Easy Dinners Needed!

When I'm doing the meal planning, I try to aim:
1 stir fry w/rice
1 soup w/bread
1 pasta dish
1 bean dish
1 meat w/veggies day

Stir fries:
Take a bag of veggies (aldi's has great stir fry veggies with sauce. I havne't seen similar stuff at the other stores). from the freezer. Microwave a couple frozen chicken breasts until they're done, chop up, and stir fry in the skillet with some olive oil. Add the veggies. Then mix with the stir fry sauce that came in the packet, or use soy sauce or teriyaki sauce. If you want more sauce, add some juice (apple or pineapple) and some cornstarch for thickener (1 tb or so). Serve over rice (buy a rice cooker, so easy).

Soups:
a couple bags of frozen mixed veggies
a big can of low-sodium chicken broth
2-3 frozen chicken breasts
can of diced tomatoes (if you want)
egg noodles (1/2 bag or so)
water
bouillon cubes

boil the veggies, frozen chicken breasts (whole), chicken broth, and add enough water to fill the soup pot. When the chicken is cooked through, fish it out and chop it up, then toss it back in. Add a few bouillon cubes (I'd say 5), and whatever spices suit your fancy for taste. Add the tomatoes if you want. About 30 mins before you want to eat, put in the noodles. The soup should cook all total about 1.5-2 hours on the stove, boiling and then simmering. If you don't put a lid on it, you'll want to add more water as it boils down. You can play with the ingredients and experiment with what you like in your soup.

Casseroles:
a pasta
something for a sauce
veggies
meat
top with bread crumbs or cracker bits

Cook the pasta. (I usually use a whole box 16 oz). For a sauce, you can use plain yogurt, sour cream, "cream of" soups, whatever you have on hand that tastes good. Add milk so it's not so thick. Mix the cooked pasta, thawed/lightly steamed veggies, cooked meat to the sauce. Mix with some shredded cheese (any but mozzerella which gets stringy). Put in your 9x13" pan. Top with bread crumbs or crackers. Bake at 350 for 25-30 mins (until it's bubbly).

Really, I pretty much never use recipes for casseroles and soups. I just throw together whatever we have on hand!

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Hi A.,
I really feel your pain. I have been strugglling with this issue for years now. Hear is one of my favorites I created. We have been trying to cut back on calories and this one is one of husbands faves.

Go to your local grocers. We love Krogers. Ours has an olive bar. We get a small container and put into it anything that looks good. Olives, mushrooms, artichokes..... what ever sounds good to you. You dont need much. I usually buy 1 or two roma tomatos and then go home. This might cost $5 at the store.
Once I am at home I take 2-4 chicken breasts out of the freezer and put them in a casserole dish. I dump the items that I got from the olive bar on top. I cut the tomatos into chunks and add those on top. I then add drizzle of olive oil and a spoonful of garlic out of a jar. Then I put some foil on it and put it in the fridge till evening. On 350 degrees it takes about a half hour to cook. The chicken is never dry and the flavors are amazing. We add a pack of microwavable 90 second rice and meal is done. Hope this helps a little.

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One of my family's favorites is western ribs in the crock pot. Western ribs are usually pretty inexpensive too, so that helps! You can take them right out of the freezer and sprinkle with Lowery's, a little garlic powder, and pepper (or whatever seasonings you like). If you have time, throw them frozen into a skillet with a little butter to brown them, but if you don't have that 10 min, you can skip that step. Then put them in the crock pot with 1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce and a little water, and let it go on low all day. Serve with a box of au gratin potatoes & a veggie and you're good to go.

Another easy favorite is stuffed pork chops. Just throw frozen pork chops right in the crock pot, top with cream of whatever-you-like, then dump a packet of stove-top stuffing into a bowl and mix with just enough water to moisten, and throw that in on top of the pork chops. Cook all day on low, and microwave a veggie at suppertime.

Also, with the weather getting nicer, the grill can be easy and quick...and a great way to encourage "man cooking! :-) Have him grill whatever, then microwave some baked potatoes and veggies, and you're all set. Plus, no crusty baking dish for the main course to do after dinner!

Good luck. I'm totally stealing some of the other ideas that have already been posted!

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go to www.womensday.com They have a lot of 1-2-3 step dinners and tons of crock pot recipes.

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A website that helped me for a while is: menus4moms.com. There is a weekly menu with a grocery list included. It helped me at least get a base of recipes that we really liked and since then I have just made my own menues. They are simple, kid-friendly (most of the time) meals. Some take more time than others, but give it a look and try it for yourself!!

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A. this recipie takes about 45min-1 hour to cook but only about 5 minutes to prepare.

Cream of Chicken

Ingredients:
1 - small box minute/instant rice
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream (evaporated mild works too but does not taste quite as good)
1 - 14oz can chicken broth
few tablespoons of butter
whole chicken or pieces you like (I use 4 chicken breast)

Preparation:
pour box of rice into large casserole dish (enough room for rice to expand)
Pour can of chicken broth over rice
Place pieces of chicken over top of rice
pour whipping cream over chicken
dot chicken with butter
Cover with foil or oven safe casserole dish lid

bake at 400 for 45minutes - 1 hour.
Stir 2-3 times to prevent browning of rice
Turn chicken half way through

Enjoy!

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I know you recieved a lot of replies already so you may have gotten these but here goes. I just made these in the past week. I use a crock pot.

Pot roast, peeled red potatoes, carrots, onion soup mix (dry packet) and water to cover all. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Pork Spare ribs, two cans of beer, and water to finish covering the ribs. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Remove from crock pot and cover with BarBQ sauce. You can either finish on the grill or put in oven for 1/2 hour on 350 Deg. We usually have fries with this that I bake in the oven.

I usually do this on the stove top. Brown chicken pieces, add sliced mushrooms and cover with 1 can of mushroom soup. Let cook for 30-45 min until chicken juice runs clear when poked with a fork. I serve over pasta with a can of peas.

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I definitely recommend some of the meal assembly businesses such as Dream Dinners and Supper Thyme. One of my favorite crock pot recipes is a Salsa Chicken Dish.

1 jar salsa (whatever your favorite type)
3-4 chicken breasts (thawed)
taco seasoning
shredded cheese
sour cream (optional)

-Put a thin layer of salsa on bottom of crock pot
-put chicken breasts on top
-sprinkle with a little bit of taco seasoning
-dump the rest of salsa on top
-cook on low in crock pot for about 5-6 hours
-about 5 min before serving sprinkle some shredded cheese
-on top of chicken & put lid back on crock pot to melt cheese
-I like to serve this with the packet of Spanish Rice from Lipton (something else simple too!) & my husband likes to top his chicken with a bit of sour cream

** also makes great leftovers - put it all in a tortilla

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Hi A.. Our family relies on "smoosh" meals for the majority of our meal planning. Basically they are easy ziploc meals, a canned item or two and seasoning. You store them in the freezer, take one out in the morning, thaw it just enough to loosen it up and put it in the crock pot (or bake or grill). They are so easy. A few weeks ago I tracked my cost to do this and spent $78 on the grocery items needed. I made 18 entrees, all ziploc meals within 30 minutes. Each ziploc meal includes 2 meals for us (cook once, serve twice) - the cost was $2.48 per meal for us. We have saved quite a bit of money with this concept. Most of the time, we purchase groceries, get home and put them away and then do the kitchen 2-step between the refrigerator and pantry every night trying to figure out what to do with the frozen packages of meat. With is concept, you can get your groceries, go home, do a quick assembly and it's done. Plus, you can get the kids involved and they can help "smoosh". And something else that is very important, you control what you put into your meals - I have become a big label reader and it's amazing how much sodium and preservatives are in products now. You can visit www.ezmeals4u.com to see recipes and get more information or you can contact me directly at ____@____.com care!

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Oh honey! I am the crockpot queen! I have three of them! If you have the money, I would invest in a crockpot cookbook and just start experiementing. Also, you can go to www.crockpot.com and get lots of recipes.

My favorite is lasagna. Yep, just layer your noodles (uncooked), sauce, meat, any veggies, and cheeses. It probably takes about 4 hours on low. You have to break the noodles to fit. I use ricotta cheese mixed with Italian seasoning and parmasan and mozzerella.

Also, you can do a cheaper cut of meat in the crockpot and it will come out much tender. Again, just experiement. I keep a bottle of Italian dressing and pour a little over beef, pork or chicken and let it cook all day. If you have a larger crockpot, you can use a small turkey breast with the bone in. Cook it all day...if you have any left over, just put it in a baggie and pour some gravy over it and stick it in the freezer. The gravy helps it to not dry out when you reheat it.

You can also use teriyaki sauce or a tomato sauce over your meat for a different flavor.

I also have a small one that I do veggies in. Put fresh or frozen green beans, peas, corn...add a little salt, pepper and butter...or any other seasoning and let 'em go all day.

See? I told you I was the queen of crockpots! LOL If you want any other ideas or whatever just send a personal message, or we can even email if you want. Good luck! I think you'll love it!!

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