Seeking Quick and Easy Meals/ Cooking Ideas

Here's one of my family's favorite meals and it's so quick and easy!

1 pound chicken breasts
1 can French's french fried onions
1/4 cup egg beater (or 1 egg)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Crush french fried onions in a ziplock bag. Coat chicken with egg beater, then with french fried onions. Cook on cookie sheet coated with cooking spray for 20 minutes.

Tastes like fried chicken but is low in fat.

Serve with baked potatoes (you can microwave them!) and a veggie and you're good to go.

On the tiredness -- you might start an iron supplement if you haven't already. Talk to your OB about something like Slow FE (you can get it over the counter at any drug store/walmart). While tiredness is certainly normal with 2 preschoolers to chase and a bun in the oven, it may be aggravated if you're anemic.

For easy cooking -- you should be very good friends with your crock pot. I've put chicken breasts in with a bunch of broth, or throw in a roast with beef broth and cream of anything soup. A recent favorite is:
Pork BBQ sandwiches
boneless pork ribs cooked in beef broth for about 6 hours on low,
about half hour or so before you want to eat, preheat the oven at 350,
take 2 forks and shred/pull the pork apart (it falls apart easily -- if your crock pot insert isn't oven proof, you'll have to transfer to a baking dish for this),
dump a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce over the pork (or the sauce of your choice),
stir it around and put it in the oven for 20 min.
Serve it on buns with a side of potato chips.

When I first quit work to stay home I had my 4 mo old son, my friend's 4 mo old son, and my 2 yr old daughter. I DID use nap time to cook dinner and it worked out great. Spaghetti meat and sauce can be prepared in advance, so all you have to do is boil pasta when your husband gets home. Home made pizza can be prepared at nap time (cook the meat, chop veggies, prepare the dough), then throw it all together and put in the oven when hubby gets home.
Also, I wasn't above putting kiddos in a playpen or behind a baby gate for 20 min so I could get dinner ready without them underfoot.
Hang in there!

OK, this is one of my favorites and is really good leftover too (I do not like leftovers usually). Kids eat it up!

1 can cream of mushroom soup (do not dilute)
one rotisirie chicken
1/2 - 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (do no use Fat free)
1 box chicken rice a roni

1. cook rice according to package and put in a 9X12 pan.
2. pull pieces/shreds of chicken off and layer on top of the rice. (I usually buy one of those rotisirie chickens in the deli, but you could easily bake/boil/grill the chicken too...I just found it easier and tastier to buy the ones that are done.
3. Spread the cream of mushroom soup on top.
4. Sprinkle the cheese
5. Bake at 350 until the cheese is melted

You can prepare this way ahead of time and cover and bake whenever you want. You can eat on this for a few nights. There is also the family size box of rice a roni and you can add as much chicken to it as you want...you can not mess this recipe up (except if you go for the FF cheese...it does not melt good on this!!!)

Mom use to serve it with marinated green beans. (1-2 cans green beans drained and 1/2 bottle of Italian dressing in a tupperware bowl so you can shake it up every so often in the fridge...it marinates the beans...serve these cold)

Have you thought about cooking a lot on one day, possibly a day when your husband can watch the kiddos? Today, I had to cook a huge thing of ground beef because I had thawed it for dinner last night & didn't use it. Anyway, I made 3 meals with almost 4lbs of meat (while my little ones were playing) & at dinner tonight my husband just warmed one up. Seriously, we discussed at dinner how I should do that more often. I really think this Sunday afternoon I am going to make meals for the nest week! It is so nice to have more time each day to get things done, and I'm sure in your situation you could use some 'down time'. Mini meatloaves, spaghetti, stew, roasted chicken, lemon-pepper chicken, and many more are easy main dishes you could have on hand. All you (or your husband) have to do is warm the main dish up and warm up frozen veggies to go with it. Hope this helps.... and I am also all about the crock-pot. Go online and search for Crock-Pot meals & I know you'll find a ton. If you need more ideas or exact recipes, e-mail me & I'll give you all I can. Good luck & Congratulations on your growing family!

S., Don't forget about Rachel Ray's cookbooks! They're fast & easy! S.

If you have the people around you that might want to do this with you, I have a great idea. 4 of my friends and I get together one night a month and cook 10-15 meals at that time to freeze and use when we need them!! We have perfected the system a bit, and if you really want some info, PM me and I will share, but the general idea is that each of us comes up with 3 recipes, we all vote on them, and pick the top 10, and then we marinade 2 or 3 meats as that is super easy!! Different people have varying responsibilities for preparation, such as getting the list of ingredients together, shopping, cooking meat ahead of time.....All that said, this has been the BEST thing I have ever done, and although I am preg again, and the 2-3 hours of work that night wear me out, it is sooooo worth it!! If you think you would like to try it, let me know and maybe I could even gather up some of the recipes we have used, but most of mine come from freezer meal specific books, that are designed to do by yourself if you wanted to. But we love the opportunity to get together too so. Anyway, good luck, I am pregnant with my fourth, and also due in August. My baby does not want me to know if it is a boy or girl though!! Take care ~A.~

One easy and inexpensive thing I do is mix 1 to 1 1/2 lbs of hamburger meat with a box of stuffing and about a half cup to 3/4 of a cup of warm water for meatloaf. No eggs needed and the stuffing already has seasonings. To make it cook faster and easier to serve I a lot of times cook it in muffin tins instead of a loaf pan. Once I even toped them with left over mashed potatoes and they were wonderful little shepards pie type things. Then I use the left overs the next day in a hamburger helper. :) I also love www.kraftfoods.com. They have a wonderful magazine that comes of for free to you and they have quick easy inexpensive meals that are tasty. They even make the grocery list out for you too! :)

Hi Stephani! We had 3 1/2 year old identical twin girls and I was pregnant with a son (now they are 5 and he's 18 mo) so I feel your pain! E-mail me directly and I can send you my favorite pot pie recipe that is very easy to make! I have several others too b/c I know what it's like to be busy and have a hungry family!

D.
____@____.com

You might want to take a look at www.SavingDinner.com. Leanne Ely is the recipe lady from www.Flylady.net, which has become a phenomenon helping women keep their homes nice and clean.

Also, I find that if I have run out of ideas and have a main ingredient like chicken or beef, I can go to http://www.about.com/food/ and type in what I have available....and it will suggest recipes for me.

My crockpot is my best friend. I use it at least once or twice a week! There are other books out there, too, with 4 ingredients or less and the recipes are really tasty! Good Luck!

I tried the "get together and assemble meals once a month" thing, but I found that $250 and 4 hours later that it was too difficult and costly. I go to the dinner station once a month (takes about 1 - 1.5 hours) and for 12 meals with 3 portions it is only $125. Everything is already precut, and the scoops are premeasured. I love it...and it is MUCH cheaper and faster than doing it on my own. I think there are Super Suppers also. Good luck!

Cooking Light has some cookbooks designed for busy households. They are call 5/15 Cookbooks because they require a max of 5 ingredients (not including salt, oil, etc) and 15 minutes of prep/cook time. We've had a lot of good luck with these meals.

Crockpot recipes are also good. I have a few easy ones if you're interested. E-mail me at ____@____.com if you want them.