Quick Dinner Ideas - Rochester,MI

my latest discovery is wontons. Seriously. Get wonton wrappers and get creative. 2 wonton wrappers catty corner layered in a muffin pan. make a little shell by pushing down. Now get creative and fill it. Taco meat, refried beans, salsa, top with cheddar cheese. BAke at 350 for about 10-15 minutes. Or do it pizza themed or lasagna themed, or breakfast, or chicken with a cream sauce, hotdogs and chili and cheese. Whatever.

My favorite quick meal is chicken tenders, dice and cook fast in olive oil, add spices to taste as you are cooking, then take 2-3 packages of the steamable mixed veggies and mixed rice/veggies. Steam them in the microwave while the chicken is cooking. Add those veggies when they are mostly hot. Stir fry with any thing you like, soy sauce, or without if the family each has their own condiments they like. It's very fast and very good. I just made a pan of this stir fry and it fed 10 of us for 9 dollars.

If you take this exact same formula and add a couple cans of chicken broth, you have soup.

Take this same thing and bake it with a can of mushroom soup and grated cheese on top and you have a cassarole.

Something fast?

Cook linguini or rotini pasta. Cook chicken breasts in a skillet. As the chicken breasts are done take the breasts out and put in a can of cream of chicken soup with 1/2 can of milk and some sliced fresh mushrooms and diced green onions, garlic granules or fresh diced garlic, and some sliced carrot chunks until the soup boils. Cut the chicken breasts in 3/4" size chunks. Add a 16 oz jar of alfredo sauce. Put the chicken chunks in the pan with the soup. Add the pasta and stir and serve. Total time from thawed chicken breasts in the skillet to serving is about 20 minutes.

I used chicken and cream of chicke soup in the above recipe, but you can use pork and cream of mushroom soup, beef and cream of mushroom soup, hamburger and cream of muchroom soup or shrimp and two jars of alfredo sauce instead of the one jar and one can of soup. You are only limited by your imagination.

Good luck to you and yours.

Tacos

Fajitas

Brats/Hot dogs + salad (we like the cheddarwurst)

Stroganoff

Tortilla Soup- Boil Chicken in chicken broth & dice tomato, avocado, cilantro, onion, jalapeno, & some cotija/cojita cheese + fried tortillas

Munchies *Salami, Cheese, crackers, olives & apples

BLTEAO's Bacon, lettuce, tomato, Egg (fried over medium), avocado, + onion sammies-Yum!

Chef Salad

Taco Salad

Veggie Pizza-Premade pizza crust, cream cheese, + top w/shredded cheese & veggies (we use cucumbers, tomato, red onion, olives & carrots) No Bake!

Cream Cheese & Roast Beef Bagels + chips or other side like pasta?

That's my list of quick meals!

I would get a Rotessori (sp?) Chicken and and you can make some mashed or baked potatoes in a matter of minutes. Add salad and garlic bread and you have dinner. Simple and easy and you can make chicken sandwiches for lunch tomorrow with the left over chicken.

I like the rotisserie chicken idea. Another thing I often do is pick up a package of tortellini (Del Jorno is good). Yes it's pasta, but it's stuffed, and you could use alfredo sauce if you're tired of spaghetti sauce.

You could do a quick stir fry - chicken, frozen veggies, little bit of soy sauce. Make some rice on the side.

I'm getting hungry!

Good thing we don't watch the superbowl, we went shopping instead, ha ha. Anyway, since you have to go to the store and then make dinner I would just pick up a rotissierre chicken from the deli. You can microwave some potatoes and serve with salad. I think that would be your fastest bet. Either that or grab some keilbasa sausage (since it's already cooked) and cook it with onion, bellpepper and a little barbeque sauce.

you can have comfort food pretty quick believe it or not!
baked chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy:
put boneless skinless chicken breasts in a greased small baking dish (usually the smaller rectangular pan) sprinkle with pepper and thyme. take 1 can of cream of chicken soup, mix with some more pepper and thyme and 1/4 cup of water...pour over the chicken. cover and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes (sorry...i know its not 20...but its still so good and easy) make mashed potatoes and a quick veggie.

taco's are super quick and easy. and a side of spanish rice (Lipton rice and sauce is good)

French dips and french fries
just get some roast beef from the deli, and a pkg of au jus, some french rolls and some frozen french fries. throw the fries in the oven, make the au jus, toast the buns, and heat up the meat in a fryin pan with a little au jus.

Chili dogs? hot dogs, buns hormel chili (no beans) cheese, onions mustard. that ones only about 5 minutes prep! LOL

Brocolli Cheese soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. mince some sweet onions and cook them in about 1/2 stick of butter until tender....add one can of cream of potato soup and one can of cheddar cheese soup and about a cup 1/2 of milk (to your consistency) add some salt and pepper. throw in a bag of Birdsye frozen baby brocolli florets (no yucky stems) its ready when its heated through. make grilled cheese or grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. heck...you could even throw diced chicken in the soup for your meat?

I think those are my "go to" FAST recipes!

Pick up one of the baked chickens in the deli. Add potatoes or rice with some green beans, peas or broccoli.

last night I made chicken Kiev, fairly simple.

Quick pan brown chicken cutlets, remove, add cream of chicken soup, broth, put chicken in the mixture and simmer until done, serve with noodles.

I make home made marinara sauce and keep at least 1 qt in the fridge. I also make and freeze stuffed cheese shells and keep custom hot Italian sausages from my butcher in the freezer.

city chicken... pork loin on skewers pan fried and serve with veggies

just pork loin pan fried with veggies. I soak mine pork in buttermilk then I coat it in flour to cook.

I am looking for some new ideas! Good post!

Tostadas, premade shells, a can of refried beans, shredded lettuce and shredded cheese and some salsa. This is my super fast go to meal when I only have a few minutes (its basically no cook, just heat up the beans in the micro) and everyone in the family loves it and its cheap to boot! =)

Here are some of my favorite easy recipes! I love the beef and broccoli. http://www.happyhealthymom.com/index.php

You can get the perdue chicken shortcuts. (the already cooked pieces) We make wraps with those. We add all kinds of things, lettuce, tomato, ranch dressing, bacon....whatever you like.

Do you have a local deli that does hot roast beef? We have one that gives you free aus ju with every lb of beef. We have hot roast beef sandwiches monthly :)

I just read a neat brat recipe last night. You put a diposable pan of beer on the grill. On the other side of grill, grill onions and put in pan. Then grill brats and put in pan for 15 min. You can serve as is or put brats in tin foil, add spicy mustard to pan and reduce 5 min. Put in nice roll and pour over sauce. I cant wait to try this one!

Soup and grilled cheese is easy too. A quick version is a couple large cans of chicken broth, i add chopped escarole and cheese tortellini. (you can use any kind of tortellini) My easy grilled cheese is one big italian bread. I make it on a pancake pan. Then cut slices when it is done. So much easier then making everyone their own.

Hope i helped a little :)

Tuna fish on toast - 1 can tuna, 1 can cream of mushroom, milk added to thin it out a bit.. spread on toast, our kids LOVE it.

Open face sandwiches - Bread, tomato, cheese, garlic salt/powder

We use frozen veggies and pop enough in the microwave to serve for the night and put the rest back in the freezer..

My quick meal that looks like it took effort is chicken seasoned and cooked on the stove, a box of rice a roni, and a veggie.

One of my stand by's is to get one of the rotisserie chickens from the store along with lettuce, tortillas, ranch dressing, tomatoes. Make your own chicken wraps. Ready in a few minutes because all you have to do is pull chicken off the bird, chop a tomato, wash some lettuce and you are ready to go.

Omelots or scrambled egg skillets

French toast

Quesadillas

Tacos or taco salad

Get a pre-cooked, sliced ham. Put it in a crockpot with a little water. While it is heating cut veggies for a fresh green salad, and bake potatoes in the microwave.

Get a roasted chicken or duck. Get some easy minute rice or a noodle side. Get a prebagged salad and add some veg. Feeling like cooking? Make some cornbread. In fact, make a double batch and then use it for another meal or breakfast. You could also do cresent rolls quickly. Leftover meat can be mixed with mayo and used as sandwich filling.

We like stir frys and fajitas for quick meals. McCormick makes packets with premeasured spices and a recipe. It tells you exactly what to buy and how to make. I've never used one I didn't like. We use whole wheat tortillas.

Tacos are quick, too. Or nachos with all the fixings (basically a dismantled taco).

You said you're done with spaghetti, but what about other pastas? There are refrigerated packets in nearly every supermarket. You could get all manner of ravioli and filled shells that cook up in 10 minutes. Warm some pesto or Alfredo (sold in the same spot), add garlic bread and salad - dinner.

Or get some rolls and some pulled pork and add some sides from the deli or other veg (steamed broccoli, corn, mashed potatoes).

Another thing we like to do is get a hunk of meat, some veg (like carrots, corn, potato and onion) and make a crock pot meal. Add to some nice bread to sop up the juice....mmmm.