Ideas for Food?

I don't particularly enjoy cooking myself. I do find a lot of good recipes at allrecipes.com or campbellskitchen.com. On the campbells website you can search for recipes that take a 1/2 hr or less. Hope this helps.

Hi S.,

Unfortuately my husband and I tend to eat late too. He doesn't get home until 6:30pm at least and my daughter needs to go to bed generally around 7:30pm (she gets really cranky if she doesn't go down) so we eat afterwards. Sorry I can't help with getting it on the table earlier but as for a menu - well, we use Rachel Ray's cookbooks. It works for us because they are 30 minute meals. I choose what we will have for the week and shop for all the ingredients, then when it is time to cook it's easy. Just follow the recipe. This has worked for us.

L. M

I love Cooking Light magazine and the website. They have lots of 20 minute meals and everything I've had from there is really good!

Hello everybody. Well none can survive without food. And sometimes we take food preparation and consuming as a chore. IN my opinion the most difficult thing in starting something new (try new recipe, new style of cooking, new ingredients)is the change itself. So please take it easy when it comes to change and introducing new things in the kitchen. In my experience the biggest challenge is stocking up the kitchen with right ingredients. The pantry shall be well stocked with spices and condiments and when shopping for groceries one must have an approximate menu in mind. Well, everyone has many favorite recipes, but nothing an beat freshly prepared food. The easiest option is a good lean piece of meat or fish with a vegetable garnish. Grilling and steaming are the healthiest options. But if it's lightly fried on a nonstick skillet using a non stick spray that is not much worse. The best organizing advise I learned is to wash veggies after shopping, dry them, and place them in ziplock bags. This way one has a fridge full of ready to chop and cook fresh greens. In winter it's worthwhile using frozen vegetables as well. It is not too difficult to make your own chicken stock and freeze. If not, there are very good canned varieties. Once you have a stock a soup is an easy affair. Throw together the aromatics, then veggies of your choice, using a bit of olive or canola oil, cook to your liking, blend, add stock, warm up, salt and slices, soup is ready. Pressure cooking is one of the greatest investments in my kitchen, because it allows me to include whole grains and beans into my diet without hours of cooking. Quinoa is a very good grain, one of the rare ones which has a complete protein (for the vegetarian days). Cooking is a creative and relaxing activity. Let's make it so!

Wow, I got some good ideas here! Great post :)

We also grill a lot, and I start by putting the chicken (usually) in a ziploc bag or corning wear dish in the AM with some marinade (you can buy low calorie ones at the store and Fat Free Italian Dressing is great, too). At night I use my vegetable steamer ~ it's like $10-20 and a cheapie one is just as good as a high grade one if you have never used it before. I put the veggies in, pour water on it, turn it on for 20 minutes, and we have delicious veggies that were a cinch to cook. Best part is clean up takes 2 minutes since you don't use anything other than the veggies and water ~ I don't even use soap since I don't want the next batch to taste like it.

When I put the kids to bed, I put the veggies on while my husband grills and microwaves 2 sm. potatoes. We eat around 7:30/8:30 at night and have both lost over 100 pounds together by eating this way. While eating earlier is better for you, if you eat correctly at a late hour (we can't avoid it at this time in our life), the pounds still come off ~ We're living proof!

L.

Hi S. -

I am a full time working mom with two kids. I usually cook on Sundays. I spend about 2 hours prepping and make a lot of things with leftovers as well. Here are some suggestins for quick/easy meals:

Make a Red Sauce with Meatballs - in addition to spaghetti and meatballs - you can make several other dishes:
Meatball subs
Eggplant - BJs sells frozen, fried eggplant, you use that and layer sauce and cheese and bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Lasagna - barilla has no boil noodles. Layer with mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese and sauce. Bake @ 350 for one hour.

Cook a whole chicken and/or buy a pre-cooked chicken. You can have a chicken dinner one night and make the following with the leftovers:

Chicken Salad: cube/break up chicken pieces. Mix w/mayo and grapes. Add garlic salt and pepper to taste. You can have chicken sandwiches or chicken salad wraps.

Chicken Pot Pie: cube/break up chicken pieces. In a large bowl mix the chicken, two cans of cream of chicken soup, two cans of mixed vegetables, add salt & pepper. Place one ready to roll pie crust at the bottom of a 9x13 pan and fill pan with mixture. Cover with the other ready to roll pie crust. Alternatively you can make two 9" rounds. (can also be frozen)

Hope this helps!

I get lots of great tips from Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals on the food network. She teaches a lot of great methods that you can change around and have lots of different meals with.

Hi S.,
well, some things that we have done to make cooking easier - I try to cook in bulk - make enough one night to have leftovers for a few nights. Some quick and easy things are:
Spaghetti (I am allergic to gluten, so use rice pasta) with ground turkey - cheaper and healthier than beef) with a jar of sauce, package of spinach, and I try to throw in some chopped up red peppers, carrots and some other veggies. my comfort food!

You could also buy a package of chicken breasts (or thighs or whatever part you like), good for stir frys. I make abig pot of brown rice separately, then stir fry the chicken with veggies - this time of year, I do zucchini, squash, onions and some peppers. You can also grill a steak, grill some veggies, and make a pot of grains (rice, quinoa, millet are the ones I use - I can't do potatos, gluten or dairy, either - so I also do all my cooking from scratch). I don't know how you do with whole grains - I also can't do too many carbs, but I find I can tolerate the whole grains very well.

I hope this is helpful - good luck! The other thing I find helpful is to grill some kind of meat (beef, chicken, lamb), make a pot of grains, and then stir fry or grill veggies.

Once you get a few good ideas to rotate through, it makes life easier!
Good Luck!
E.

Hi S.,
We both work and have a fairly hectic day-to-day so I can sympathize. What we do is take some time before we do the food shopping to plan a weekly menu. This takes the guess work out of each evening and saves time from "What should we have tonight?" and we are sure to have whatever meat/fish defrosted b/c we look on the menu for the day in the morning and take whatever out of the freezer right then to defrost. Also, planning the menu before we food shop ensures that we always have the ingredients we need for the meal.

We grill as much as possible (healthy, quick, and really saves on cleanup) and have lots of salads or steamed veggies in the micro, trying to vary them (again, fast to prepare and little cleanup). If you're lazy about making salad they sell great salads in a bag or ready-made ingredients (cherry tomatoes; shredded carrots).

Good luck!

My husband and I had a similar issue. I have several food allergies and were limited on time for meal prep. Previous to going back to work, I cooked several meals of what we normally ate and froze them, either single servings or enough for dinner & leftovers for my lunch. Roasts (pork and beef)sliced and mashed white & sweet potatoes, Chili, soups, Chicken breasts. I used mainly frozen veggies since they are quick & easy. I did a lot of crock pot cooking; mainly just putting a roast and spices in with potatoes, carrots & onions. I didn't worry about the time it cooked. Just cut it up the night before and then put it in the crockpot in the morning or if you have one with the removeable pot, put the food in that covered in the refrigerator and then just add water in the morning and let cook while you are at work. Dinner is done when you arrive home. Breakfast for dinner is good.
It was a little crazy for us at first when we were both working full time; trying to balance feeding the baby and ourselves, but we are making it through. Our son is now 10 months old & is eating table food, feeding himself everything except meats. Sometimes we can eat at the same time as him other times we eat after.

Hope my suggestions helped.

You can't beat the crock pot... one bag of frozen veggies, meat (chicken or beef chunks), some kind of sauce - we buy different bottled ones and try them, and sometimes potatoes. If we don't put in potatoes, I start up the rice maker when I get home.

I don't know how your budget is, but the frozen dinners in a bag are good, just watch the ingredients. We have what I call our "circulation". It's about 15 or so recipes we really like. I buy ingredients for those on friday and put on the fridge the recipes for the week. If my hubby feels like cooking, he knows what I've bought for and just picks one of those to make.

Great website is www.cooks.com or www.myrecipes.com

Lots of crock pot fans out there. I will have to try it myself! Thought I'd pass this resource along: http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/channel/food. I have made a lot of recipes from Real Simple magazine. They use VERY few ingredients, are simple to make and take very little time. And they are delicious!!! Also, I have also gone to Let's Dish a few times, where you choose a particular number of meals and prepare all the ingredients at their kitchen and then take them home and freeze them. They seem pricey at first but you come away with a lot of meals. It's fun to do every once in awhile and it also gives you ideas on what to make yourself! Have fun, K.

Hi S.,
I recently found a website called cooksaid.com and I love it. You pay $25.00 for a one year subscription ( a 6 month subscription is also available) and each Friday they email you 5 quick (30 min or less) meal ideas along with a shopping list. If you check out he web site they will send you a free trial week and you can see if it is something you are interested in. I have loved almost all of the meals that we have made and have used several ideas over and over again.

try the whole foods allergy cookbook...mostly easy recipes and they omit common allergens

try planning out your dinners/meals for the week and make a shopping list based on that. if you are in the mood to cook one day, make two entrees so the next night you won't have to cook or make large batches and freeze several small portions. once you get in the habit it will be easy. organization is key and developing good habits to role model for your child is a good idea too.

hope these ideas help :-)

I am also a full-time working mom of 3 kids ages 12 to 7 months, so I know all about troubles with getting food on the table. What I do is every weekend I plan the meals for the whole week. My favorite resource is foodnetwork.com for recipes. The best chefs are Rachel Ray and Robin Miller because their meals are healthy, quick and easy! The last suggestion I have is grocery delivery. You pay a small surcharge, but I save a lot more than that with no impulse purchases, no gas and TIME!! Good luck on the back to work transition.

Hi S.,
Making meals is always a dilemma, and unfortunately I guess it is something we always have to do. It is also something we get tired of doing. Before kids, we used to eat out a lot, or get take out. After kids, I started to care more about what I ate and what they ate (during pregnancy I was careful too).
There are a lot of options of what to do. I bought some cook books through a book club. You can check some out of a library. Then, try a new recipe once a week, maybe on the weekend so your husband can watch the baby. There are a ton of good recipes on the web also. If you like cooking shows, you cant watch them on tv, then you can just say, oh, I can make that. I also have a cookbook called baby let's eat. It has recipes that are baby/toddler friendly. I used that a lot when my kids were little. I also keep a 3 ring binder of recipes I have taken off the web or photocopied etc. I make notes on the side if something is good, and I also make notes of how I altered it for my allergies.
I use a crock pot for meals too. Sometimes it is easier to work backwards, especially if you work. Think, what will I make for dinner. I have several good crock pot cook books. These recipes usually come out great. You start them in the morning and then they are done at 5 or 6 at night. That can help you get in the routine of eating earlier, if that is what you want. It will be easier if you plan ahead. I have allergies and I find I have to be organized and plan ahead. Hope these things help. If you have any other questions then you can email me. Have a great day and happy cooking!

I really love the Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers cook book. It's vegetarian, but you could always add chicken it them. Also, you may want to try a crock pot. There's lots of cook books for them and I found it really helpful with a new baby since it did all the work for you while you are away and you don't have to try to cook during the bewitching hours(3-5) when everyone is fussy!! It frees you up to spend time with your family!!

If you don't already have one, invest in a crock pot slow cooker. I use mine continuously (I work the school year schedule with summers off) when I am working. It helps sooooo much to just put the stuff in there and know all that I'll have to do is pop a veggie in the microwave and we are ready to roll. I have lots of recipes, but one of the best resources I use all the time is a website called www.allrecipes,com, you can do a search by food type or recipe name and switch things around depending on how many servings you want. It also offers ingredient substitutions so your food sensitivities should be easier to manage. I also recommend freezing meats in ziploc freezer bags in individual servings (for 2 for you guys) already marinated. That way you just pull out the bag in the morning and it's ready to throw on the grill when you get home. I think you will find that you save a lot of money by doing more of your own cooking. Having a menu plan for the week also really helps me. I go to the market one day a week and with a list that fits my menu for the next week so I get all that I need and don't have to run to the market for one thing later in the week. THat saves time and aggravation. It takes a little while to get into the routine, but it works well for us. I also highly recommend watching the food network (I particularly like Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals, and the Eating Healthy show.) All of those recipes are available at Foodnetwork.com also! Watching those shows has rekindled my love of cooking and might help you develop yours! Good luck and healthy eating. I do have lots of recipes, if you want to contact me directly, please feel free.

Hi S.,

Lots of good ideas already (crockpot, plan meals before shopping, keep it simple...)

Just one more thought for you - www.recipes.com has an "Advanced Search" feature that allows you to type in the "Ingredients I want" or "Ingredients I don't want". When you haven't had time to make it to the grocery store, this feature allows you to get some ideas about what to make with what IS available in your pantry/fridge. Also each recipe usually has reviews from other cooks attached to it, and they often provide ideas on how to modify the recipes for your particular tastes.

Good luck! and Buon Appetito!

J. C

I agree about the crockpot! It's so great. You can put a whole chicken in there, whole baby carrots on the bottom, celery, potatoes, onion, whatever flavors you like, and cook on low all day. The chicken just falls off the bone! I only add like 1/4 cup of water on the bottom, but you don't even need any at all!! Another fav we have is we buy the thickest boneless pork chops you can find, and use some Campbell's tomato soup (condensed - don't add any water). Put one regular sized can on the bottom, and then put in your chops, and another can on top... let it cook on low for 8-12 hours - (I've found with this, the closer to 10-12 hours you get, the better).... YUM! I usually serve with rice pilaf and a frozen veggie. Another simple one is beef tips (Stew beef), with diced tomatoes / stewed tomatoes and garlic. YUMM!!! They are all so simple, yet delicious. If you have issues with salt or anything, just modify by buying the proper low sodium canned stuff. Good luck!

We love to make chicken caesar salad.We marinate the chicken the day before in lemon/pepper marinade and the grill it when we get home.Chop romaine,croutons.shredded parm cheese,and light dressing.Takes about 15 minutes.Another quick one is grilled pizza.I buy dough from a local bakery(or grocery store)spread the dough out on a oiled(olive) baking pan(for convenience).precook any toppings,I like onions and mushrooms.turkey pepperoni.The oiled side of the dough goes directly on the grill(no pan)after about 5 min or so check it and oil top side and flip immediately put tomatoes or sauce cheese and toppings close cover.Keep an eye on the crust.As soon as crust is brown and cheese is melted transfer back on baking sheet. We grill a ton it's quick.We even do it in the winter.T.

I love using a crockpot. Throw everything in in the morning, turn it on, and voila, at the end of the day you have a delicious meal. There's a GREAT website that I use. This woman made a resolution to use her crockpot EVERYDAY! She eats gluten free so all of the meals are so. She has lots of great ideas and my kids and husband have raved about every recipe I've tried so far. Here's the website: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Good luck!

The easiest healthy idea that comes to my mind is to keep your meals really simple. In the morning before you leave for work, throw some meat in a baggie with marinade and put it in the fridge. When you get home, either grill or saute the meat, make a salad or frozen veggie. If your husband likes carbs you could nuke a baked potato or boil up some pasta to serve with oil or butter and parmesan cheese. This is versatile - there are a million marinades you could make on your own easily or buy in a bottle - and you can rotate beef, chicken, pork. Or, try your slow cooker. There are lots of recipes available online for use in the slow cooker and it's the working mother's best friend. You put everything in the slow cooker when you leave for work, turn it on - presto, dinner's ready when you get home. Good luck!

ok, a couple of websites that might help you as much as they have helped me with my needing to be careful of what I eat due to health conditions.

allrecipies.com
foodnetwork.com

with food netword, I personally love Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals. Quick easy recipies. The only thing I dislike is that she uses salt in everything but have found a few good recipies that you can eliminate the salt on.

Good luck

I make try to make at least two meals on Sunday that save for the week. For example, I might make a casserole for Sunday dinner and then eat left-overs on Mon or Tues. I also usually make one soup a week, which is easy to do on Sunday and then save it for later. We're also big fans of picking up a rotisserie chicken or broiling pork chops. Mexican is quick too, like fajitas or burritos. I think the key to organization with food is to plan a "menu" on the weekend and then buy all your ingredients for the week. Then you know ahead of time what you're having and it saves that pre-meal stress.

One word,darlin', CROCKPOT. Made life, and cooking, far less stressful for me, back in the day. They come w recipes and many recipes are available on-line.

Check out Anabel Karmel's cookbooks for babies and toddlers. I like "100 top baby purees" and "Superfoods for babies and children" in particular. I didn't start making my own baby food until my first son was a year old because I was working full time and thought it would be too time consuming. Boy, was I wrong. It saves a ton of time -- just put in a little time on a weekend and then you're all set with nutritious food for weeks. I freeze the food in ice cube trays and then store the cubes in ZipLock bags in my freezer. Then I have a healthy meal for my baby (now my second one) whenever I need it. The Superfoods book has some meals that are tasty for adults, too, so I can just cook one thing, and there is dinner for me and my husband as well. For my toddler I am still making meals from Superfoods and putting them in larger containers (say, in two-serving sizes) in the freezer. Weeks go by when I don't have to cook for the kids at all. Then I know that if I don't feel like making anything more complicated than a frozen pizza, my kids will still get their vegetables.

I have the same problem, never know what to cook. I have read some good books about organization, and they suggest cooking in large portions, like a 9 x 13 pan of lasagna, and then breaking it up into smaller, meal-size portions and freezing it separately. These portions can be taken out of the freezer in the morning for the meal that night. You can do that with a large mac and cheese, a large batch of spaghetti sauce, a large shepherd's pie, chicken pot pie, whatever. Also, buy the big family-packs of chicken, hamburg, etc., and break them up and freeze them into meal-sized portions. You could mix up a meat loaf and put that separately into one large Ziploc, freeze it, then later thaw it and shape it into a loaf. You can thaw bags of chicken, and marinate them at the same time by pouring some marinade into the Ziploc bag when you take it out of the freezer in the morning - you've killed 2 birds with one stone! And of course, the good ol' Crockpot. Fill it in the morning with goodies, cook it low all day, and dinner's ready when you get home. Good luck!

We do cook a lot and we make big batches on Sunday so we can have mealls ready for the next 3 to 4 evenings. Soups are great for winter but for summer the easy I'm-too-tired-to-cook fix is a box of organic pre-washed greens with dried fruit (usually ccranberries) and almonds on top or just plain. rice cooked in chicken broth for flavor (or miso mix which lasts a long time in the fridge) and a protein.
Protein ideas:

Rotisserie chicken from whole foods.
Fully cooked sausages from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, these are great because you don't have to worry about undercooked chicken and they have many different flavors.
Any meat that you can pre cook and eat chilled like roast beef.

You can also put your protein on top of the greens and make a salad with a nice hearty bread sliced, toasted and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

A.

Hi S.,

I like to look up recipes on-line. www.foodtv.com and www.epicurious.com are really good. You can browse through recipes and narrow them down based on ingredients. A lot of times I'll just do a google search for something I'm looking for like "marinades" or "stews" and search through different sites. I always read the reviews of the recipes and if it doesn't get a good review from several people I won't use it. I like to buy boneless chicken breast or steak tips on sale, marinate them and then put them in the freezer in ziploc bags. I put enough in a bag for a dinner for my family and then maybe a little extra in case I want to have leftovers for lunch on a salad or something. Soups and stews are great too. You can make a big batch over the weekend and freeze the rest for meals later. I do the same thing with spaghetti sauce. You can cook a whole turkey and have leftovers for a couple of days. Those are a few ideas that I have. I hope it helps.

Jen

My FAVORITE cookbook is Martha Stewart- Great Food Fast. Best $15 I ever spent. The foods are delicious and she catagorizes the recipes according to season so you're using produce that you can actually find in the store. I live by this book. All the recipes are super quick and easy. Check it.

Buy a crockpot and get a good crockpot cookbook. Someone told me this would help us eat better and on time (not eating so late that it sat in our stomachs at bedtime). I have a friend who even does pulled pork as well as spagehetti and meatballs in hers! Easy to do. Good luck. L.

A favorite of my family is a recipe I got online somewhere, called the best pot roast ever, and it is! If you have a crockpot and 5min in the am, your dinner will be ready for you when you get home. 1 pot roast (I use a 2.5 lb one) 1 can cr. mushroom soup, 1 can cr. celery soup, 3/4C. white cooking wine, and 2Tbsp. minced garlic (opt) put the roast in the crockpot, mix soups, wine and garlic in separate bowl and pour over roast. Turn on low for 8-10hours. I serve with white rice. Good luck! I've been googling what I have for meat to get new ideas and have found lots of great easy recipes at cooks.com too.

Do you have a crockpot? It is one of the best investments you can make. You just put everyting in a pot, turn the heat on low and it can cook all day long. I got great low fat recipes for slowcookers off the internet too. One of the meals I make is a lowfat chili with ground turkey, corn, kidneybeans and anyother veggies you want to throw in. Another easy one is chicken, broccoli and rice with a can of creamy chicken or mushroom soup. Only rice has to be cooked ahead of time! Good Luck! and congrats on your new baby!!

Hi S.!
I definitely agree with the other moms....a crockpot is definitely a way to go if you are really busy and aren't inclined to cook when you're tired. The beauty of it is that supper can be ready the instant you walk in the door so if you're really hungry when you get home from work you won't be tempted to snack on things instead of taking the time to cook.

Something else that is helpful is taking a day and using it as a "prep" day for the rest of the week's meals. You can cook things that you put in the freezer to be defrosted and reheated later in the week, prep veggies for things like stir fries that can be thrown together in minutes on the night you want to eat them, cook up chicken breasts or burgers then flash freeze them to put in ziplock bags in your freezer to be used individually. Just add a big green salad and you have a quick and easy meal.

It's just going to take time to get into this habit so don't get discouraged if you don't stick to it right away. But when you do boy do you love it!! Not having to worry about what to fix for dinner is really a load off the mind!!

If I were you I wouldnt get so stuck on making certain recipies, or taking them from cookbooks. It will end up being more work and time than anything. What I do, is on the weekend, make a grocery list, and think up at least 4 meals for the week. A meat dish, a chicken dish, a fish or pasta dish, or even a sandwich night. Then when I shop I get what I need for those meals. I would try to keep it very basic for yourself. Perhaps a box of whole wheat pasta with good jarred sauce and a salad. Make a big bowl of salad on a Monday to have with a couple meals. Maybe the next night have some baked chicken breasts, throw some marinade on them, bake a potato and have your salad. Cook an extra breast and chop it up for a chicken salad that you could have the next night. I would just keep it very simple, cook ahead when ever you can, and make double of things too so you can skip a night of cooking too.