What are the most popular meals in your house?

[VenusElon]

I dread the decision of what's for dinner every single day. I don't know how to cook and I hate being in the kitchen. Most of the time it's hamburger helper or chicken helper. The only other things I ever fix are chicken/rice, BBQ chicken in the crockpot, tacos, spaghetti, lasagne, sloppy joes, meatloaf, pot roast in the crockpot, crab cakes if I'm feeling fancy, or pork chops with shake n bake. We eat lots of frozen stuff like hot pockets, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, chicken patties. I really want to change and hope to take a cooking class. Recipes seem so daunting-even the easy recipes in my magazines are too complicated. My husband brings food home several times a week-KFC, Arby's, Subway, etc... But with gas prices so high I really need to cook at home and save some money. So what is your family eating? Any meal planning ideas or recipes? Keep in mind I bought Cooking for Dummies and it is too hard!

Venus

[DebbieJ]

First, you must read Amy's Meal and Menu planning post. I will go find it and come back and edit to include a link.

ETA: here it is! http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=37&topic_id=33713

I just try to keep things simple. A piece of protein (chicken breasts, pork chops, steak or roast), veggies, and then potatoes or rice. We do lots of grilling and I use lots of frozen veggies.

I also have come to LOVE my crockpot. Just yesterday I made the best beef stew. I bought a chuck roast on sale and cut it up, put it in the crockpot with two bags of frozen stew vegetables, then added some purchased beef stew seasoning (Mc Cormick makes envelopes of this, I used one I had purchased at one of those home parties). Add some water and turn it on. 6-8 hours later, you have dinner! I made a can of biscuits to go with it and that was it!

I think the hardest thing about cooking more often is the planning and the grocery shopping. I try to follow the sales and plan my menus and make my shopping list accordingly. Then I go to the store and buy everything I need for the week. Weekends are usually leftovers or pizza or whatever. But sometimes it's so hard to decide what to make and I make the same ole recipes a lot. But hey, if DH complains, then he can take over the cooking! Ha!

I always keep some "last minute" type dinner stuff on hand too. Our dinner of choice in those situations is the Mandarin Orange Chicken from Trader Joes. I add a bag of frozen bell peppers to it when it bakes and then make some rice and you have dinner in 20 minutes.

You can do it!

Some links for you:

Crockpot ideas: http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=37&topic_id=63201&mesg_id=63201&page=&topic_page=4

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=37&topic_id=184013&mesg_id=184013&page=

Easy Dinner ideas: http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=37&topic_id=118838&mesg_id=118838&page=

Ideas for chicken: http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=37&topic_id=177818&mesg_id=177818&page=

Ideas for ground beef: http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=37&topic_id=167258&mesg_id=167258&listing_type=search

~ deb
DS born at home 12/03
Breastfed for 20 months and 6 days

http://www.bfar.org/members/fora/style_avatars/Ribbons/18months-bfar.jpg

[alkagift]

I really suggest Cooking Light's Superfast Suppers. It's a good cookbook that include items like frozen veggies, instant rice and refrigerated potatoes to make things that are really easy. Here's one that is DH's fave:

Get yourself a premade pizza crust, like Boboli, or a crust like Pepperidge Farm's in the refrigerated section. The Pepperidge Farm pizza crust is the raw dough you unroll and I think you have to prebake just a bit. I'm lazy and I like the whole wheat better, so I use the whole wheat thin crust Boboli. Then head on over to the pasta sauce aisle and get a jar of pesto. They're just above the regular sauce in my store. Then, get a pound of frozen cooked shrimp (the peeled, tail-off kind, no breading or anything) and a bag of Birds Eye three-pepper stir fry in the frozen veggies section (it's green, red, and yellow bell pepper strips with onions).

Go home and thaw the shrimp. After stirring the Pesto well, put about 1/3 cup the crust. Heat up your skillet and stirfry the veggies on med-high, and keep stirring, since there's lots of water in them. Once the onions are semi-soft, about 10 minutes or less, turn the heat off and add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Then throw your thawed, pre-cooked and drained shrimp in and give it a good stir. Put the veggies and shrimp on the pizza over the pesto, drop about a cup of part-skim mozarella cheese over the top and bake it according to the package directions, about 10 minutes. You can also make this with chopped chicken. SO yummy and I got this from the cookbook. Lots of easy things in there.

Basically, I learned by focusing on side dishes. I broiled the meat (whatever it was--chicken, pork, fish) using the Joy of Cooking cookbook guidelines and then served one starch (like rice, corn, potatoes or carrots) and one green veggie. The green veggie is often spinach salad, made with the prebagged salad in the produce section. As you get comfortable with the side dishes, you can work on making the meat part more complicated.


Allison
Mommy to Matthew, who is TWO!

Are you TTC and want to share with BBB friends? Join us! http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BBB_TTC/

[jlcana]

DS 1's favorite meal: bbq chicken, corn, sweet potatoes.

1) Scrub sweet potatoes, put on cookie sheet, bake 1 hour @ 450.
2) Defrost boneless chicken breast in micro and trim them.
3) Take some frozen corn, put in bowl, season to taste.
4) Peel skin off sweet potatoes, mash in oven proof bowl and add butter and brown sugar to taste. Reduce oven to 300, put back in.
5) Put little olive oil in skillet on med to med-high. Add chicken breasts, I sprinkle a little seasoning salt on them. Cook first side about 6 minutes.
6) Flip chicken over, cook another 6 minutes.
7) Put mostly defrosted corn in micro on high for 3-4 minutes.
8) Turn skillet down to med-low and add bbq sauce to chicken, cook while corn is in micro. Flip chicken and sauce other side.
9) Take potatoes out of oven, corn out of micro, put chicken on everyone's plate and eat. I add more bbq sauce to dip chicken into.

EASY! Good for you if you don't go overboard on the butter. Most kids like these foods. You can also cook the potatoes in the micro, but they don't taste as good to me. Total time from defrosting chicken and cooking (not including potatoes) is about 30 minutes for me. You can lose about 10 minutes if using fresh chicken.

Lisa
Christopher 3/18/02
Andrew 9/28/04

[s_gosney]

Hey, you sound like me! I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who has to admit to using the helper boxed stuff. Lately, I've been trying hard to be just a little better. I've been using a lot of campbells recipes. They have a cookbook that you can get for free just by requesting it from their website. It has an enchilada torte (sounds hard, but super easy), a sour cream chicken dish, and several other dishes that we like. I also make what our family refers to as shepherd's pie. Our version just has ground beef, cream of whatever soup, a can of corn all mixed up, topped with mashed potatos and cheese then popped in the oven for a few minutes. There are tons of variations with varying veggies and such. Pot pies with store bought crusts or biscuits are also pretty easy and good because they're all in one sort of thing. One last idea for you is boneless chicken breasts topped with jarred spaghetti sauce with cheese sprinkled over it and cooked in the oven. If I'm in a hurry, I cook the chicken on the george foreman grill then just pop it in the oven long enough to melt the cheese.
HTH some and good luck to you! I have definitely found planning ahead a BIG step in the right direction. It helps more than you think it possibly could.

[lmintzer]

The scary thing is what you're doing sounds like cooking to me! That's how bad off we are. Last night, I did make lamb chops and corn on our new gas grill. I put a burger on for the kids and nuked some green beans. Jack ate the burger (grudgingly) and the corn. Joshua ate NOTHING. At all. He just won't eat sometimes if he doesn't like the food. : (

[MelissaTC]

The Kraft website has lots of good recipes. You can also sign up for their magazine. My friend is always cooking meals from those.

[babymama]

I was thinking the same thing - the OP's list sounds like DH's dream menu. I am TERRIBLE in this area - mostly it's the time involved, not so much being short on ideas. We eat out way more than we should.

To the OP...Sorry I don't have any input, other than to say that sounds to me like you;re doing a good job.

Lydia
Mama to Santiago, born 11/16/03 and
One on the way, due 01/03/06

[daniele_ut]

I am a full time work outside the home mom and cooking was becoming a huge problem for me because I was running out of time to plan meals and shop. Getting them cooked was a whole other story! We were eating out a LOT and it was costing a fortune, so I finally decided to try My Girlfriend's Kitchen, and it has been great! I spent 2 hours there one night and came home with 24 meals for the freezer (12 dishes that I split into 24 that would each serve 2-3 people). I spent $200 with tax to feed us dinner every weeknight for more than a month, which is definitely less than it was costing us to eat out or order pizza 3 nights a week (about $2.77 a serving -you can't eat at McD's for that!). The food has been great so far and the meals always serve us with enough left over for DH or me to take a lunch the next day. All I need to do is make a salad. We may not do this every month, but since we were moving this month, it helped immensely!

There may not be one near you, but the website is www.mgfk.com

[lizamann]

I have no advice, but just wanted to ask what you really mean by things being too complicated and too hard. For example, is it that it takes too much time to cut up an onion, or that you don't know how to do it? A cooking class would take care of the latter, but it won't help with the first. If it just takes too much time and you don't want to do it, then I don't know how to help you, but I've definitely been there myself at times LOL.

We still eat out a ton, but when I do cook I'm trying to move away from using processed foods from boxes and cans. It tastes so much better and is much healthier. I still struggle with planning, though, and using all the ingredients I buy. For example, I'll only use half of that onion I cut up, and then the rest sits in the fridge until it grows green stuff on it and I finally throw it out. So I really need some help here, too.

I don't know if you'd like this tomato salad, but it would be super easy to make, and tomatoes are really good right now:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/101981

Serve it with panfried chicken breasts: melt some butter in a pan, add some olive oil for flavor, fry the boneless, skinless chicken breast a few minutes on a side. Add some salt and pepper, and you're done.

Eat the chicken and salad with some good crusty bread, dipping the bread in the salad dressing. Tomorrow morning, toast some of the leftover bread and eat it with peanut butter for breakfast. Or soak it in an egg/milk mixture and fry up some French toast.

OK, what I am really doing is trying to motivate myself! Bon appetit, everyone!

[amp]

Various pastas (chicken, ground beef stroganoff, spaghetti)
Mexican (tacos, nachos, burritos)
Pizza
Fast food.
There are, of course, other dishes I make, but it depends a lot on how involved it is and how much time I have. some pastas are faster than others, etc.

[cartersmom]

We do cook most of the time and my oldest is starting to help which makes it fun to do.

The favorites:

Anything Pasta - chicken, vegetable, or beef
Mexican - tacos, fajitas, and enchiladas
Old Standbys - Meatloaf, roast chicken, roast beef
Lots of grilling - chicken, brats, burgers, etc.

I try to attempt a new recipe a week to introduce something new and I do a lot of freezing. Since I work at home and it gets a little crazy, I will cook a bunch of stuff on the weekend and store it in the freezer then it's easy to grab something and put it in the oven during the week.

[DebbieJ]

There are two other franchises called Dream Dinners and Super Suppers. I think they both have websites, so you can check and see if there's a location by you. Great idea!

~ deb
DS born at home 12/03
Breastfed for 20 months and 6 days

http://www.bfar.org/members/fora/style_avatars/Ribbons/18months-bfar.jpg

[brittone2]

As the PPs mentioned, are you looking for faster/easier things or you just want to be healthier?

Some ideas for you...look into OAMC (once a month cooking). Google it and you'll get tons of hits. You don't need to necessarily do all in one day a month, but try doubling some of your recipes and freezing enough for a second meal for your family. That way you always have a healthy backup plan.

You can even just take ideas like taking a bunch of ground beef at once and precooking it and then freezing it. Now it is ready to go for tacos (just add some taco seasoning and a little water when you reheat it), chili, spaghetti sauce, shepherd's pie, sloppy joes, etc. At least that makes it *easier* and maybe you'd be less inclined to eat out if you had the meal mostly cooked in advance. Similarly, you can make a whole tray of meatballs at once and flash freeze (freeze an hour or so on a cookie sheet or tray with space between each meatball so they won't stick together. When you bag them up after an hour, it will let you pull out a few at a time without having a huge clump of meatballs stuck together). Meatballs could be expanded to meatball sandwiches and some canned soup if you pick up some rolls and sauce. If you make a meatloaf, use a bunch of ground beef at once. Mix it all up in a huge bowl and freeze 2 others for future meals. You can thaw and then cook or even cook it frozen. You dirty the bowl one time for several meals, kwim? Easier cleanup, easy to reheat.

Cook up extra chicken breasts when you cook, slice, and freeze. Pop them out of the freezer and use for topping a salad, making chicken salad sandwiches, or add it to stir fry. Top with gravy and use it for hot roasted chicken sandwiches.

If you are cooking something in the oven, see if in the same day you can throw something extra into your crockpot all day so you can freeze it for a future dinner. It is pretty easy to throw a roast or a chicken in the crockpot...it basically cooks itself.

Have you tried roasting veggies? Just throw some cut up potatoes, carrots, and sweet potatoes into a bowl. Toss with some olive oil and herbs (garlic, rosemary, whatever you like...). Bake on a cookie sheet in the oven on 400 for a half our or so they are tender. Easy easy easy and it goes with lots of things.

There are healthier convenience foods if you want to go that route initially. One thing we always have on hand are packs of feta/spinich sausage from Costco. You can have it as a sandwich, eat it as part of breakfast, add it to a quiche, or eat it with pasta.

What do we eat most often?
Chicken enchiladas or bean/rice wraps (on whole grain wraps)-DH loves tex mex type things as does DS.

Pasta and meatballs or sausage. Try varying the sauce or the pasta you use or add different veggies. I usually have lasagne in the freezer as a backup dinner. Can do lasagne roll ups instead of a huge tray (take the cooked noodle, put some ricotta mixture toward the bottom, spread up the noodle, roll up. Flash freeze (same as meatballs) and pop out as many as you need at a time and top with some spaghetti sauce when it is time to cook.

In the fall-soups/stews in the crockpot or chili with sour cream or cottage cheese

Roasted chicken with potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots (easy!)

Stir Fry (easy!) with rice (change the type of rice from white to brown or wild, serve it over couscous instead, or serve it over some sort of asian noodle). Vary the veggies. If you can't make a sauce, you can buy tons of stir fry sauces at the store.

Meatloaf (One of Dh's favorites)

Homemade whole wheat pizza (vary toppings...sometimes we do white pizza with plops of ricotta and some thawed, drained, frozen spinach
on it). Can be turned into calzones.

Those are probably our most popular. I keep a well-stocked pantry so there is always at least soup or something so that I don't have an excuse to eat out because I didn't cook, kwim? DH just returned to grad school so it has been an adjustment realizing we can't/shouldn't eat out as much as we did before. We do pretty well.

HTH.

[babystuffbuff]

Daniele, you are my hero! The My Girlfriend's Kitchen thing looks like just what I have been looking for. My DH is a coach and often works late, but I never know when he's coming home, so on nights like last night when he walked in the door at 9 PM and asked what I felt like making for dinner (say it with me: HA!) we end up with a run to Taco Bell. :P Bad, bad, bad.

We are moving to Annapolis this weekend, and Crofton is close enough that I would be more than willing to drive there to try this out. Thanks!

Sarah

P.S. So I kind of look like I belong on this thread, we love angel hair whole wheat pasta with veggie pasta sauce, chicken tacos, and DH's favorite, macaroni and cheese (from the box) with boneless skinless chicken breasts cut up into bite-sized pieces and mixed in. Of the two of us, DH is the one who can cook, but he's never home. :P

[ctmom]

My advice is go to your local library and take out a few cookbooks and get some great ideas from them. I love the Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee books the best. Whenever I'm in a slump I reach for those. Also, a pp mentioned the kraft website. It's kraftfoods.com. You can sign up for their free magazine and it has some really good recipes in it. I also plan my weekly menus around the sales in the grocery store and try hard to stick to my shopping list. Keep staples in the house ie: pasta, eggs, frozen veggies salad greens and you will find it is easier to cook if you already have the basics in the house. Something fun we do once in a while is "breakfast for dinner" I'll make pancakes or waffles or french toast usually with some eggs, ham and fruit. The kids love it!

Good luck!

[niccig]

I can cook, but not as well as my mother and sister. I too dread thinking about what we'll have for dinner. My mother and sister swear by planning ahead. My sister works out all the meals for the week on one day, grocery shops so she has everything and then she knows what to makes. She doesn't plan it out done to the day, she just knows the 7 meals she will make sometime that week. I've been meaning to do this but I never get around to it.

Nicci

[VenusElon]

Thanks so much for the great ideas. I need really easy to start because I just don't have the basic skills. I often don't know the words (fold in, poached, saute, blanching, etc) or have the dishes/tools needed. I really need to see someone do it, so I may make the hour drive for the Girlfriend's kitchen-you wouldn't believe how I can misinterpret some directions. And I have a hard time finding new ingredients in the grocery store. My mom never cooked so that is my excuse. For example, for Thanksgiving we either went to Golden Corral or would buy a premade turkey from the grocery store and add instant potatoes, can of yams, can of green beans, and tube of biscuits! Dessert was of course Sara Lee or Mrs. Smith. My husband and I both have very simple tastes so I don't know what more gourmet foods are supposed to taste like or look like-I hate cookbooks without pictures. And I would hate to spend money on steak and then mess it up at home-so I'll just save that for dinners out. I was intrigued by Real Simple's article on "The Easiest Dinner Ever" but I was scared to try. For example-Salmon Clue with Avocado butter-never had arulula or pumpernickel break or salmon at home, what is kosher salt? Another is Pressed Sandwich with Eggs and Anchovies-would your husbands and kids really eat this? And I'd have to find capers? You'd think with all the books and websites out there someone would have planned out a month's worth of mom friendly menus with grocery lists. Amy's is about the closest I have seen-can I live at her house? I'm going to the library tomorrow and I'll let you know what happens next week.

Venus

[brittone2]

Oh, another quick and easy and semi gourmet thing you can make is fancier panini/glorified grilled cheese sandwiches. If you have a good bakery or grocery store, get a loaf of ciabatta or some other yummy bread. Slice it along the outside so it opens like a sandwich. Top with mozzerella cheese, roasted red peppers (can buy them already roasted), whatever floats your boat. You could do ham and cheese, do something fancier like prosciutto (a fancier ham) and cheese, change the cheese you use, add a little spinich to mozzerella and roasted peppers. Turkey and swiss, chicken and mozzerella...anything is good :) It isn't too hard and it is yummy. I cover the outside in a little butter and oil the pan lightly. Put in your sandwich decked out however you like and cook over medium high heat. Once you put it in the pan, put something on it to weigh it down (a big can from your pantry or I've seen recommendations for a foil covered brick). Don't let it get so hot that it burns. Turn and do the other side then. The George Foreman grill can be used for this too apparently. (we don't have ours anymore). Speaking of which, that's an easy way to cook lots of things :) I cook mine in a big cast iron skillet (my panini).


I sometimes do this with some white beans (out of a can...cannellini) blended in the blender with some herbs like basil and olive oil to make a little spread. I combine it with mozz. cheese. Yummy :)

[kelly ann]

I do Dream Dinners and DH is loving it. No more complaining from me not having time to cook. It is well worth the $ and the meals actually take us about 6-8 weeks to eat.

[marcywench]

You have really started something with me and my friends since I read this last night! I found a My Girlfriends Kitchen and several Dream Dinners locations nearby. I only wish I had known about it a few weeks before. I might call Dream Dinners in the morning and ask if there is still room in their session tomorrow. I hesitate to make plans at this point.

Thanks for the info!

[jennifer_r]

I absolutely love to cook (it's definitely one of my passions, besides eating :) ). However, there are many nights when I don't have time to cook much. On those nights, these are the kinds of meals I make:

Trader Joe's Simmer Sauce (particularly the Spinach Punjabi) - throw sauce, water and whatever - I do cauliflower, green pepper and chicken - and simmer; done in 15 minutes and serve over rice

Boboli pizza - use tomato jarred sauce and whatever toppings
OR jarred pesto sauce with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella
OR jarred peanut sauce with cooked chicken, red peppers and cilantro

fish - on fillets spread one of the following -
1)whole grain mustard, even better topped w/chopped fresh dill
2)pesto sauce
OR marinate in teriyaki sauce & ginger for 15-30 minutes
OR sprinkle w/cajun spice mix (available in stores)
broil or bake 'til fish flakes and serve w/rice and veggies

When I have more time, I usually make something that takes awhile but I almost always make so much that we have it for 2 or 3 nights.

Also, theres alot of great marinades and stir-fry sauces on the market nowadays. Stirfries are one of those meals which are also really easy - you can purchase shredded carrots, chopped broccolli, etc. and a can of chinese mixed vegetables and stir fry w/meat/shellfish of your choice and use the purchased stirfry sauces. Quick and easy and I ALWAYS make more than one nights worth.

Hope this helps.

Jennifer

Mom to:
Christopher 12/29/89
Adelaide 8/23/04
And another DD arriving end of October!

[bunnisa]

The very best suggestion I can make is to check out a recipe website. My personal favorite is www.Recipezaar.com. They have zillions of recipes, usually with photos and reviews.

There's a community forum where you can ask any question you might have, and everyone is extremely nice and anxious to help out. In fact, I recommend you post your exact question over there!

Also be sure and check out the "Kitchen Dictionary" - that's where you can read about Arugula and how to Poach or Fold! :) http://www.recipezaar.com/library/all.zsp

A word of advice: start very simple so you aren't overwhelmed. It will get easier as time goes by, and you don't want to get frustrated from the get-go.

2 other sites I like: www.epicurous.com and www.allrecipes.com

Here's a great recipe to start you off. It's VERY VERY easy, very cheap, and tastes delicious!

Penne with Tomato Herb Cream Sauce
http://www.recipezaar.com/64635

Bethany
mom to one and one on the way!
http://lilypie.com/days/060226/0/8/1/-6/.png
"And children are always a good thing, devoutly to be wished for and fiercely to be fought for."
-J. Torres

[ethansmom]

To learn how to do the "simple" things, I would check out some basic cookbooks. I *think* it's my old classic Betty Crocker book that has pictures of what diced, chopped, and julienned veggies look like, so you know how to cut things for your recipe. It has info on different cuts of meat and has all of the basic info you need to know. It also has directions for basic tasks such as boiling an egg. I would definitely recommend buying an intro cookbook like this so you can always refer to it.

[SpaceGal]

I hate thinking about dinner too. But these days I don't let it stress me out too much. I try to keep things easy and once a week try to make something more yummy which usually means more complicated or time consuming but a good change of pace.

Recently, I was introduced to these Lee Kum Kee sauce packets...they are awesome if you want instant chinese food and it's YUMMY! Quick and easy all you need is to prepare the meats and stirfry and pour int he sauce packets and tada yummy chinese food. Served with a side of rice and veggies and I feel quite happy with myself. You can find them at the local asian market.

http://usa.lkk.com/Common/Consumer/ConsumerCatalog.aspx
It's under Ready Sauces. :)

But outside of our lazy chinese food shortcuts, our most popular dishes are:

Teriyaki Chicken
Marinate chicken in Kikkoman Terriyaki sauce--we like the purple bottle roasted garlic; bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or you can grill it. We eat it with white rice and if I feel really healthy I boil up some veggies. If you don't want the chicken to dry out, leave the skin on and then take it off later. Allows for juicier chicken.

Penne a la Vodka
Brown some italian sausage once all cooked, add a large can of crushed tomatoes (Hunts seems to have the best flavor) you can add some red chili flakes if you like spicy food, then add a pint or two of heavy cream depending on how creamy you like your pink sauce. Simmer for at least 10 minutes, then add vodka. Of course cook up the penne, ziti, rigatoni and serve it up.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo
Prep some shrimp set aside. Boil some water add a bit of white wine and lightly cook the shrimp there. Then in a separate pot simmer a large can of whole tomatoes add a little red chili pepper flakes and a little bit of olive oil for flavor. Then when sauce has simmered for at least 25 minutes throw in cooked shrimp. Make linguine or fettecuine and top with fra diavolo sauce.

Grilled Pork Chops
We make these vietnamese style very easy and we eat this with rice, eggs, cucumbers and tomates. Heatlhy and yummy.

Spaghetti is always an easy thing for us. For our lazy night we eat frozen ravolis, those stuffed chicken with broccoli and cheese, and chimichangas. Sometimes you can try making homemade pizza using Boboli crust and just add tomato sauce and whatever topping you like. Sometimes we grab a rotisserie chicken and I just make mashed potatoes and stuffing and maybe corn for sides and tada instant meal. :)

[MarisaSF]

neither DH nor I claim to know how to cook, but we like to eat!

Two of our favorite salads are super easy, yummy, and filling.

BBQ Chicken salad
-Cook up some chicken breasts (however you like to cook 'em), slice or dice, cool if possible. you can cook 'em plain or put some BBQ sauce on while cooking.
-black beans, pinto beans, corn kernels, diced tomatoes -- mix with chicken pieces
-dressing is a mix of ranch dressing and BBQ sauce. Mix with bean/chicken to taste.
-put some spinach or baby lettuce onto each person's plate
-top with bean/chicken mix
-crush some tortilla chips on top
-put chopped avocado on top if desired

Chinese Chicken salad
-cooked, diced chicken
-fresh baby lettuce
-mandarin oranges
-crispy Chinese noodles
-optional: cashews, water chestnuts
-Mix together
-the dressing I like for this is Soy Vey's Chinese Chicken Salad Marinade

[MarisaSF]

My favorite combos are spinach, tomatoes, and feta.

My easiest fall-back meal:
-pasta of any shape
-cook a bag of spinach in a pan with some olive oil
-add diced tomatoes (can be from a can)
-blend those three things together
-put feta on top
-optional: pine nuts, chicken

Mangia!