It seems the last thing we want to be doing at the end of a long day is making a huge dinner. Thank God for microwaves and slow cookers. I have found that the frozen prepackage slow cooker meals are not well appreciated in our home. But if you take them same ingredients but fresh and put them in the slow cooker yourself, your family has a different respect for them. Then it's home cooked.
Here are some quick meals that are easy to prepare.
Spaghetti or other pasta with sauce. Make the sauce up a head of time and freeze it. If it's homeade, then it will taste better anyways. You can even make the pasta up ahead of time too leaving just a minute or two uncooked, freeze in ziploc bag and put in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes.
Mac and Cheese (boxed or homeade) Cheese is not one of those things that freezes well but it can be done. Don't try freezing the pasta with the cheese, you will not like the results. And of course there is no purpose in freezing boxed mac and cheese lol. But Kraft makes an excellent creamy mac and cheese that is done with canned creamy cheese, not powdered. It's actually pretty good. Set this off with some house salad and viola. A good hearty nutritious meal.
Breakfast! Oh come on, how many love breakfast for dinner? My kids love pancakes for dinner. Some nights it's eggs and bacon with toast and or maybe even some left over potatoes fried up into potatoe pancakes with applesauce or jelly.
Chef Salad. This is an excellent meal. It has everything and the kids love it. I go to the deli of my favorite grocery store and buy a 3/4 inch thick slab of ham and turkey breast and slice them or dice them. Get a block of our favorite cheddar cheese and dice it up into 1/2 inch thick pieces. Hard boil a few eggs, throw in what ever else you want, green or black olives or both, pickels, bacon bits, whatever. We really like Thousand Island dressing on our chef salad.
Hamburgers and hotdogs usually with a side of baked beans from the can. I have tried all the best brands of baked beans from a can and will admit that the very best and I mean my entire family has agreed on this is the Walmart brand. It's only approx. 78 cents a can which is half the price of the name brand and it taste better, has better texture etc.
Tuna melts and veggie. These are a favorite of my family. Any kind of tuna on any kind of bread with any kind of cheese. Grill like grilled cheese and presto. You could even have soup with this as we have dozens of times.
Sandwhiches and Soup. Self explinatory.
Tuna or Hamburger helper meals. Tuna is healthier and easier, but it takes a person with a great appreciation for blan foods to enjoy Tuna Helper.
Super Bake Meals from Campbells. If youhaven't tried these yet, I suggest you do. They are actually very good, inexpensive and easy to prepare.
Prepared Chicken tenders with a side of pasta, potatoe puffs, or rice and veggie. You can prepare your own chicken tenders, fry or bake and freeze. Microwave with a small cup of water in the center of the microwave to keep chicken from drying out. 10 frozen pieces should only take about 3-4 minutes depending on wattage.
Frozen fish fillets and potatoe puffs or fries.
Corn dogs and a side of macaroni salad and corn on the cob always goes over well with the kiddies.
Rice and beans. I buy the Mahatma Saffron yellow long grain rice in the small yellow bags and it only takes 20 minutes or so to set and fry up a can of refried beans with a little solid vegetable shortning added to it. The shortning just does something for the flavor that I can't explain but know it taste better. This is very healthy and low in fat. Serve with taco salad and viola, an excellent meal.