New mom looking for help meal planning.?

Question

I am going back to work on January 1, and I work shift work. My husband works 8-5 so I would like to be able to plan well enough in advance that he can have an easy to make healthy meal. What are your favorite 30 minute healthy recipes?

Answer 1

This is my strong point.

One-dish meals are the easiest.

Cook up a bunch of basic items ahead of time. Use a rice cooker to cook up a mess of rice (or barley) and then freeze or fridge it. Sautee some veggies (onions, celery, peppers, carrots, etc.) either together or separately and freeze or fridge them. Keep some frozen cut/sliced veggies in the freezer as ingredients (my faves to keep on hand are peas and corn).

Keep some cans of stewed and/or diced tomatoes in the closet. Also some soup like golden mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of broccoli, etc.

Have some pasta on hand, easy and quick to cook.

Have a decent selection of spices on hand and know what they do/what they taste like.

Cook up some scrambled hamburger ahead of time. Cube chicken, beef, or pork, and cook it up ahead of time. Cook up some sliced or crumbled sausage (italian sweet or mild, kielbasa, smoked, etc) and freeze or fridge it.

Get some decent bouillon - I look for the stuff that has the most meat as a source and the least salt - the paste ones are usually better than the cubes or powder. They also make veggie bouillon.

Knorr dehydrated soup mixes make some decent bases for making one-dish meals/soups.

Have some instant mashed potatoes on hand.

I like to keep some shredded cheese hanging around.

Learn how to make gravies and sauces, either flour or corn-starch based.

Cook up whole chickens, beef, or pork and boil the bones after to make stock.

Toast up old bread/rolls for croutons or garlic bread.

If you learn how to combine bits and pieces into 1-dish or more dinners, you'll be all set.

Supper tonight was leftover soup - about 2 cups of water, 1 cup of chopped white cabbage, 2 diced red & yellow peppers, one medium onion diced, a couple of sliced carrots, 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, 1 tbsp of beef bouillon paste, 1/2 cup of red wine, a tbsp or two of light olive oil, and a few miscellaneous spices. This was served with some frozen/reheated spicy-fried chicken chunks and some home-made baked tortilla strips. Soup can be frozen in Tupperware of leftover plastic Chinese takeout container.

Frozen pierogis are easy, as are tortellinis. Pierogis are good with some meat (like some grilled steak bits) or on their own. Tortellinis are good with a little tomato sauce, maybe with some added veggies or Italian sausage.

Cook up some pasta, add some chunked cooked chicken, butter, salt, pepper, and a few peas. Go wild and add a little crumbled cooked bacon or a bit of cheese.

The thing is to try and cook up individual ingredients, or dice/slice/cube them at least. Do this when you have a little time and package them.

I use an extra-light olive oil for most of my sauteeing. It has a very mild flavor and is relatively healthy.

If he can't handle mixing things up and making his own dinners (shame on him!), you go ahead and make up the individual meat, carb, and veggie bits and let him mix and match as his desires strike him. Maybe keep some hot sauce, ketchup, and soy sauce around for him.

An easy chicken thing is to get boneless chicken breasts and cube them into about 1.5" pieces. Dredge them in flour and maybe some salt and pepper. Fry them up in a skillet with about 1/4" of light olive oil or vegetable oil. Stir them around until they are a light golden brown. Don't crowd them in the pan or they'll sit there and ooze water and take a long time to brown. Drain on paper towels. This will create lightly crispy cooked bits of chicken that can be frozen or refrigerated and then later combined with other ingredients (soup, tomato sauce, soy sauce, gravy, whatever).

Another good mixer is little meatballs. Cook up a mess and then freeze them. Use later with soup, sauce, pasta, rice, etc.

If you're a mom with kids competing for your time, the prep time of slicing/dicing/cubing is probably the hardest part - it can take a while. A lot of good ingredients can be bought canned or frozen already cut up into appropriate sizes for cooking/eating. Fresh is often better, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

BTW - I'm a guy, I like to eat, I learned how to cook because I like to eat and I didn't like all the stuff my mom made. I like being self sufficient. I do all the cooking for me and my gal because she likes my cooking and would be eating rice and ramen if I wasn't around. She's mostly a vegetarian, so it pretty easy to cook for her.

Hey good luck, my daughter is in about the same position as you and has the same issues. We talk sometimes about these sort of things.

Answer 2

You know? When I had your delima I cooked on the weekends (whatever I wanted) and put them in oven proof baking dishes. I would take what I wanted for dinner out of the freezer 1 day ahead and put in refridgerator. When my husband got home, he has instructions on exactly what to put into the oven & when. It worked so well for us. You can freeze individual meals or enough for the whole family. And now with the micro wave, well it's easier than ever.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

What has helped me on the busy nights when I don't have time to cook is doubling my recipes on the nights I do have time! I freeze half, then all my husband or I have to do is throw it in the microwave and make a salad.

Answer 5

Here is a BLOG is that is chock full of great recipes. A lot of them are simple or ones you can make ahead. It is http://mysisterskitchen.wordpress.com. Enjoy!