Friday, 05 December 2008
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What's For Dinner? Peanut Butter and Jelly!
by Mama Giraffe 
Just had a brilliant idea! For the past few weeks, I've been suffering at dinnertime. With a newborn, an almost 3 year old, and a 4 1/2 year old, it is an understatment to say that 5:00 is a CRAZY time in our house. We are all tired, hungry and running extremely low on patience. There is always a lot of crying, screaming and time outs. All things that make it very hard to whip up a healthy dinner that my kids will actually eat.
Then, all of a sudden, I just realized the answer. I'm going to start cooking a warm, nutritious lunch and then will feed my kids PB&J for dinner.
Problem solved!
Anyone else have any dinnertime suggestions?
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Comments (14)
Slow cooker meals? One-pot meals?
For the entire family you should try things you can make in a crock pot. There are also tons of stir fry meals in the freezer section of the grocery store. You just have to check labels and make sure it's not pure sodium!!
I make pretty hearty, easy stuff and we eat leftovers a lot. Stuff like a big pot of chili or beef stew or a big chicken pot pie will last for a couple of days. A chicken and rice casserole will last a couple of days too.
Haha! LOL! Now you've got me craving a PB&J sandwich!
Stir fry is a good, fast, versatile meal- just throw bite-sized chunks of whatever kind of meat and whatever veggies you happen to have in the freezer into a skillet with olive oil at medium heat and cook until done. You can also add soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, teriyaki sauce, ginger, or whatever else appeals to your tastes. Eat with rice and you have a satisying, balanced meal.
Spaghetti made with canned tomato sauce is something else that is very quick.
Cold cut sandwhiches, frozen pizza --- or you can make it yourself. If you have a bread machine you can make the dough in there and then all you have to do is warm up the oven, spread the dough on pans and top it - like a 15 minute prep or so depending on what you are putting on it! You can also make pizza dough and freeze it but I wouldn't recommend it. I have a great pizza dough recipe (my grandmother was from Italy!)
Super Macaroni and Cheese is good as well, you just cook some hot dogs cut them up and put them in it. It was a favorite in our house.
If you have a slow cooker put sliced potatoes, carrots and an onion at the bottom and a beef roast on top, add water to fill the bottom and seasonings to taste, and cook on low for about 5 hours or so depending on how much you have in there.... There are a ton of slow cooker recipes out there that are easy. You can do the same with chicken and any other meat as well.
Soup and grilled cheese are fast as well... sorry for a long reply! Most of the meals I make are either fast and easy or set it and forget it.
I second all of the crock pot suggestions. We have beef stroganoff in the crockpot at least twice a month.
1.5-2 lbs stew meat, cut into small pieces
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 soup cans of water
1 packet onion soup mix
Combine it all in the crockpot and cook it on low for 8 hours. You can add carrots to it if you want or make steamed broccoli on the side. We serve ours over egg noodles.
Other fast meal ideas include crescent roll hots dogs with cheese, "homemade" pizza with a refrigerated Pillsbury crust, grilled cheese and tomato soup, and breakfast for dinner.
I don't mean to sound racist or anything, but how is it that Mexicans can have up to 8 children and still feed them healthy [believe me I'm Mexican and my mom makes it an obligation to feed me and my brother healthy no matter what haha] while white families seem to get the easy way out at dinner?? My point being: HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!?
Now my mom may only have 2 children [who are both over 16] but my grandmother on my moms' side had 6 children and my grandma on my dads' side had 11!!! [well 15, but thats another story
] Still. Amazing.
I love it!!! Dinner time is always a struggle for me too (1 month old, and 13 month old in this house). I finally started doing what I've heard over and over again - plan a weekly menu. It has done WONDERS for the dinnertime drama in our house. I now have all the ingredients, know exactly what to cook, and everything goes smoothly. But, I'll keep in mind the PB&J idea!
its actually healthier to eat a big meal at lunch and a small meal at dinner time...
Brilliant! So simple, and so genius! Obviously this wouldn't work for parents who aren't in the home during the days, but even for weekends it would help immensely I'd bet!
Most of Europe does that, so we may as well too. (It's better to do it this way anyway!!)
But if you're really tired, why not do crock pots or a roast that can go slow in the oven all day? Anything you prepare at 10AM is a better option than forgoing dinner.
@christina_believe@xanga - Okay I do find this offensive. I HATE when people go with the old stereotypes. For your information, my in-laws are Mexican and my 6 and 8 year old nephew and niece weigh more than I did before I got pregnant with my son. They got soda in their flippin BABY BOTTLES and don't eat anything fresh. Period. All of my in-laws are very overweight.
I'm white and my son eats very healthy, thank you.
Do I think that all Mexicans eat like crap? NO. Do I think all white people eat organically healthy like I do? NO. Don't jump to conclusions, girl. Racial profiling went out of style a long time ago.
@MelodicPuppy@xanga - No no I didn't mean to sound offensive I'm sorry. I DO agree that not all Mexicans eat healthy and not all Americans eat UN-HEALTHY. I'm sorry if I sounded offensive. I didn't mean to.
That sounds like an excellent compromise to me!
I also like the crock pot. Or even casseroles that you can make earlier in the day and then just pop in the oven. (Or even ones you can make ahead of time and freeze - then no kitchen mess for the day!)