There are so many recipes flying around these days for "30-minute meals". We busy, working parents are supposed to get all motivated because we cannot really say that we cannot spare a measly 30 minutes to cook a lovely, nutritious meal, can we? So our problems are solved, right?
I think not.
I, for one, cannot spare 30 consecutive minutes after work. What with the nursing baby and the spelling words and everyone's need to reconnect and all, you know. Thirty minutes - sure. One after the other? No way. So these 30-minute meals take about an hour and a half to prepare if it is a usual run-of-the-mill day with no out of the ordinary interruptions. I guess what I need are 10-minute meals in order to really be finished in thirty minutes. Maybe 5-minute meals to be on the safe side.
Well, you chef types? Let's hear it...
6 comments:
I actually totally agree with you on the "30 minute" meal thing with two kids. I can do a quickie hot meal if Doug takes the girls away. I mean AWAY.
My 5 minute meals are sandwiches (spreads made in advance or bought)...pasta with homemade sauce (or not homemade---gasp!!)...soup! soup is good w/ homemade bread from the weekend. Oh, and my rice cooker is one of my kitchen bosom buddies.
I also have to admit to having cheese, fruit, and bread for some dinners.
I will think on this topic some more for you!
Sophia is the one who eats everything though. Fiona is in a picky phase again. Sigh.
I think I can also admit here that I have fed the girls blueberries for dinner. They really really like blueberries. Yes, just blueberries. Doug and I had grilled cheese sandwiches and carrot sticks.
I'm glad it's not just me!
Cheese, fruit and bread is a pretty common dinner at our house..that sort of thing, as in putting together an uncooked assembly of fairly nutritious food.
I eagerly look forward to your additional thoughts. Grilled cheese...mmmm....
My favorite fast meals are angel hair pasta or fried egg augmented with salad or raw vegetables. I recently discovered that a tub of supermarket ranch dip (full of saturated fat) greatly increases the number of vegetables my children eat. I'm hoping it's a fair trade off.
I have to once again state that I am completely DOMESTICALLY DISABLED and I need all the help I can get. Can we put together at 10 minute meal menu, PUH-LEASE!
Those are good meals, Eileen Flanagan. I say it's a good trade off if your kids are a healthy weight. I'd do it, but mine are not so easily encouraged. Even dipping the veggies in chocolate wouldn't help.
maybe dipping the veggies in chocolate would help fiona...
i know the saturated fat dip you speak of (or similar anyway), eileen and i don't know what it is about that stuff, but it works. forget my lovingly prepared peanut sauce or tahini or yogurt dip...she really likes that. and i have tried many dips! i think it's worth it, lol. it still doesn't work with celery but we can live without celery...
if i ate more eggs, we'd have omlettes or frittatas or even egg burritos! when fiona was on an egg kick, we did do that, actually. those are very quick and you can sneak all sorts of shredded veggies in. i still do that(sneak veggies in) when i can and i'm going to admit here i just started buying those bags of shredded carrots. i love those!
i also love fried rice but she isn't eating that right now.
tonight is homemade mac and cheese but that is not a 10 minute dinner. actually, though, you could make that (like when? weekend? after kids' bedtime?), stick it in the casserole dish, put it in the fridge... then when you get home at night just stick it in the oven. it takes a while to cook (it's cold after all) but all you have to do is steam some veggies or whatever.
i'm going to get out my fondue pot and see if that is fast and fun enough that we can have a greater variety of food eaten by the 3 year old pasta creature.
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