, sliced avacados with fresh lime or lemon juice and salt/pepper, salad

+1

I loathe cooking. Before the shelter in place thing, we ordered just about every night. Now I am planning and cooking every night. It is not making me like cooking more. Hahaha

We eat a lot of quesadillas made with cashew tortillas from Whole Foods. (Or just get corn or flour tortillas.) Beans (refried, pinto, black). I add a big salad (I usually add the avocado to this, but on the quesadilla is great too.) Also in the salad I add roasted pumpkin seeds, shredded cheese, fresh blueberries, oil based (vs cream base) dressing.

Also easy:
-Pork chops (lightly coat with BBQ sauce and bake)
Baked potato (or seasoned potato puffs from WF)
Spinach
-Chicken breast (lightly coated in balsamic dressing, wrapped in foil)
Rice
Broccoli
-Lean ground turkey browned, drained, mixed in Classico spaghetti sauce
Whole Wheat pasta of choice
The Salad
Lightly buttered bread toasted
-Tried frozen salmon done like the chicken
Rice
Peas
But this wasn't a big hit because the salmon was so dry. (that could just be my cooking ability!)

Saturday night we have steak/baked potatoes/the big salad

I make enough of the meat when I make it to have leftovers, then slice it up to put on the quesadillas one night for a little more substance.
Everyone loves the quesadillas plain or with a meat protein.

This has basically been what we've been eating for the last six weeks. I am dreaming of being done with all this cooking!

It's not hard. Start easy:

chicken in a cast iron skillet in oven.
Bake potato while chicken is cooking.
Pour BBQ sauce over chicken when almost done--or teriyaki sauce when you put it in--or lemon
Microwave a veggie or make a salad.
Done.

You can also roast veggies in same oven--but not as long as potato and chicken.

Takeout

We batch cook on the weekend and freeze food. It's a pleasent 3 hour activity on sunday night, listening to podcasts and sipping wine....Weeknights involve just defrosting food. It is awesome.