Dad needs dinner ideas.

Alright yall my wife had a job change and went from cooking every night to prepping meals that I can heat up like a casserole. Now my wife is an amazing cook but I want to take some preasure off her.

Requirements:

Prep time must be short I can cook complicated stuff but with the time I get off work and feeding two kids I dont have time.

Must be kid friendly. My kids will eat almost anything but hate spicy. Why me?

Must be inexpensive. The new job she has came with a pay cut.

I call upon the hive to help me in this simple endeavor (is there some kind of voodoo dance that goes along with this).

Kids will always eat pasta. Traditional alfredo is 2 ingredients. Butter and parmesean.

Boil pasta til al dente. Reserve a small bit of pasta water. In separate pan, melt butter. I usuallu start with half a stick. Throw pasta back in pan, add parmesean. The real ish, not that powder junk. Mix til cheese melts. Add a small amt of pasta water to help emulsion and keep from getting too sticky. Add cooked chicken, bacon, whatever. Peas and broccoli work well. Consume.

In reply to mndsm:

I like pasta.... keep it coming. Kids love it too.

In reply to Son_Of_Toyman:

We do lots of crock pot meals. A hunk of meat + a can of soup (or a small jar of BBQ sauce etc). Toss it together before work and come home to a tasty slow cooked meal and a house that smells pretty good.

That and stuff like frozen edemame or fresh fruit wins in my house.

Grilled chicken can be used a dozen different ways. I like to grill a dozen breasts at a time then you can use it in all manners of things over the next couple days. Over top of pasta with marinara/ alfredo or Mac & cheese. Over top of rice or on sandwiches.

At the grocery store there are pre made sauces for stuff like cacciatore, asian style orange chicken or tikka masala.

This. But for the cheese mixture go 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, 3 slices of Velveeta, and a 1/4 cup of a nice Parmesan. While it's baking, sauté 4 chicken breasts in 1 T olive oil plus 2 t butter; salt and pepper each side and finish the pan with a splash of any white wine or sherry. Also boil 2 heads of broccoli in salted water 5 minutes, drain and add 1 T butter, salt and pepper to taste, add a generous sprinkling of parsley (dried is actually delicious) and rest for 10 minutes tightly lidded. Total time for the whole meal is less than an hour and your kids will think you're a God.

Another go-to from the young-kid years: http://www.myrecipes.com/m/recipe/chicken-cordon-bleu

Tricks in trade to keep handy: Carrots. They are cheap, delicious, and quick. Cut into sticks. Barely cover with water, boil 5-7 minutes, drain, salt, parsley, lightly butter, tightly lid and rest. Broccoli: Same. Kids hate veggies because they only experience them cooked to death.

And a favorite go-to: Butterball turkey breast (brined and tasty) plopped frozen in the crock pot. Low heat all day, eat with mashed potatoes and easy veggies.

It's not the time that kills you, cooking, it's the thought. Treat it like racing: Eyes on where you want to go, and the steps in between fly by.

Margie

We do easy chicken parm here too.

You need-

Red sauce. Noodles of some sort (we generally use bowtie) Cheese. Chicken patties...or nuggets?

Preheat oven to 350. Get a little butter going in a pan. Brown up chickens on both sides. Separate pan, boil pasta. Get a Pyrex out, i usually use a 9x9. Thin layer of red sauce. Pasta. Sauce. Cheese. Chicken. Sauce. Cheese. Jam that in the oven for 20min or so. Each pattie generally goes as a serving. Provolone or mozzarella works good.

Pizza. Because duh. My three year old can mix up a no rise crust. Plunk it in the pan and gather toppings. Sauce, cheese and last night's chicken/sausage/steak leftovers. We often buy a chicken and have chicken breast w/ veggies and potatos one night, pasta alfredo with chicken the next night and bbq chicken and pineapple pizza the third night. Sausage works the same way as does ground beef (meatloaf, burritos, pizza). This way you cook the meat the first night when it is the focus of the meal and then use that cooking time to make more interesting stuff the next few days since youve got the meat in the fridge ready to go. We are not organized enough to meal-prep beyond that scope but it works.

I'll type in some recipes if yiu want, my wife has a quite a few things that are conjured up from scratch in about 20 minutes.

Breakfast!!!

That's one of my gotos when your mother isn't home.

That and a clean the fridge stir-fry.

Whatever meat you have leftover, veggies, onions, mushrooms and rice. Super fast and easy to cook. You can even throw a couple of bullion cubes at it and make a gravy if you don't want a soy based sauce.

Broccoli bacon and cheese. Tasty and hearty. Cook one package of bacon and chop, steam one head of broccoli and boil one box of ziti (notice the trend for ingredients?). Combine in a pot and stir in a bag of shredded cheese (Colby jack for non-spicy, I like pepper jack) and just a bit of milk for creaminess. Very tasty, semi-healthy, good leftovers for lunch the next day (frugal).

Sausage, potatoes, peppers and onions. Cook all together in a 15" family skillet.

You do have a family skillet don't you? If not, get one.

These may help!

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/go-to-recipes/13196/page1/

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/anyone-got-some-ideas-for-cheap-home-cooked-dinners/89592/page1/

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/what-are-your-favorite-cheap-eats/86978/page4/

Ever make grilled cheese sandwiches? Do that, except replace the cheese with peanut butter. It rules.

KyAllroad wrote: Sausage, potatoes, peppers and onions. Cook all together in a 15" family skillet.

Add some stale bread or loaf heels, in about 3/8" cubes. Once everything is browned (add a little butter as necessary) break an egg per person and scramble in. Cook on low until eggs are done.

Appleseed wrote: Ever make grilled cheese sandwiches? Do that, except replace the cheese with peanut butter. It rules.

Somewhere, in your head, is a small broken spot. It came up with this idea. Yuck! Really, just joking. I'm not a fan of peanut butter, but my wife and kids will eat it on toast.

Drive to Buffalo Wild Wings. Get kids tablet things.

You can cook!

Tater tot hot dish. Make it upside down, though, with the beef on TOP of the tater tots with a heavy cheese topping over the beef.

• Sack of frozen fake chick'n, (switching this to meat is an exercise for the reader)
• tub of hummus
• small steam in bag broccoli.

Microwave the chickenesque for a minute to defrost, then add to skillet on medium heat. Prepare broccoli in microwave. Once the chik-n is warm, add whole container of hummus. Next, add finished broccoli and fold in. Serve warm with tortillas.

stroker wrote: Tater tot hot dish. Make it upside down, though, with the beef on TOP of the tater tots with a heavy cheese topping over the beef.

If you add some refried beans to the ground beef, you'll get what my wife and I refer to as the "casserole of PAIN." Tasty, but excessive collateral damage.

I made dinner tonight, bed of fresh salad greens, Talapia fillets in the oven with bread crumbs went on top of the greens and then I topped it off with some stuff I fried up. Had a minced onion, chopped spinach, olives, garlic, roasted red peppers, crushed red pepper, oregano, parmesan cheese and thin sliced tomatoes. Sides were steamed broccoli and sticky rice. Took about 1/2 hour.

stroker wrote: Tater tot hot dish. Make it upside down, though, with the beef on TOP of the tater tots with a heavy cheese topping over the beef.

this works well. you can use ground beef, or a mix of ground beef and ground turkey. brown the meat in a skillet while you toast the tots in casserole dish in the oven. when the meat is brown, add a can of cream of mushroom soup. once mixed, pour over tots, sprinkle shredded cheese on top and pop back into the oven to brown for a few.

the first time I had this was actually with shredded venison for the meat and it rocked.

My wife cooks mostly but when i need a quick meal i usually go with easy and quick.

Nachos are easy. Some hamburger, cheese, onions lettuce and if in season a tomato. Use the left over hamburger for ghoulash or spaghetti.

When i was a kid our diet was pretty much spaghetti on monday, chilli tuesday, leftovers mixed and baked on wed.

Hotdogs arent healthy but my kids love them. Mac and cheese with fried sausage diced up in it works too.

Much too my wifes dismay some days i like to get little sub buns and throw ham, pepperoni and cheese on them. Bake at 350 a few minutes and add toppings. Offer some chips with it.

1 lb ground beef
1/2 box of Rotini
1 quart tomatoes
1 pkg shredded Cheddar Cheese

Brown ground beef
Boil Rotini till al dente
Combine Beef, Rotini, and Cheese in casserole
Bake in oven at 325 for 30 minutes

We use tomatoes that we can from our garden but canned from store will work. I usually put in a tablespoon of beef bullion granules and a tablespoon of chili powder but you can season to suit your tastes.

Wife and I get two meals from this but you may need to increase the amounts of ingredients.

How old are the kids? Can they help with the meal?

Your freezer is your friend. In fact you may end up buying a dedicated freezer if you're trying to get by with the freezer section of a generic refrigerator combo unit in the kitchen.

Check out the likes of Lets Dish and others like it. These are the companies where you go to a place and spend about 2 hours making a whole bunch of pre-packaged meals that you freeze and store. Not the cheapest way to go, but a darn good way to get a dad off the ground making pretty tasty and healthy meals that are defrosted in 10 minutes.

There are also web pages dedicated to helping you make an freeze several dozen meals at a shot. Here's a few I popped up from Google, given with no warranty: http://www.thekitchn.com/make-46-freezer-meals-in-4-hou-149380 and http://happymoneysaver.com/making-50-freezer-meals-in-one-day/ and http://livewellnetwork.com/Deals/episodes/Make-Your-Own-Meals-On-the-Go/9363565