Yikes I feel bad that you have to resort to eating so much processed foods OP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Were you doing your job at all when you WFH?

NP - I was never WFH, but my commute is almost an hour each way. I can only imagine what kind of cooking I could do without spending 2 hours on the road every single day, even without changing the actual working time at all.

Living an hour away from your job is a CHOICE.

So f'ing what? Thanks for adding to the post with your bitterness. OP was asking for meal suggestions.

I try to avoid pasta, because we don't eat it up and it doesn't feel great to eat so much.

I also find that the snacks category is the most difficult part to economize, because the kids just eat what they want to eat.

Some snack favorites: roasted chickpeas with smoked paprika.

Popcorn made at home: just oil up the bottom of a big pot, put 1/3 cup of kernels in, cover, shake and pop.

Cheese and crackers or quesadillas.

Learn to make potatoes every which way.

Lemons are a staple.

Budgetbytes.com

Use your freezer.

Make broth.

Hard boiled eggs.

No food waste.

I make tuna melts or salmon melts on some hectic weeknights. Put slices of bread or English muffins under a broiler for a few minutes while you prep the fish. Mix canned tuna or canned salmon with some mayo and flavoring of your choice - curry powder, or dill relish, or sriracha are all favorites at our house. Spread the fish mixture onto the bread, top with a slice of cheese, and toast for another minute or two. Sliced veggies or a bagged salad on the side.

Bean & cheese quesadillas, or chicken quesadillas using leftover rotisserie chicken, are also super fast and easy.

Pp here. Also adding that I try to make large/double batches of either a pasta dish or a meat dish on Sundays. If we do a giant pasta thing, I just plan to alternate an easy protein for a few days. If meat, I plan to alternate veggies for a few days. Also try to freeze a portion of the meat dishes for another week and over time, we can manage to survive a random week with very little cooking.

Meat dishes:
https://www.seriouseats.com/pressure-cooker-fast-and-easy-chicken-chile-verde-recipe

https://thewoksoflife.com/chicken-adobo/

https://thewoksoflife.com/instant-pot-braised-beef-radish/

Any Bolognese recipe

Note all these meat dishes held a large amount of protein that we can freeze a portion. And I consider these recipes to be fairly easy. Does require you to be in the house but a lot of set and check back later. And all very tasty.

Pasta dishes: some protein (premade grilled chicken, frozen meatballs, rotisserie chicken, or put some tenderloins with some tomato sauce and sprinkle cheese and air fry for chicken parm) plus pasta, plus an easy veggie (steamed, roasted, raw)

Here is a great pasta recipe that takes care of the carbs and veggies. Can eat for a couple days, just changing up protein as needed https://www.recipetineats.com/quick-broccoli-pasta/#recipe

Asian dishes:
- fried rice. Many variations. Can use kielbasa or deli ham for easy protein. This is by far the fastest meal imo. And all in one pot if you throw in some diced mushroom, green peas, etc.

- stir fry: can also be very fast. Some require some prep the night before, like cutting and marinating meat or dicing veggies. We love this chicken brocolli recipe. I prep the meat the night before and it comes together very quickly: https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-chicken-broccoli-brown-sauce/

- curry: get your favorite can of curry, chop up some chicken, potatoes, veggies, simmer. Very easy.

We favor rice dishes generally because I love not having to watch the rice cooker vs a pot of pasta.

Ask your mother. Pretty sure she had to juggle 40+hour week full time jobs in office and get dinner on the table every night. Nothing new there.

From what I remember, plenty of chicken dishes, salmon, broiled steaks and pork chops, steamed shrimp, rice, pasta, tossed salads. We ate well.

Another basic for pasta is to heat oil oil and garlic in pan while you slice raw chicken breasts or chicken sausage — put in pan. Add heatdvrr vegetables your kids will eat (spinach broccoli asparagus tomatos — whatever), and then finish it with a scoop of the starchy pasta water. Top with grated Parmesan to serve. The trick is just to take the chicken out to defrost before you leave for dinner. Boiling the water takes the longest—depending on how old your kids are, I would often call on my way home and ask them to put the pot of water on stove and turn it on. I

If your kids are home and can preheat the oven and maybe put in a premade casserole, that is also key.

We eat quesadillas at least once a week—
I smash canned black beans on a tortilla, shred cheddar or jack cheese on top, cover it with another tortilla and fry in olive oil. Top with chopped tomatos and avocado if we have it. I add chopped scallions for the kid who likes it, or mushrooms or leftover meat if we have it.

Fried rice — I use combo of olive oil and sesame oil.
Heat oil in pan while you chop a carrot. Put carrot in to sauté. Chop white parts of one bunch of scallions and add. Chop garlic and add it. Add shredded ginger (I use the preformed cubes). Addd a cup of frozen peas. When all heated through take off stove. Add a lktt more oil and make an easy omelette of 3 beaten eggs. Take off stove. Add a little more oil and heat. Add a bag of TJ precooked brown rice (or just any precooked rice) intil it’s cooked through. While it’s cooking chop the green part of scallion bunch. Add back in veggies and sliced omelette and stir. Drizzle in one pack of soy sauce and a few drops of sriracha if you have it. I like to top with chopped pwanuts but my kids don’t like the peanuts.

Grilled cheese or egg sandwich with side of fruit or spinach-mango smoothie.

I remake an easy casserole which is leftover bread ends, beaten eggs, cooked sausage, garlic powder, cheese. It can sit in fridge for a day and It takes about 20 min to cook . Serve with side salad or soknach smoothies.

Fish cooks quickly. Maybe once a week we salmon. We get the single packs pre marinated at Costco. Put the packs in bowl of water to defrost while you heat grill or oven.. at same time put water on to boil. Out salmon in oven or on grill and add rose to rice. A minute before rice is done, add a cup or more of frozen peas. Drain it, then add a pat of butter and let that melt in. The salmon will now be done. The whole thing takes llle 20 minutes including preheating. If you can remember to defrost the fish before work it’s a little faster.

If your kids will eat canned tuna that’s a whole mother list of stuff —- sadly my kids won’t.

Shrimp scampi is also so quick. Heat water. Chop garlic. Put frozen shrimp in some water to defrost a little. Heat butter in pan — when it’s hot, add shrimp and then garlic. When it starts to brown. I add a splash of white wine. I like to add some chopped tomatos and a little spiced salt (we use creole style seasoning) at the end. I would also add parsley from my herb container but the kids are irritated by that. If you get something like angel hair, it cooked in like 4 minutes and the whole thing is done in 15 with ge water boiling.

Anonymous wrote:1. Pot stickers (we love these chicken cilantro ones from Costco)

https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/bibigo-mini-wontons%2C-chicken-%2526-cilantro%2C-3-lbs.product.100241814.html

Serve with Steamed bag of frozen edamame and/or quick green salad with Asian dressing

2. Browned Ground turkey or beef plus 1 jar marinara and 1 bag frozen chopped spinach. Serve over pasta.

3. Sauté shrimp in butter, garlic, salt and pepper. Serve with microwave in bag green beans and Near East Parmesan couscous which takes minutes to prepare.

Everybody loves potsticker and edamame night.

My go to easiest nice dinner is a slab of salmon from Costco on a cookie sheet - 15-18 mins on 415 degrees. On the side, I do a grain plus I buy bags of microwaveable vegetables like broccoli. My kids like bread so I throw French bread in oven to heat up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Were you doing your job at all when you WFH?

NP - I was never WFH, but my commute is almost an hour each way. I can only imagine what kind of cooking I could do without spending 2 hours on the road every single day, even without changing the actual working time at all.

Living an hour away from your job is a CHOICE.

Not OP but I “chose” to live 7.5 miles from my office and during rush hour it can easily take me 45 minutes to get to my office. And it cost me $1.2 million about 20 years ago to make this “choice” which makes me extremely privileged.

What kind of messed up parents did you have to have raised you to be so lacking in empathy and imagination and also the inability to understand the basic supply and demand economics of real estate. Either you are a terrible person or some kind of simpleton; maybe both.

Yeah it was a dumb comment. Having kids is a choice. Working in a particular fueled is a choice. Eating is a choice. It’s all choices. Is could just choose to lie down and die. But this site is for people who have made some choices and then want some advice — saying “it’s was your choice that led you here” is apropos of nothing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Were you doing your job at all when you WFH?

NP - I was never WFH, but my commute is almost an hour each way. I can only imagine what kind of cooking I could do without spending 2 hours on the road every single day, even without changing the actual working time at all.

Living an hour away from your job is a CHOICE.

Not OP but I “chose” to live 7.5 miles from my office and during rush hour it can easily take me 45 minutes to get to my office. And it cost me $1.2 million about 20 years ago to make this “choice” which makes me extremely privileged.

What kind of messed up parents did you have to have raised you to be so lacking in empathy and imagination and also the inability to understand the basic supply and demand economics of real estate. Either you are a terrible person or some kind of simpleton; maybe both.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Were you doing your job at all when you WFH?

NP - I was never WFH, but my commute is almost an hour each way. I can only imagine what kind of cooking I could do without spending 2 hours on the road every single day, even without changing the actual working time at all.

Living an hour away from your job is a CHOICE.

It's literally not when your job shifts you to a new office location, when your spouse still works close to your house so either way someone is going to be commuting. That happened to me this summer, although fortunately it only added half an hour each way, not a full hour.

It's also not when you can't afford to live much closer, or there isn't parking and that's how long it takes on public transit.