Quick and Easy Dinner Meals

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tsaenz09
tsaenz09 Posts: 30
in Recipes
PLEASE HELP! I am a mother of two who also works full-time. I am usually home by 5:15 but my kids are used to eating around 6 or 6:30. Most of the time we will go and just grab take-out, but since I have started dieting, I am in need of some qucik easy, yet healthy meal ideas or recipes.

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  • cccathyyy
    cccathyyy Posts: 207 Member
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    Crock Pot! You can make Chili, Spagetti sauce for some spagetti squash, a pulled pork for a salad or burrito in a low cal wrap....

    My favorite dinners are stir frys.... the rice cooker is my best friend. Brown Rice, some chicken, some veggies, you're good to go. :)
  • barbiex3
    barbiex3 Posts: 1,036 Member
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    rice and stir fry veggies.
  • cydonian
    cydonian Posts: 361 Member
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    Agreed on the stir fry, my husband and I do that a lot at home. I also eat a fair amount of pasta and a box of pasta can be split between four people easily. You can put anything you want in there, especially veggies so that your kids are getting good nutrition!
  • bcolburn289
    bcolburn289 Posts: 32
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    Hi! I'm in the same boat--mother of 2, working full time. The crock pot has become my BEST friend! Assemble in the crock the night before, plug it in before I leave home in the morning, and dinner is ready when we get home at 5.

    A favorite is: 4 frozen chicken breasts in the crock. Mix together 1/4 c. balsamic vinegrette and 2 cans of italian diced tomatoes. Pour that over the chicken and that's IT. :) I serve it semi shredded, and over brown rice, with green beans on the side. It is scrumptious, and the leftovers are great to take to work the next day!
  • michellellake
    michellellake Posts: 4 Member
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    I agree with the crock pot. You can also do meat loaf in there or meat balls. Another quick recipe is fried salmon patties, fried in olive oil. Another idea...on the weekend make many meals and put in the freezer, then take them out during the week and bake in the oven or freeze them already baked and then just reheat them. Good for you at trying to avoid eating out! You can eat at home on a tight schedule. You'll just have to figure out what works best for you. Good luck. Hope you get lots of ideas that work for you!
  • Beachbean77
    Beachbean77 Posts: 83 Member
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    There are lots of ideas with chicken that take less than 30 minutes to get on the table.

    A couple of my quick favs:

    sautee chicken breasts covered in salsa, cook til done and serve with brown rice. sometimes I will add green pepper slices for extra veggies!

    Mix 1/4 cup bbq sauce, 1/4 cup light italian dressing and a dash of chili powder. Place thin, lean pork chops in skillet and pour sauce mix over and cook til done.

    And fresh fish! We love tiliapa and there are so many ways to prepare it the possibilites are endless!

    salads are super quick but if your kids are like mine they won't eat 'em. So I will make a nice salad for myself and make them chicken nuggets or something else on those nights lol.
  • trigrrl
    trigrrl Posts: 104 Member
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    if you have a bbq i find it to be the best at quick meals
    chicken breasts with seasoning ( not soaked in sauce ) take almost no time and then i just throw some roughly chopped veggies ( or the odd searving of sweet potato french fries ) into a tin dish and that goes on there too
  • mellogrl136
    mellogrl136 Posts: 12 Member
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    You can visit the kraft foods website. They have a lot of quick and easy recipes and allow you search using ingredients that you have on hand. I'm not a great cook, but I have found a bunch of great recipes that are simple and quick to make. Good luck!
  • Topsking2010
    Topsking2010 Posts: 2,245 Member
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    Try to access skinnytaste.com
  • kent4j
    kent4j Posts: 391 Member
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    I make lean ground turkey taco meat using low sodium taco seasoning. For myself I usually make a big salad with black beans, frozen (thawed corn), tomatoes, avocados, 2% shredded cheese, salsa as the dressing and then add a serving of the meat mixture. The kids can have it in a taco shell if they want. My family loves this.
  • BranMuffin21
    BranMuffin21 Posts: 157 Member
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    if you have a bbq i find it to be the best at quick meals
    chicken breasts with seasoning ( not soaked in sauce ) take almost no time and then i just throw some roughly chopped veggies ( or the odd searving of sweet potato french fries ) into a tin dish and that goes on there too
    BBQ are the easiest, just make sure meat is thawed, cooks quicklier. Also if you don't have a BBQ get a George Forman Grill or like one. They can cook chicken breast in 11 mins. Veggies in like 4 mins
  • HeleneBuchwald
    HeleneBuchwald Posts: 4
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    Try the blogs: Tastespotting and Foodgawker. They have easy, quick, yummy recipes. Also, I buy those Steamfresh frozen bags of veggies that you just throw in the microwave, the Uncle Ben's 90 second Brown and Wild rice that you microwave, and then I'll bake some thawed pork chops or salmon for 20 minutes at 400 degrees with seasoning on each. Quick and easy and pretty healthy! Not to mention, not much clean up! Just the pan you bake the meat or fish in!
  • Hollycat
    Hollycat Posts: 372
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    Homemade soup - prepared chicken stock, cooked diced chicken [buy a BBQ chicken in the deli section], carrots, celery, sauteed onion, handful of barley or rice. Voila! Takes about 15 minutes to prepare veggies and another 30-35 minutes while you help with homework and read all the news from school and it's done. It can be frozen in batches.

    BBQ - grilled peppers and chicken breasts cooked on the BBQ like this:
    Peppers: Cut up large pieces of red, orange and yellow peppers [throw in some onions, if your family likes them], place on the 'cooler' side of the BBQ on a piece of PAM'd tinfoil. While they're starting, prepare chicken.
    Chicken: spread a piece of PAM'd tinfoil on the 'hotter' side of the BBQ, place chicken pieces on it and close the lid for 15 minutes while you check out the backpacks, turn pieces, close for another 15 while you get the kids to wash up. Serve with a dollop of low fat teriyaki sauce or other BBQ sauce on the side for dipping.
    Fresh fruit salad for dessert [strawberries, grapes, orange sections, melon] with a dollop of fat-free whipped cream or cool whip free and you've got dinner.

    BBQ hamburger 'steaks' [no buns - just make the hamburger 'gourmet' by adding lots of tasty stuff to it and put the sauces on the side] and caesar salad - light dressing. Apple slices with a little fat-free caramel sauce for dipping for the 'kids' or frozen bananas, whipped in the blender and served as ice cream [skin the bananas, break into pieces, freeze in ziploc bags overnight, puree and serve].

    Hollycat
    :flowerforyou:
  • kmverdusco
    kmverdusco Posts: 2
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    I have 3 kids , teenagers, and I found that when I get them involved in the cooking and meal planning they will eat what we make. Most times I would come home from work and rush to make something and they wouldnt eat it because they didnt "like" what I was cooking. so one day I gave my daughters the cook books, magazines and internet sites and told them to plan the meals they would like to have, it had to include veggies and very very minimal red meat. They actually came up with alot of good recipes that were easy enough they could make them. They also recorded some of the cooking shows on foodnetwork and made some of those recipes. Now my daughter cooks dinners for us most of the nights! she has learned how to plan, prepare and look for nutritional factors.
  • previn84
    previn84 Posts: 48
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    BUMP
  • kdcox14
    kdcox14 Posts: 10 Member
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    BUMP
  • nkrueger1
    nkrueger1 Posts: 129 Member
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    check out : www.eatbetteramerica.com

    tons of super healthy recipes...:happy:

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