You Come Home And....

Pancakes, eggs and bacon and french toast on wheat bread.
My kids love Breakfast for dinner.

Grilled cheese, salad and fruit.

Parmesan pesto chicken pasta: linguine, tub of pesto, shredded chicken (we always keep a bunch in the fridge for nights like this or for salads), and parmesan cheese.

Thai cashew chicken pasta: linguine, Bangkok Padang thai peanut sauce, shredded chicken, cashews.

Or if we are really desperate we have salad with grilled chicken on top.

Sandwiches
Omelettes
Spaghetti
Cereal
Won Ton Soup (from freezer, from Costco)

Going back out to get a take out.

Grilled cheese sandwiches.

I turn to breakfast. We do pancakes and sausages or bacon. It is the best dinner ever. Just had that yesterday and honestly may happen again today.

My families new fav: beef bbq pizza. Okay, not the healthiest, but you can have everything but the onion on hand at all times (and even sub the onion for onion powder if need be!)

1 premade pizza crust
1 tub beef bbq
2 cups shredded cheddar
1 small red onion

Preheat the oven to 400

chop the onion... spread the bbq over the pizza crust... sprinkle the chopped onion on there... sprinkle the cheese... cook for 10-15 minutes.

Yum :)

Another easy one, another fav in our house:

1 box uncle bens fast cooking long grain and wild rice
1 (1lb) link beed sausage

cook your rice (8 min)
fry the sausage in a pan (10 min)

Chop up the sausage and mix it with the rice! Want to get fancy? chop and grill some green pepper and onion and throw it in there :)

I'M HUNGRY.
spread the

Quesadillas is our go-to food on nights when we need an immediate dinner. Take two tortillas out of the fridge, grate up some cheddar cheese. Cover one tortilla with the grated cheese, add sliced turkey or ham or beans if I'm feeling crazy, top with the other tortilla, and microwave for 45 seconds. They taste better in a skillet with butter, but it's totally not necessary. Serve with salsa on the side, plus quacamole and sour cream if we have it.

Now that I have a teenager..Hubby will usually just order pizza..but when teen was little she would not eat pizza.

The go to foods were usually breakfast foods. Scrambled eggs with cheese on them...pancakes, French toast. We always had eggs, milk and bread. Most always had cheese and syrup.

Also Grilled Cheese sandwiches...soup if there was some in the cabinet or some I froze from a homemade meal and could thaw in the microwave.

Funny, tho, now as a 16 year old who is often on her own for daytime weekend meals (she is up late creating Art so sleeps late)..most of her make-it-herself and fave foods ARE these same things..she just fancies them up. Fancy cheeses on the scrambled eggs and for grilled cheese...experiements with flavors for the French toast, etc. =)

soup and sandwiches or cereal. Its not great, but in a pinch it works.

Big salads topped with frozen chicken tender (cooked first, of course, lol) or breakfast for dinner like pancakes, scrambled eggs, homemade hash browns & bacon. We buy huge bags of pancake mix at Sam's, almost always have eggs & potatoes & bacon in the freezer which is quick enough to thaw in the microwave.

I turn to my staples and foods that dont need to be thawed

fried rice. I've always got rice, eggs, soy sauce, and a bag of frozen peas and carrots.
burgers. I always keep a sleeve of them in the freezer. If I have no buns I make it into salsbury steak.
Nachos - chips, beans, cheese, lettuce and tomato. Meat if I happen to have any leftover cooked chicken.
pasta - the kids will eat smart pasta or whole wheat pasta all by itself or just a little buter. I make some brocoli for them. Mix the broc with noodles and make a quick sauce for me and dad with a salad on the side.
turkey polish sausage and a box of low sodium redbeans and rice or dirty rice.
salmon patties. I keep cans of salmon in the pantry. Drain, add egg, bread crumbs and mayo, maybe lemon and chopt green onions if I have it. Fry in the pan and serve with rice or pasta and vegetables. I always have bags of frozen vegetables.

Speghetti. Its quick and easy and no need for any prep. Its my last minute meal.

Pancakes & Eggs

BBQ Chicken Quesadillas : tortillas, bbq sauce, shredded cheese, chicken, cilantro & green onion... lay out on a baking sheet, assemble, pop under the broiler for 30-90 seconds, fold in half, slice into triangles with pizza wheel (I have cillantro, basil, green onions at all times in herb keepers in my fridge... keeps for 3-4 months. Cooked chicken slices and tortillas live in the freezer). Takes 6-8 minutes from grabbing stuff out to defrost to sitting and eating. 2 minutes if I have fresh cooked chicken in the fridge. ((I KEEP trying to have carne asada strips in the freezer... but we just eat them too quickly, never have leftovers!!!)

Orange Chicken (from Trader Joes... also lives in the freezer... along with fried rice). Takes 20 minutes for the orange chicken to bake... I stirfy the frozen fried rice -5 minutes- while that's baking.

Soup & Sammies

Pasta with frozen meatballs. They're good and super easy.

really easy and very little food in the house = canned soup and frozen vegetables. I'll add stuff from the fridge to the soup if possible.

Breakfast
Quesadillas grilled
Grilled cheese sandwiches
Leftovers
Pizza from the freezer&fruit
We have started meal planning for the week which has helped lessen the "what the heck am I gonna throw together for dinner&I'm exhausted!!" dilemma. We each chose something we like then put it on our weekly menu board. Has helped a bunch. Good luck!!

I keep frozen (raw) shrimp and steamer veggies in the freezer and whole grain couscous in the pantry for such evenings. 10 minutes until dinner is on the table and it is pretty healthy too!

Cheese quesadillas, sliced apples and frozen green beans (only takes a couple minutes to cook). Yogurt for dessert :)

Pasta, or hamburgers on the grill--even if I need to run out for buns!

A favorite for me and hubby is big salads and baked potatoes. So simple to make and only takes about 30 minutes.

Other choices are:
-Frito chili pie (if I have the fixings)

-Chicken - usually shake & bake. The seasoning/breading will stick to it even if frozen. It just takes 5-10 minutes longer to cook.

-Frozen pizzas

Spaghetti with marinara

Pasta with spinach & alfredo sauce

Black bean burritos (or serve w/o burrito shells), with brown rice & salsa & sourcream (we use plain yogurt for sourcream

Cottage cheese pancakes with applesauce

Egg sandwiches

Mac & cheese with veggies

My family favorite is this...any fresh or frozen vegetable. I use zucchini, onion, green pepper, carrot, scallion, broccoli, peas, corn, tomato, yellow squash, spinach, any combination of vegetable you have. I start the pasta (I always have penne on hand) and then quick chop veggies. Stir-fry them until they are al dente, drain pasta, add to veggies, season with salt/pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes and add parm cheese at the end. If you don't have tomatoes and you have a can of Rotelle tomatoes, this works great, too. I made this one night by chance and it has become a family favorite! (and a great way to get rid of all the extra veggies in your fridge!) Dinner is ready from start to finish in about 15 minutes!

I actually have two meals that are good back up meals....
1 box of velveeta mac in cheese + italian sausage + broccoli + a few dabs of maranara sauce. (throw it all together after sausage and mac n cheese is cooked).
Pancakes (I buy the huge bag of mix at costco for this very reason) + microwavable breakfast sausage.

Not exactly healthy but I always have it in the pantry...Chili Mac: Make 2 boxes of mac and cheese, dump in 2 cans of chili, heat and serve. I serve usually with green beans (canned) and biscuits (canned) and only if I have them! Hubby and the kids LOVE it!

We almost always have bagels and cream cheese at my house and some form of sandwich fixings and always fruit of some kind...so mine is bagel sammies and a fruit salad.

Good question- I'm faced with it often!
Pasta. Frozen fish sticks and broccoli. Mac and cheese (I feel like the frozen kids might be a little healthier, but it takes longer). Bean and cheese burritos. Grilled cheese sandwiches are easy. PB&J! I'll give them a banana or yogurt to give me some time to put something else together.
(Is this bad??)

Lunchmeat and cheese melts
Baked quesadillas
Scrambled eggs, toast, and smokey links
English muffin pizzas

Gluten free pasta with sauce!! yummy..I actually will waste time so i have an excuse to make it. So it is my go to meal and my favorite meal!!

Spaghetti and Alfredo sauce (1 can cream of mushroom plus 1/2 can milk for the sauce!)
Mac cheese and tuna and peas

Campbells soup with ramen noodles.

Shepherd's pie or pot pie. Variations on the same theme.

Shepherds Pie
Usually, brown ground beef add gravy package mix
Add whatever vegetables you have on hand
Make instant mashed potatoes
Put in a casserole dish layering beef, gravy and veg on bottom, mashed potato on top, I add a sprinkle of cheese & bake

Pot Pie
Often use chicken or ground turkey
cream of mushroom soup (or you can make a white sauce)
add whatever vegetables you want
I top with rolled out cresent rolls dough or biscuits
bake till dough is cooked through
(I put the "crust" on top to avoid it getting soggy)

These are starting points that allow for a lot of variation. Have fun with it.

Pasta salad - canned chicken, elbow pasta, hard boiled eggs, and miracle whip - kids love it!

Or chicken spaghetti - canned chicken, spaghetti noodles, can of rotel, can of cream of mushroom soup and velveeta cheese

Cheese grits
Grilled cheese sandwiches
Tuna salad

Great question! I'll be checking the answers after I give my own. (I don't want to forget what I'm going to write.)

Our go-to meals include any combination of the following:

pizza toast (toast with pasta sauce and cheese)
scrambled eggs
slices of summer sausage
bananas
carrot sticks
pancakes (usually homemade and frozen; pop in the toaster oven)
apple slices
peanut butter and jelly
leftovers in any combination we can figure out
granola bars
Dutch baby (my kids love when we make this!!!)

I always have Stoffers (no preservatives!) "farmer's harvest" frozen lasagna family size in the freezer just in case... also other frozen, healthy, microwavable family sized meals. I also make sandwiches, or just any lunch-style dinner... that stuff is quick, easy and healthy.

My other option is pizza (I pick it up, therefore its ready in 15 min) or Subway... or basically any type of carry-out. My husband, I and four kiddies LOVE Indian food take-out!!!