Seeking help to get out of the cycle of yo-yo (you're on your own) meals!
I homeschool my kids from the time we get up until about 3 p.m. each weekday, and then I teach piano lessons until 6 p.m. A schedule like that is not very conducive to cooking meals on a daily basis. I've been successful at times with preparing meals ahead of time, or having my husband make the meal during my last lesson, but I'd love to have some great meal suggestions for dishes that I can either put in the slow cooker in the morning or that I can make the night before, refrigerate, and then pop in the oven during my lessons. My family is really getting tired of eating yo-yo (you're on your own) meals most nights.
With all you wonderful cooks out there, I'm sure that you have a plethora of suggestions for cook-ahead meals. Would you care to share? Please? My family is hungry!
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Michelle Miller says
Chicken Spaghetti
2 tbsp. butter or 1/4 cu. olive oil
1 sm. onion chopped
2 ribs celery, sliced thin
1 sm. can sliced mushrooms
1 sm. can slice water chestnuts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can Rotel Tomatoes
1 lb. Velveeta cheese, cubed
1 fryer, stewed, boned and cut
1 cup chicken broth
1 lb. spaghetti noodles
Saute`in very large skillet: butter, onion, and celery. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. In separate pot, cook 1 lb. spaghetti noodles. Combine cooked noodles with sauce. Mix well. Serve immediately or may bake at 350 until hot.
Nikki in No. CA says
Tortilla soup
throw into slow cooker on low….
3-4 cans chicken broth (or make your own using boullion + water)
2-3 chicken breasts (frozen is perfect!)
1 can black or pinto beans (drained/rinsed)
1 can white or kidney beans (drained/rinsed)
1 small can green chilies…diced/whole doesn't matter
1 small can tomato sauce or diced tomatoes if you like chunks in your soup (I use low sodium or no salt added SAUCE)
1 cup frozen corn(or more if you'd like)
Dash in:
salt
pepper
Cumin (approx. 1 tsp at most- your preference)
garlic (I use powder…feel free to chop away if you'd like)
onion (I use powder and it's fine- but again, feel free to chop up a half an onion if you'd like!)
Cook until chicken is white….remove chicken and shred or cut into cubes. Return chicken to the slow cooker.
Serve over tortilla chips.
Best when topped with shredded cheese (go ahead and used the bagged stuff…I won't tell!)
Optional toppings:
Cubed avocado (YUM!)
This is the EASIEST meal I have with items stocked in my pantry/freezer! Two of my kids eat it without the juice (just a plate of beans/veggies and cut up chicken with a side of chips.) The rest of us ADORE the whole bowl and will go back for more!
It doesn't have to be an all day cooking thing either. I made it in less than 30 minutes the other night….the hardest part is cooking the chicken through….so if you used pre-cooked chicken you could throw this together in the time it takes to open the cans and heat it all through! Enjoy!
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The Happy Housewife says
Freezer meals! 🙂
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Cherilyn says
My Super Simple Chili recipe is just that – super simple!
(adjust accordingly for your family)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1/2 lb ground beef
chili powder to taste
Brown meat on stove, mix everything in slow cooker and heat all day.
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Linda Henderson says
Joy,
I'm much in the same boat time-wise. I normally use my slow cooker at least twice a week and I love Stephanie's blog A Year of Crockpotting (http://crockpot365.blogspot.com). We had her Moroccan Lentil Stew last night in fact, and even the 3 year old cleaned his bowl.
One of my favourite slow cooker meals is chicken tacos.
16 ounces salsa (I normally use a medium heat chunky salsa)
1 envelope taco seasoning
3 chicken breasts
Place chicken breasts in slow cooker. Combine salsa and taco seasoning and pour over chicken. Cover and cook on high 4-6 hours or low 6-8 hours. When you are ready to eat shred chicken and serve with taco fixin's.
This normally feeds our family of 5 with some left over. I often use the leftovers to make nachos for lunch the next day.
Jennifer says
I have been in the same boat recently, with my dh at softball and me and the kids having late afternoon, into the dinner hour activities or meetings. Cooking the meal around lunch time has helped me some. I imagine if it is something you could cook a few hours early, then you could cook it the night before. Also, try doubling a meal that you make on the weekend and freeze it for another night. I will cook larger meals on the weekends, and have leftovers 1 night of the week. I have also been relying more on very quick and easy to make meals, which for me are baked potatoes and corn muffins, turkey sausages with noodles and carrots, pancakes and bacon, or spaghetti. Are any of your kids old enough to do some meal prep while you are teaching?
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Christina Taylor says
One trick I use is on the weekends we love to grill chicken. I always season a second meal's worth of chicken. It doesn't take any more time for me or my husband. Then I put the "extra" chicken aside for tacos, taco salad, chicken chili, or spaghetti. You could even make a couple of meals and have them fridge ready on Sunday evening. THis is possible with beef or pork as well. Just think ahead with your big meal days. A crockpot roast could be BBQ sandwiches a couple of days later, or pork roast too. Buy the family pack of ground beef– hamburgers one night and spaghetti pie another night.
Hope this helps, I wish I would follow my own advice each week 🙂
Stephanie says
Have you ever considered batch cooking? This way on the weekend or when you have time, you could make up a bunch of meals for the week or even the basic bones to throw a meal together. Try to take 15-20 minutes during lunch to get your meal plan together. I did a series on my blog in regards to batch cooking, and I have read quite a few other tips for that. I love the cookbook Cheap, Fast, Good for quick meals and tips!
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Amy says
Good grief. I typed you a long ol' comment this morning with recipe links! I wonder what happened to it, something was funny when I hit submit.
Anyway… you can find all of the following here: http://amysfinerthings.com/recipes
**Brown Bag Burritos
**Pigs in a Blanket
**(make those some weekend, stick them in the freezer, and grab 'n heat as needed)
Cavatini – will make enough for 3 or 4 meals. Freeze the extras before you bake it.
Sloppy Joes – Mix and keep warm in the crock pot. Easy to double to freeze extras.
Hope that helps!
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Julie Stiles Mills says
Our family favorite is Cream Cheese Chicken! It's in my crock pot RIGHT NOW. The post for it almost always STAYS on my Top 10 widget list in the sidebar! (It's #7 right now.) The post is entitled "frozen chicken? cream cheese chicken"
Here's the quick scoop:
Dump:
Frozen chicken, two cans of drained black beans, two cans of drained corn and two cups salsa in a crock pot. Turn it on high and come back in four hours. Plop a slab of cream cheese in and cover. Come back in 20 minutes and stir everything up. The chicken shreds easily. Serve on a plate or rolled in a tortilla.
p.s. We also like Wet Enchiladas! (Didn't I get that from you?)
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Tonya says
There have been some great recipes posted! My suggestion is to double some of them when you make them and freeze the extra. That way on your busy days all you have to do is defrost and heat.
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'Becca says
Honey Baked Lentils!!! I love this recipe! (Click on my name.) You can mix it up in 5 minutes from cheap, shelf-stable ingredients, and it is so easy that I bet your older kids could make it themselves. Then you just stick it in the oven an hour and a half before dinnertime.
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Whitney Alexander says
Put a rump roast, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup and 1 can of cream of chicken soup in a crock pot. Cook on low all day. It's a delicious, tender and easy roast! Serve with canned vegetables and frozen rolls heated in the oven. 🙂
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Judy says
A roast is always my tried and true dinner in the crockpot.
1 Roast (chuck usually—cheap stuff works best)
potatoes—peeled and cut in half
carrots–peeled and cut in half
onions–1 or 2 cut up
1 8oz can tomato sauce
garlic to taste
black pepper
Put all this in your crockpot. Take about 6 hours or so to cook (depends on the size of the roast. I usually do a 2 to 2.5 pounds).
Enjoy!
Variations—-instead of roast you could do use chicken, either boneless or a whole chicken. Also, here in Massachusetts we put chourico in it.
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