dinner ideas - help......

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Cindysunshine
Cindysunshine Posts: 1,188 Member
in Recipes
Hi, I just started a new part time job. I'll be working Mon- Wed- Fri and Sat from 4 pm- 8pm. On my work nights I don't get home until 8.30 pm. I can not cook that late. I was thinking of making things in the crockpot or making something on my off days that can be eaten for leftovers on my work days. Please help me with some ideas. Cindy :heart:

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  • tammietifanie
    tammietifanie Posts: 1,496 Member
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    You can always premake all your meals and freeze them that way all you have to do is heat them up.. You can spend Sunday preparing all you meals for that week or even just for the days you work and freeze them in Tupperware and that way you don't have to worry about cooking when you get home from work all you gotta do is heat them up!!!
  • theatregoddess
    theatregoddess Posts: 76
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    Progresso soups make for a good dinner. And they have a "Light" option that has even less calories than the regular, as well as "Less Sodium" options for...well obviously, less sodium lol.

    There are a few companies that make some pretty good prepackaged frozen dinner meals. Contessa I believe is one of them.

    Another thing you can try doing is pre-making your dinners on the days you do not have work, and just refrigerating/freezing them for the days that you do. That way you won't have to worry about cooking, just heating up. =]

    ~Nicole
  • Cindysunshine
    Cindysunshine Posts: 1,188 Member
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    Great ideas- Thanks guys. What recipes freeze well? Cindy :heart:
  • Wolfena
    Wolfena Posts: 1,570 Member
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    The crock pot is fantastic!!

    swiss steak, pork & sauerkraut, beef stew & beef, pork or chicken barbeque are some of my favorites - but you can even make a pot of pasta or a rice dish and keep it on warm.

    Also - a pot of soup, chili or stew is something that can made in advance and heated up whenever you like as a meal- no crock pot required.
  • RecliningFigure
    RecliningFigure Posts: 214 Member
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    This is just off the top of my head, but here goes.

    Get a roasted chicken, take all meat off and put into tupperware in fridge.
    Get lettus (I like romaine) and any other veges you like: cut, and wash in spinner, spin, add a paper towel, put whole spinner in fridge. (the paper towel helps keeps the salad fresher).
    In a jar (I keep all my jars so I always have one on hand) put olive oil, vinegar (balsamic, red wine, whatever you fancy) and if you want to get fancy, chopped garlic, and something sweet like honey (or splenda, or whatever you use). Personally I use less oil, more vinegar and some water (because that is my taste and it lowers my use of oil).
    Also have on hand: corn tortillas, salsa, couscous

    Ready?
    night 1: in bowl put salad in bowl, put chicken in bowl, shake the jar, pour, toss. done (time: 30 seconds)
    night 2: take out chicken, and tortillas. Zap in microwave. build chicken taco, add some lettus (from your spinner) and add salsa. done (time: 1 minute).
    night 3: make cous cous (this takes adding boiling water to cous cous, wait a few minutes and you're done), then heat pan with pam spray. cook chicken and veges (you may or may not want to pull out romaine, but it's pretty hearty lettus) add some spices like cumin and cardimin and celery and maybe something spicy like red pepper. Stir fry, add some salsa. Add to cous cous. done (time 5 minutes).

    At any time you can make a salad by simply pulling it out of the spinner and since you have your jar of dressing ready to go, you're set. So if you want, you can also add a salad to nights 2 and 3 by adding 30 seconds of work.

    Hope this gets you started.
  • Cindysunshine
    Cindysunshine Posts: 1,188 Member
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    Thanks to everyone for the ideas. I love that chicken idea - my dh would not like it though. Soooo.. I just made my grocery list & meal plan- Sunday I'll make a pot roast with veggies in the crockpot - Monday -leftover pot roast. Tuesday- Grilled chicken & veggies- Wednesday- Crockpot whole wheat lasagna- Thursday leftover lasagna. Friday- Crockpot chicken chili- Saturday leftover chili. The only problem I have is I hate figuring out the nutritional info on things like the chili / lasagna. I never feel like I'm right. I know to add up all the ingrediants and divide by the servings. It's just hard to gauge the servings. Cindy :heart:
  • kshiz
    kshiz Posts: 24
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    If you like to cook, spend part of your day off cooking a few special meals in bulk. Divide them and freeze them for easy, quick, healthy meals. You can freeze just about any vegetable with success too. Good luck:smile:
  • lmwhite3473
    lmwhite3473 Posts: 22
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    You could go to eatbetteramerica.com It has some great ideas and it has all the nutritional info and serving size.
  • daisylou
    daisylou Posts: 118
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    i do wraps a lot with lunchmeat( turkey, usually) ,,reduced fat cheese spinach, or whatever you want in them. I take steamed veggies alot, also. I use those ziploc zip and steam bags and do enough for a couple meals. I know how hard it is to work late then think about dinner. Oh yeah also- pb and j make a good dinner!
  • Angel31
    Angel31 Posts: 15
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    bump
  • MIMI74
    MIMI74 Posts: 14
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    THAT'S AWESOME ILOVE IT!:bigsmile:
  • chrissyh
    chrissyh Posts: 8,235 Member
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    check out this thread some good ideas....
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/63101-moms-on-the-go

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