Quesadillas: flour tortilla, 1 slice of cheese, black bean sauce and/or veggies)

Meat sauce and pasta

Ravioli

Naan pizza

Scrambled eggs

Marinated chicken (look up once upon a chef more scan grilled chicken if you need an easy marinade) and rice in rice cooker

Nacos (ground Turkey or beef if taco seasoning on top of chips. Top with cheese.

Amy’s max and cheese (can add slice deli Turkey and grated zucchini or carrots for proteins and vitamins)

Veggies can be a handful of fresh spinach or carrots.

Trader Joe’s has a variety of freezer meals. Their frozen pasta is very good. If high blood pressure / sodium isn’t a concern it’s not a bad option.

Bell & Evan’s chicken nuggets are actually pretty good. I made these for many years for my kids with a salad for myself qitg a couple added.

It’s ok to keep it simple for this period. Eventually you will get more comfortable with routine and kids won’t be as demanding and that is when you will enjoy cooking again. For now it’s a grind so figure out easy meals that work for your taste buds.

Not OP. For those suggestion crockpot, any to go website for recipes?

Dont bother with meat sauce- get trader joes mini meatballs, some Aldi sauce, and some garlic bread. Pasta if necessary. Heat up meatballs (precooked) and sauce, add chopped spinach if you want. Or have it over steamed broccoli vs pasta. Garlic bread in Air fryer or oven.

Tacos are a time suck unless you have taco shredded chicken. Or use pre cooked fajita meat. IMO.

If you have a grille, grab pork tenderloins and Stonewall Kitchen Maple Balsamic or Apple Dijon sauce. Pour half the bottle in a bag or shallow pan with the pork tenderloins the night before or morning of. Grill those 10-15. Microwave sweet potatoes for 3-5 minutes then air fry for 15-20 min. While the sweet potatoes cool and the tenderloins rest of the grille, use a steamer to steam green beans.

Crockpot options abound.

Sheet pan salmon with veggies. You can get fresh or frozen salmon. Some seasoning and pre-diced/sliced mix veggies. Roast. Get a rice cooker and rice is ready in 15-20.
If your kids wont do salmon then do fish sticks.

WF has some really good burgers. If you have small kids you can make 1 burger and slice them horizontally to decrease the size and it makes two good kid size burgers. Bagged salad.

One of our fav weeknight meals that takes a bit longer but is amazing for leftover lunches is https://thebetteredblondie.com/penne-pasta-with-veggies-chicken-sausage/#recipe. We dont use GF pasta and you can sub any sausage. Plus use whatever veggies you have on hand. Most nights we dont have tomatoes or asparagus so those get left out.

Breakfast- eggs plus toast. toast plus chicken sausage. pancakes and bacon- use protein pancakes if you want. French toast casserole https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/french_toast_casserole/ I omit the orange. Make this at night before bed or early morning, let it sit until the next afternoon and then bake and then its good for the following morning or lunch leftovers for the kids. Serve with milk and fruit.

You need to batch cook on the weekends. I know it sucks but it helps.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. I really struggle with vegetables. Like, do you cook vegetables every night? Frozen peas? What do you serve beyond frozen green beans and roasted broccoli?

I always have a bag of shredded carrots and a bag of shredded cabbage in my fridge. You can add it to salads, stir fry, soup etc and it adds color, texture and flavor. And it’s cheap and lasts a long time in the fridge. Same with broccoli. I buy the big bag from wegmans and I just cook what I need and it doesn’t go bad. It saves so much time because it’s already cut and clean.

There was a recipe on TikTok for roasted green beans that is so easy and really good and cheap since you use frozen green beans. You can also prepare frozen cauliflower the same way and it’s really good.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRDWS9RJ/?k=1

DP but is there a way to get the recipe without having to watch?

The video is like a minute long. I’ll do my best:
32 oz bag of frozen green beans
Garlic powder
Pink Himalayan salt
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425
Pour frozen green beans into baking dish
Drizzle olive oil on beans and toss to coat
Sprinkle salt and garlic powder on beans, toss to coat
Bake in oven for about 35 minutes
Take out and sprinkle Parmesan cheese, toss to coat.


When I make this recipe I use red pepper flakes and I use shredded Parmesan instead of the powdery stuff that she used. I’ve done the same recipe with frozen cauliflower and it’s very good that way too. I’ve also substituted fresh garlic for garlic powder.

Sorry! I meant 400 not 425.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. I really struggle with vegetables. Like, do you cook vegetables every night? Frozen peas? What do you serve beyond frozen green beans and roasted broccoli?

I always have a bag of shredded carrots and a bag of shredded cabbage in my fridge. You can add it to salads, stir fry, soup etc and it adds color, texture and flavor. And it’s cheap and lasts a long time in the fridge. Same with broccoli. I buy the big bag from wegmans and I just cook what I need and it doesn’t go bad. It saves so much time because it’s already cut and clean.

There was a recipe on TikTok for roasted green beans that is so easy and really good and cheap since you use frozen green beans. You can also prepare frozen cauliflower the same way and it’s really good.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRDWS9RJ/?k=1

DP but is there a way to get the recipe without having to watch?

The video is like a minute long. I’ll do my best:
32 oz bag of frozen green beans
Garlic powder
Pink Himalayan salt
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425
Pour frozen green beans into baking dish
Drizzle olive oil on beans and toss to coat
Sprinkle salt and garlic powder on beans, toss to coat
Bake in oven for about 35 minutes
Take out and sprinkle Parmesan cheese, toss to coat.


When I make this recipe I use red pepper flakes and I use shredded Parmesan instead of the powdery stuff that she used. I’ve done the same recipe with frozen cauliflower and it’s very good that way too. I’ve also substituted fresh garlic for garlic powder.

Enchiladas with rotisserie chicken

You are me in about 6 months. We can do this! You're doing it!

I haven't read throgh yet so I'm just going to brain-dump my top 5:

Oven-roasted wild caught salmon with whatever frozen steamed veggies and a side of rice (I make big servings of jasmine or wild rice a couple times a week so it's always available. Could even do microwave rice)

Salsa chicken instant pot with whatever pasta is around and broccoli or spinach salad (cranberries, nuts/seeds, whatever homemade pantry dressing

"Homemade" pizza. I keep pre-made pizza dough on hand. I think this is a riff off a Rachel Ray recipe but it's basically ground meat of your choice (I use plant based these days) and just a sprinkling of grated cheese. Bag salad or frozen steamed veggies on the side. Or like now, raw corn is delicious. You don't even have to cook it, I just cut off the sweet white corn and my kids eat it.

Quiche. Hands-on time is low and I can use up whatever in it. I pre-made pie dough at the ready.

It's going to be amazing! I'm so excited for you.

My week looks something like the following:
Monday: veggie burgers, roasted sweet potatoes
Tuesday: I’ll make the healthiest chicken nuggets that I can find, bagged Cesar salad, and fruit. DH makes it into a wrap, I make a salad, kids have nuggets and fruit
Wednesday: breakfast, usually French toast and bacon or eggs bacon and toast, fruit
Thursday: takeout
Friday: pizza or pasta

Sometimes I’ll make Mac and cheese for the kids and DH and I will eat later. I always have a cut up veggie tray prepared in the fridge and the kids always pick from that for pre dinner snack. I can also round their meals out with yogurt and fruit.

I like making something on Sunday that will result in enough leftovers for a night or two like lasagna, chili, a hearty soup (tortilla, minestrone, pasta fagoli).
We typically do WF rotisserie chicken once a week that I serve with rice or store-bought mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli or sautéed spinach. We also do salmon once a week with similar sides to the rotisserie chicken. Tacos/burritos are also a menu regular. And I’ve come to accept that take out is a-okay if I’m rushed!

With your kids still young, you should be able to get by cooking 2-3 nights per week and doing leftovers on the off nights. If not straight up leftovers, you can incorporate the leftovers into something super easy such as a scramble, quesadillas, stir fry, fried rice. For this reason, I tend to keep week night meals simple to optimize what I can do with leftovers. Basically a meat, a grilled vegetable, a grain. Mix and match.

I play around with marinades and mostly do roasted vegetables with various fresh herbs and spices. Grains I keep brown rice, quinoa, lentils, beans always available to cook in different ways.

One of my kids’ favorite is pesto pasta. I make the pesto (easy and so much better than the jarred). Cook pasta, add some frozen peas in last couple minutes. Drain and mix with the pesto sauce while hot. This is good cold the next day too. You can customize and add grilled chicken, sun dried tomatoes..whatever you want

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. I really struggle with vegetables. Like, do you cook vegetables every night? Frozen peas? What do you serve beyond frozen green beans and roasted broccoli?

I always have a bag of shredded carrots and a bag of shredded cabbage in my fridge. You can add it to salads, stir fry, soup etc and it adds color, texture and flavor. And it’s cheap and lasts a long time in the fridge. Same with broccoli. I buy the big bag from wegmans and I just cook what I need and it doesn’t go bad. It saves so much time because it’s already cut and clean.

There was a recipe on TikTok for roasted green beans that is so easy and really good and cheap since you use frozen green beans. You can also prepare frozen cauliflower the same way and it’s really good.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRDWS9RJ/?k=1

DP but is there a way to get the recipe without having to watch?