Favorite quick meals for sports nights?

[3_opihi]

My boys have baseball from 4-6 three nights a week. I am a single mom, so time is a crunch for me anyway and I am having the worst time with meal preps. My son gets out of school at 3:00, in another town so I pretty much have to leave my house at 2:30 and drive straight to b-ball practice. We usually get home at 6:30 and they are starving. I always have a snack for them, but there is just no time for meal prep and I hate eating out.

What are your suggestions for *super duper* fast and easy? Besides spaghetti. I need like, under 15 minute meal suggestions.
I can sometimes get it together enough to get the crock pot going. Like today, we have bean soup in the pot and I am very proud of myself!!

[annethcz]

Favorites at our house on busy nights:

sandwiches (or soup & sandwiches)
hot dogs (yeah, I know, but we buy the better nitrate-free ones)
tacos (I prepare the filling ahead of time & heat it up quickly)
sloppy joes (again, prepared ahead of time and heated up)
scrambled eggs and fruit
crock pot meals

If at all possible, I feed the kids before their evening activities. For example, on dance nights I feed the kids their 'dinner' at 4pm. If they're hungry when we get home at 6:45-7pm I give them some fruit, cheese, nuts, or other healthy-ish snack.

If I was in your position, I'd probably pack a dinner for the kids to eat in the car on the way to practice (my standard is sandwich, fruit, carrots, crackers and nuts)

[wife&mommy]

Yummy Pasta Salad

SUBMITTED BY: Anne – allrecipes.com


"This recipe uses salad dressing to add flare to an ordinary pasta salad. It's great hot or cold and makes wonderful leftovers... if you manage to have any!"

Original recipe yield:
4 servings

PREP TIME 10 Min
COOK TIME 20 Min
READY IN 30 Min
US METRIC

SERVINGS About scaling and conversions

INGREDIENTS
1 pound rotini pasta
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
1/4 cup Ranch-style salad dressing
1 (16 ounce) bottle Italian-style salad dressing
1 (4.25 ounce) can black olives, sliced
DIRECTIONS
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add rotini pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
In a skillet over medium heat, place the cubed chicken and dab with ranch dressing. Pour enough Italian dressing into the skillet to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook the chicken until it is nice and brown.
Mix together pasta, chicken, black olives and Italian dressing (to taste). Serve hot or cold.

ETA - FORGOT to say that we use organic dressings for this so it doesn't have all the transfats but you could make your own, too.

[wife&mommy]

Cobb Sandwiches

English Muffins (1 per person)
Avocado, sliced
Tomato, sliced
Cheese, sliced (your choice, but I prefer provolone or fresh mozzarella)
Ranch style dressing, enough to smear on both sides of each muffin
Green onions, chopped small, 2 tsp per sandwich
Turkey or Chicken Breast, sliced, 2 slices per sandwich

Toast English muffins. Smear both sides of the muffin with ranch dressing. On the bottom half place the green onions, cheese, meat, tomato, and finally avocado. Slice in half and enjoy!

[wife&mommy]

Ham and Pineapple Couscous Salad
SUBMITTED BY: Julie Stutzman - All Recipes.com

Original recipe yield: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS
1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup couscous
4 ounces cooked ham, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks, juice reserved
1/2 small red onion, sliced
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Dijon-style prepared mustard
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
In a large saucepan, bring water, butter and garlic powder to a boil. Turn off heat and stir in couscous. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and let cool.
In a large bowl, mix together couscous, ham, pineapple, onion and drained peas
In a small bowl whisk together 1/4 cup reserved pineapple juice, lemon juice, Dijon-style mustard and vegetable oil. Pour dressing over the salad and stir to coat. Salt and pepper to taste.

NUTRITION INFORMATION
Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 377
Total Fat: 14.6g
Cholesterol: 30mg
Sodium: 497mg
Total Carbs: 48.7g
Dietary Fiber: 4.6g
Protein: 12.8g

[wife&mommy]

Quick Lemon Pasta With Chicken
•8 oz. linguini, cooked according to package directions
•3 tbsp. unmelted butter
•1 tbsp lemon juice
•1 1/2 tsp dried basil
•1/2 tsp garlic powder
•1/2 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
•1 lb. cooked, cubed chicken (from freezer)
•1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Cook pasta according to package directions. In a separate saucepan, combine next 5 ingredients and simmer until butter is melted. Add cooked chicken and stir until coated and chicken has been reheated. Add drained pasta and toss to coat. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

from menus4moms.com

[wife&mommy]

OK I posted some recipes, but here are suggestions:

But rotissere chicken (or make them) and shred the chicken meat from them. Freeze in portion sizes and then when a dish calles for chicken you have it already made and just need to heat it up. Do the same with ground beef. I buy a ton of it on sale and cook it all at once with onions, you can even do this in the crockpot. Then freeze in approx 1 pound batches. I also have a bunch of recipes for "dump chicken" that uses chicken and a bunch of different kind of marinades. Then you freeze them and take them out on the day you wan tto eat them and bake, very simple. I usually serve them with rice and a green veggie. Speaking of rice you can make big batches of that and freeze as well.

Other quick meal ideas:
-pancakes
-fried rice
-red beans & rice (use a mix) with keilbasa sausage
-ravioli lasagna (layer ravioli with ricotta, etc. and baked really quick or you can do it in the crockpot)
-tortellini
-quesadillas, just toss some of that frozen chicken in there with cheese and top with sour cream. if you get ambitious you could make some guacamole too
-tacos
-soups in the crockpot (black bean, veggie, potato, etc)
-ribs in the crockpot (a pack of ribs and bottle of bbq sauce, low for 6 hours) you can eat with corn, etc. then the next day make them into bbq pork sandwiches
-salads
-french toast

I probably have more but I'm not sure what all you are looking for.

[kate~mom]

eggs or vegetable omelets and bagels are our in-a-pinch dinner.
quesedillas - cheese and veggie are quick if you have a food processor.
we are *sometimes good with making a big soup or a casserole kind of thing on sundays and having leftovers on those crazy nights.

[flminivanmama]

I do a lot of meal prep on Saturday so things come together more quickly at dinnertime during the week.

[CathToria]

If we have to eat dinner on teh go, I switch our lunch and dinner meals, and have sandwiches for dinner (and stir fry or pasta/veggies for lunch)

Sometimes, I iwll get dinner almost ready at 2. I will fill pots with water at 2, turn on burners when I walk in the door and add veggies once boiling. I usually serve leftover meat, like leftover rotisserie chciken, on those nights

[Starr]

Fajitas are good. Here you can buy pre cut peppers and onions to save time. Cook some chicken, sautee the peppers and onions and roll up in a fajita. Also can add sour cream, black olives, cheese...

Soup and sandwiches. When you make soup, make extra and freeze. Then before you leave throw it in the crockpot so when you get home you just need to make sandwiches.

Look for crockpot recipes.