any good ideas for home made meals for a single working mom ?

Question

i work and i only get to cook on my days off.i buy food,or sometimes its tv dinners.but i want to make home made meals for my kids eveyday.anyone knows,some good ,fast recepies?

Answer 1

Buy yourself a crockpot. They are easy to use. Put the food in that you want for dinner before you go to work and when you get home the dinner will be done.

Answer 2

I've got 10 kids so everything was always homemade. A couple of their favorites are:

Hamburger Surprise

1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained
1 can each; corn, peas, green beans, carrots
1 cup rice, cooked
1 big can diced tomatoes with juice

Mix everything together and heat. You can add other vegetables that you like, or take out the ones you don't. We've always added seasoning salt to it once it's on our plates. Have never added any other spices to it. This doubles, triples, freezes very well -- as I have done in many, many times over the years!!

The surprise comes when sometimes I use noodles instead of rice. I used to only use noodles when it was Halloween. But then the kids loved it so much, I had to start making it more often. The noodle version doesn't freeze tho.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brown whatever meat you like (pork chops, cube steaks, etc.) in large skillet. Put 1/4 - 1/2 inch sliced potatoes, cut up carrots, onion slices, celery, cabbage wedges, green beans, and/or zuchinni. Add whatever of these you like or have, then add the meat back to the top of all the veggies. Cover with water, add salt & pepper if you want. Put a lid on it, cook on low to medium heat for about an hour, checking every so often to make sure there is water still covering it. You need to make sure that water is always up to and covering everything. It's done when the meat & veggies are soft and cooked.

Answer 3

A pot of pasta and another pot of tomato sauce with meatballs or sausage in it is always a quick easy meal plus if you make enough it's going to last for the better part of a week and it's nothing to throw some of each onto a plate or bowl and a quick microwaving heats it right up.Another idea is to cook up a large chicken like a "Purdue oven stuffer roaster" along with some stuffing and mixed veggies and leave the uneaten chicken,stuffing and veggies in the refrigerator where your kids can put some of each onto a plate and nuke it hot (taking the uneaten chicken off the bones will make quick pickup meals even easier) and if the chicken gets dry a jar of premade gravy poured over the chicken before it gets nuked will bring back the moistness.The same can be done with any meat or poultry.Another idea is to brown up some ground beef and mix it with some pasta and tomato sauce for a nice American chop suey.Serving fresh bread and butter or margarine is always a good idea with any meal and putting a little garlic powder on the buttered bread and toasting it for a few minutes you get homemade garlic bread.

Answer 4

When I was working 9 hour days and going to school 4 hours a night I got really good at using a crock pot. there are books for using crock pots but yuou can basically make anything in a crock pot and leave it all day and everything is ready when the kids and everyone else gets home. the most common thing that happens is that things dry out. need to make sure the water or juice will last throught the day. if it is going to be goin gall day use low if you only have half a day use high. I don't have one that has medium but I have a few different kinds of crock pots depending on the size of food I am going to make. supereb for beans saok em all night then turn it on low first thing in the morning. beans are different though red beans take forever to make and pintos don't take so long.

Answer 5

Make simple things like grilled cheeze or by larger portions and vary the presentation like cook a large chicken on your days off and have : club sandwichs, chicken salad, minced chicken sandwich , chicken fried rice...

I'm not a cook but the best suggestion I can give you is : get the kids involved... start off by teaching them how to set the table or rinsing the vegetables... cutting the celery (can be done with a butter knife)... My parents insisted when I was a kid, a little tip is conditioning: if the kids is a bit hungry he might whine but he'll help... If you show your kids the basics the'll catch on fast and pretty soon supper will be ready when you get home!!!


Jeffrey

Answer 6

they don't need to be fast that what crock pots are for.
Get a crockpot cookbook or go on line to find recipes. You can put the ingredients ito the pot the night before and in the am before you leave put the crockpot on low and go to work.
There are also some great frozen crockpot meals on the market now. My duaghter is the same as you and when she tried them She started using more during the weekdays. She also tried the frozen Stoffers Chicken fettuccini she went back for more and that can ber done in the microwave. And believe it or not they are very affordable. You can feed your family a meal for easily under $10.00. That Stoffers was under $4.00.

Answer 7

Try making and freezing a bunch of dishes on a Sunday. Then you can have healthy, homemade meals all week without having to make a full meal each night. This works great for lasange, casseroles, and things like that.

Rachel Ray has great recipes for this kind of thing in 30 minute meals.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_tm/0,1976,FOOD_9997,00.html

I'm also a huge fan of my crock pot. You can throw everything together in the morning and when you get back home--dinner's already ready! Its a great evening time saver. Look here for recipe ideas.
http://crockpot.cdkitchen.com/

Answer 8

If you would like to do hands-on cooking more often, you can find some great recipes here that the members who submitted them say are simple and only take 30 minutes to make:

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?categ=89%2C141%2C10%2C299&ls=h


also, Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals" show on the Food Network... here is a list of all shows and recipes from her series:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/episode_archive/0,1904,FOOD_9997_202,00.html

I also just saw she has an online magazing with her 30 minute recipes and some photos as well:

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/30_minute_meals/

there are so many!! Even though on the show she makes the recipes in 30 minutes, it may take a bit longer but you will learn to organize everything to really be able to do it. If you have never seen her show I highly recommend you watch it.



************************************************

If you would like less hands-on cooking I highly recommend you purchase a slow-cooker/crockpot. There are so many different meals you can make with them, and the best thing is the meals cook while you are at work!!

Here are tons of great recipes you can make with it:

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?q=crockpot

right above the first recipe you can choose to view these by highest rated, ones with photos etc...


*******************************************

Now, for the ultimate hands-on cooking but will make your life easy also is to dedicate one week-end a month for OAMC (Once A Month Cooking) You will be doing some marathon cooking but for the rest of the month everything will be a breeze AND it will still be your home-cooking! Plus another great thing is during your marathon cooking, you can also select one crockpot meal to cook at the same time as part of the OAMC.

Here are tons of great recipes for OAMC you can see:

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?q=OAMC

again, right above the first recipe you can choose to see from the highest reated ones to ones that have photos etc...

here is their OAMC category on their forum you can get more info, and read and post questions and answers if you wish:

http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewforum.zsp?f=23

Here are more sites to get more info on it, tips to organizing your self for the "marathon", more recipes etc...

http://www.realfood4realpeople.com/oamc.html

http://busycooks.about.com/od/makeaheadrecipes/a/cookOAMC.htm


:D

Answer 9

Chicken-n-Biscuits

1 tube of biscuits
1 lrg can of chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 c sour cream
1/4 c milk
1-2 c shredded cheddar cheese
(you can alter measurements for desired thickness)

stir everything except the biscuits into a 9x13 baking dish, place biscuits on top (whole or you can cut them into quarters) and bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes (until biscuits are done)

Answer 10

Crock pot is a fabulous idea for you! If that's not your style or are tired of one pot wonders try something simple like browning up any type of boneless/skinless chicken in olive oil and seasonings...throw in some bell pepper and onion or just the onion. Serve with either rice, pasta, couscous, or buttered bread. Its also good to add something green like broccoli etc. Its cheap...its easy...and its homemade.