by Ashley
We have entered an incredibly busy season for our family. Spring is hubs’ busy time at work, and he’s often stuck there through the dinner time hustle. Meanwhile, the kids are in sports and taking piano lessons and are at the age where they plan friend meet-ups at the mall and all kinds of other shenanigans. It all means we’re lucky to be home for one weekday night per week! The rest of the time, we’re in the car shuffling from here to there and back again.
It’s all well and good when hubs is here because we’re a great team with divide-and-conquering. He will sometimes go to the sports games while I stay home making dinner. Other times he’s the one prepping a meal while we’re running around. Either way, it’s nice to come home to a home-cooked meal. But that plan is out the window when hubs is tied up at work and I’m solo-parenting the kids in multiple directions!
We’re not a big “fast food” type of family. We dabble in some Chick-fil-A goodness every once in a while, but otherwise we only really have fast food when we’re on road trips and I’d prefer to keep it a rare once-in-awhile type of thing than turning to fast food as a crutch to get us through the busy season. In addition to the health implications of frequent fast food, there’s also the financial implications. Even fast food can run about $11-12/person these days! I can make a meal cheaper than that – with leftovers for my lunch the next day, too!
So I turned to some mom friends for help and advice! I asked for their favorite dinner ideas and suggestions for those on-the-go nights when we need food fast, but don’t want to turn to fast food.
Here’s what we’ve been eating lately:
Crockpot meals
- Ham and potato cheese soup – I never really use a recipe. Just chopped up ham (I had frozen leftover easter ham), with potatoes, chicken broth, some seasonings, and I throw in crowns of broccoli toward the end.
- Mississippi Roast – This is a standard go-to in our house. We usually serve it with mashed potatoes (which can be made ahead of time!)
- Angel chicken – This was a new to us recipe. I’m personally not a big fan of sauces or gravies that use “cream of” soups (reminds me so much of the casseroles I grew up on in the 80’s!), but the kids liked it a lot so that’s a win!
Prep Ahead meals
- Ground beef taco bowl – I make these with whatever ingredients we happen to have. There’s always seasoned ground beef with lettuce and cheese. Depending on what we have, we sometimes include tomatoes, avocado, sour cream, roasted corn, and even tortilla chips. We serve it atop rice (either plain or a Mexican flavored variety). I have everything prepped and we just assemble when we get home.
- Greek Gyros & Tzatziki sauce – I buy the gyro meat from Trader Joes, pre-cook it, and make homemade tzatziki sauce ahead of time. Homemade is so much better and actually cheaper! Just throw the meat and tzatziki on a pita with some feta, cucumber, and lettuce and you’re good-to-go!
- Oven roasted sandwiches – There’s something about a roasted sandwich that makes it feel more “grown up” and dinner appropriate than just a cold one. I make my own sourdough once a week so I start with slicing it up, then layering with meats and cheeses. One tip I will sometimes do is to put a thin layer of cream cheese and raspberry jam on one side of the bread. Sounds weird, but when you pair that with turkey and bacon and roast it all up – it’s magical and comes out amazing! I prep the sandwiches ahead of time and just throw them in the oven for a quick roast when we arrive home. Served with pickle spears, fresh fruit, and some chips on the side.
Cold meals
- “Adult lunchable” – I like making these for road trips or camping, too. I have a big snackle box that I fill with whatever stuff we have: cheese cubes, pepperoni, trail mix, fresh fruit, crackers, nuts, vegetable sticks or slices, etc.
- Pasta salads – I use rotisserie chicken instead of cooking chicken separately. Here’s a recipe for another new-to-us recipe. I liked this one more than the kids, but hey – they can’t all be winners!
- Chicken cobb salad – I prep all the ingredients and then we assemble when we get home. I like having carrots, blue cheese crumbles, roasted chicken, avocado, sliced hard boiled egg, crumbled bacon, and tomatoes. But the most important part is the homemade ranch dressing. The homemade ranch is what makes it! Serve it up with a slice of crusty sourdough for good measure. 🙂
- Chicken caesar wraps – Another great place to use up leftover rotisserie chicken! You can make the caesar salad part yourself by chopping up romaine and adding a caesar dressing or you can hit the extreme “easy button” and just buy one of the caesar salad kits that come with pre-washed lettuce and salad dressing. Distribute onto large “burrito” sized tortillas with some of the chicken and your dinner is ready to go!
You’ll notice a few of these meals featured rotisserie chicken. A money-saving thing I like to do is buy a rotisserie chicken anytime we go to Costco (which is about once or twice a month). When we get home, I pull the chicken apart and put in freezer-safe ziplock bags. Then I can easily thaw some out to add to a green salad, a pasta salad, a wrap, enchiladas, etc. etc.
As we approach “May-cember” (the term parents sometimes use to refer to the craziness of May that rivals that of December), I’m prepped with lots of make-ahead, crockpot, and cold meal options to carry us through the end of the school year. But I always welcome more!
