Quick, Healthy Dinners

Do you have a slow cooker or crock pot? I use this a lot because I don't fill like cooking some times when I've been working all day long.

I'd do the crockpot during baseball season. I like throwing a whole tritip in the pot and pouring a bottle of your favorite salsa in with it. Set it and forget it. When you get home you just shred it and throw it on flour tortillas. Men and boys always love burritos.... and I've found you can put ANYthing into a tortilla and they will eat it.

I put a whole chicken in the crock pot with 1 cup of broth, cook rice ahead of time, then just quickly steam some veggies when we get home.

Other favorite crockpot recipes: chicken thighs with chopped sweet potatoes and any other veggie you like, add about a 1/2 cup broth.

Chicken breasts, dipped in egg & bread crumbs, sprinkled with mozzarella, topped with jarred spaghetti sauce.

Soups work really well in a crock pot too. Chop up onions, carrots and celery and any other veggie you like, add 4 cups broth, 1-14 oz. can diced tomatoes, 1 - 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning. Add cooked small pasta at the very end. Yummy crock minestrone! Serve with a salad.

I also make casseroles the day before and we eat leftovers (reheated in micro) the day of the game. I layer brown rice, chopped chicken, sour cream and cheese, then bake 30 mins or so at 350. Baked penne is another favorite: combine 3 cups penne (cooked first, of course!), 1/2 lb. ground round (browned), mozzarella, jarred pasta sauce into a 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 for 30 mins or so.

Cook chicken on the weekends then make wraps or burritos or quesadillas during the week. I also make an extra batch of lasagna or even just sauce for pasta that can be cooked on the nights that there is time. I also use the chicken on salads.

Make dinner in a slo-cooker. Beef roast, pork or cut up chicken or turkey and carrots, potatoes, onions,celery, season as you like start in the morning before work and let cook all day. When you get home make gravy and eat.
You can also make a big pot of pasta sauce on the weekend and serve it a couple of times throughout the week. Cook up some pasta and make a salad when you get home.
Sometimes I make an extra large pot of mashed potatoes so I can re-heat in microwave, open a bag of frozen veggies and use pre-made burgers. Dinner usually in 10-15 minutes. I have also found I can make a big salad, enough for 2 nights and serve the next night.

Here's one of my quickest, grab-and-go appetite tamers:

Trader Joe's Rosemary Ham (no nitrites), sliced light Havarti cheese and fresh spinach leaves from our garden...

Cut and wash the spinach leaves, and make a roll-up of one or two slices of ham (or pick your own favorite sliced healthy sandwich meat), a slice of cheese and one or two spinach leaves. Just stack and roll them up, and pin them together for travel with a toothpick. Takes about five minutes to assemble, including gathering the leaves from the garden.

Add in an apple, quartered and cored for dessert.

You've got two protein sources, one vegetable and one fruit, all in just a few minutes. Pop in your favorite travel bag (ziplock or reusable) and go!

make everyone their own chef's salad-you can use ham, chicken, steak-whatever-even taco meat-veggies-everything fresh and fast.

On practice days, we always make stir fry. It takes ten minutes, it's healthy, it's quick! I buy the brown rice that steams in the bag in the microwave. I stir fry pork or chicken, add veggies, stir fry for four minutes, add stir fry sauce, heat through, and done! Serve over the rice! I also serve canned pineapple slices with it, and lean cuisine has egg rolls now that are like 70 calories per serving.

I usually prepare my meals on a Sunday for the week, make pasta sauce (you can serve 2 nights), all you would need to do then is boil the noodles, roast a whole chicken, then you can make wraps, fajitas , lasagna, could last 2 nights.

Rotisserie chicken and cheese quesadilla's. Takes about 5 minutes to make if you shred the chicken up before hand and buy the already grated cheese. You could also buy the Tyson fajita seasoned ready to eat chicken in a bag. Use whole wheat tortilla's and brown them up on a griddle or skillet with a little olive oil spray. Serve with a salad or steamed veggie. There are so many different options for fillings. We also love mozzarella, spinach, tomato, and artichoke quesadilla's. You could also make pita pocket sandwiches with similar fillings or plain old pb&j or banana, chicken salad, caesar chicken, etc. There are thousands of great crock pot dinners to choose from. I love making stroganoff in mine.

2 lbs boneless beef chuck steak cut into 1" cubes-or stew meat that is already cut up
1/4c flour
10oz fresh sliced mushrooms-I like baby bellas
1/2tsp dried thyme
1 can of tomatoes-use rotel if you like spice!
1 packet of onion soup mix
8oz light or fat free sour cream
Toss the meat with flour. Stir in the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT sour cream. Cook covered on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours. Stir in sour cream. Serve over rice or egg noodles. My family LOVES this recipe!

I also would not feel the least bit guilty for occasionally hitting a drive thru for some nuggets and apple slices! Good luck!!

We make home made chicken strips, and freeze them, they heat up quickly in the microwave and then the broiler with a side of steam veggies and brown rice or noodles it is a easy meal. Any thing you can make on the weekends and freeze makes dinner quick to defrost and bake when you get home. Stews or soups or pasta are easy to take on the go in a thermos

We live in the HEAT and I don't like to cook in the summer. We recently discovered tostadas. So easy! Heat a can or 2 of refried beans in the micro, spread on store bought tostada shells, put shredded lettuce and cheese on top with some salsa or hot sauce. We eat them with fruit salad.

At home:
tacos
burritos
spaghetti
On the go:
tuna w/mayo in a tupperware container w/crackers
cut veggies and ranch dressing
crackers and cheese
sandwhiches assembled once at the field

Filled red or green peppers with tuna salad.
Wraps.
empanadas
All are easy and you can take them with you.

Throw some ready made meatballs (I do the Jennie-O turkey ones) in the crockpot with a jar of your favorite sauce, its hot when you get home to make meatball subs with cheese. Add some carrot sticks and you got a meal.
Another easy idea is rotisserie chicken, chop up and put in tortillas with salsa, cheese, tomatoes, whatever you like. Super easy and no cooking required.