Lentil and cabbage poster here. Both of those are things that taste great reheated day 2 so if 20-40 minutes simmering is too long between getting home and dinner, you can put them on to simmer during bedtime or breakfast or something and then the kids can reheat in the microwave.

Unless you are a Duggar, those recipes will also make more than one meal.

Well! What were you cooking during WFH? . Maybe there is a way to adapt some of that to meal prep on Sundays/night before. Personally I would only cook three times a week but make double batches.

Anonymous wrote:Random tip to save money: you can put the root ends of green onions/scallions in water on a windowsill and they'll grow you more green onion stems. We've been cutting ours back to use for more than 3 months instead of buying them.

None of these kitchen windowsill tips actually work. They all turn into slimy mush.

This seems like a good time for crockpot suggestions, and I’m sorry I don’t have many to offer because I’m only getting started with mine.

One thing I have used it for is barbecue-style pulled pork using pork butt and homemade bbq sauce (though any bottled kind you like works just as well). I simply cut off a lot of the extra fat, put the meat in the crock pot and cover it with bbq sauce, put the Crock pot cover on, turn it on low, and return in 9 hours to shred the meat and put it onto buns.

My boys enjoy that, and it makes for good leftovers.

I look forward to learning some bean recipes and others for chicken and the kinds of meat that do well in a slow cooker.

My kids love baked potato bar! You can cook them in the slow cooker and have the sides ready - microwave steamed broccoli, cheese, butter, sour cream, chili or bacon which you could make ahead. Mine are teens and alap ate baked sweet potatoes with taco meat (I can’t remember if it was ground beef or something shredded).

My whole family loves taco/bowl night and you can get good precooked shredded pork at most grocery stores. The usual sides can all be straight from the jar or package and I heat up a can or two of refried or black beans. Everyone can choose if they want a bowl, soft tacos/burrito or salad.

I am fortunate enough to work from home, but with kids at two different schools and husband who travels a lot this is good brainstorming for back to school season. I am also saying I am going to keep a veggie platter in the fridge for after school/during dinner prep snacking. Also thinking I’ll batch make some muffins or other breakfast foods that will be ready to go for smoother mornings. One of my kids will need to be up and out much earlier that necessary previously.

Another one we like

Tortilla spread with refried beans, sprinkled with cheese, dribbled with salsa and folded in half and microwaved to make quesadillas. Add some raw veggies and you are done.

Kids can probably do that early on.

Here is another I like

Fry some crumbled sausage, and some onions. I like spicy Italian turkey sausage but anything cheap works. Once it’s brown and crispy add some chicken stock, some canned tomatoes, a lot of lentils, and a bag of frozen peas and carrots or frozen mixed veggies, plus whatever fresh or frozen veggies you want to use up. Apples taste good in his too but probably not other fruit. Maybe add salt if you used low salt things but if your stock has salt you are probably fine.

Cover, simmer until done (I haven’t timed it, this takes maybe 30 or 40 minutes but you can walk away and do the laundry or whatever).

Add a lot liquid (stock, canned tomatoes, maybe some water) if you want soup, less if you want any something else.

Can serve on its own, or as soup with a sandwich or a salad. It’s also good with a piece of broiled salmon on top but that takes it out of cheap territory. I bet it would be good with a runny fried egg on top too.

A favorite here that my teens inhale is kielbasa and cabbage.

I cut up a turkey kielbasa into bite size pieces, and add it to a Dutch oven with about a 1/2 cup of water.

I add a couple white or yellow onions chopped in big pieces and a bag of baby carrots (or peeled and chopped regular carrots if I have more time or less money).

I add 1/2 or 3/4 of a green cabbage cut into medium size pieces

And then if I have more time than money, I add some peeled chopped up potatoes. If I have more money than time I add new potatoes with the skin on.

Cover, bring to a boil, turn down the heat to a simmer and leave it for 20-30 minutes. It makes a huge amount and tastes fine cold for lunch boxes or reheated for dinner the next day.

If I have both a little time and a little money then I leave out the potatoes and make a side of pierogies in another pans.

My current favorite fast meal is a big salad. Packaged salad greens, tomatoes, precooked chicken (rotisserie, leftover, Perdue shortcuts, etc), avocado, shredded carrots and a hard boiled egg. I throw in whatever other veggies I can find.

Along the same lines, we make Chipotle type bowls. I use microwave rice, canned beans and throw on precooked chicken, avocado jalapeños, cheese and salsa.

Things that have been helpful in our family: We eat a lot of rice, so a good rice cooker (Zojerushi) is always in use. Once you make the rice, it will be kept warm for several days. You can also use it for other things, but we often have cooked rice in it already.

It turns out DS does not like helping with dinner but is happy to grill (not sure how it got so gendered). So I can ask him to preheat the gas grill and then throw something in, that had been marinating in the fridge.

Sometimes if we're eating a super quick dinner not too late in the evening, I'll start the prep for next day's dinner. Things like bolognese pasta sauce and chili taste better the next day anyway.

If you can get your kids to do some of the chopping, that helps a ton. It also helps to split up the cooking and cleaning chores between multiple people...

I follow this guy on Instagram whose tagline is "that's not cooking, that's just mixing stuff." He has a lot of ideas that are easy and relatively nutritious. @coachjohnnoel

A couple of easy meals in my rotation:
1. Skillet taco rice--saute onion in pan with olive oil, add ground chicken or beef, add taco seasoning, add cans of drained corn and drained black or pinto beans, add a couple cups of cooked rice. When hot throughout, spread shredded cheese on top and let it melt.
2. Eggroll in a bowl--saute onion with olive oil, add ground chicken or beef. When cooked through, add a bag of shredded cabbage or cole slaw mix. Add seasonings to taste--garlic powder, soy sauce or coconut aminos, etc. Add a couple of raw eggs and heat until eggs have cooked through.

Anonymous wrote: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.

NP but you are ill informed.

My parents are late GenX, and could afford a wonderful life while my father made enough for my mother to be a SAHP. The last time I saw my family’s tax return was 2008 and my HHI is more than double my parents, and they own 4 houses and put me and my siblings through college debt free. So you can shut up and sit down.

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

Yikes. I feel bad that you have no empathy.

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

🤣

Random tip to save money: you can put the root ends of green onions/scallions in water on a windowsill and they'll grow you more green onion stems. We've been cutting ours back to use for more than 3 months instead of buying them.