Let's face it. Less than an hour to spend cooking is typical more days than not, right? Especially the first few weeks of school when there are open houses, schedule pickups, extra practices, and "end of summer" everythings.
Imagine it's dinner time, and you have been out all day doing the million things that needed to be done. Won't you be so happy when you remember you've got a freezer stocked with spaghetti sauce and all you have to make is noodles? Boom, dinner in 15 minutes. Won't you feel proud when you had prepped veggies to make a quick salad to go along with it? Or when everyone can munch on something while you at least change out of your work clothes into your pj's? ; ) Am I the only one who likes to do that?
Don't forget to use those last little bit of leftovers too-- leftover roasted veggies are my favorite quesadilla filling or nacho topping. And even if there is some rotisserie chicken left to go on them, I'll toss a few veggies in my kids' too. #winwin You could even fire up the griddle, and let everyone build their own and bring to you for the final melt, assembly line style. Getting your family involved in dinner creation is a time saver and a good way to teach them to, you know, feed themselves one day.
Tapas is a meal made entirely of appetizers, which happens to be one of my favorite ways to eat. Possibly because I'm plant-based, and most of the time that means I'm ordering sides at a restaurant lol. The point is, anything can be dinner. Or lunch. Or breakfast.
Toss some of those raw prepped veggies into a smoothie! Or, how about scrambled eggs to go with your leftover roasted veggies? So fast. And that Sunday Night Special? That is the fancy-sounding name I gave the meal of all the leftover fruits, veggies, cheeses, lunch meats left in the fridge by Sunday night when my kids were little, and their dad was working. I would place everything out on cutting boards or paper plates for my kids to fill up on, party food buffet style. Kids like being able to choose what they put on their plates-- just make sure there are some nutritious options. I would sometimes group them into their families, so they had to pick one from each category-- fruit, veggie, protein, etc. They particularly liked it when I would pop popcorn to go along with it, or had a fun dip for their fruit. This really can be anything. Add some peanut butter for the apple slices (or make apple tacos!!), some yogurt for the fruit, a jar of almonds, and you really can make a meal out of it. And all you had to do was pull everything out of the fridge!
The bottom line is, those rushing around days are part of it, and every meal doesn't have to be roast and mashed potatoes with gravy. (Yikes) A little extra thought on the days that AREN'T rushed will set you up to give your family (and your budget) something better than drive-thru.
I hope you have a fantastic Back to School season, that everyone loves their homeroom teachers, that everyone makes new friends, and gets on the teams, that your kids have someone to sit with at lunch and that those kids' moms will call you for ideas on things to put in THEIR kids' lunchboxes. ; ) You got this, mama!
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