Sunday, January 4, 2009

Fast Food For Busy Families

By Nicole Dean

Families need to eat and the hungry mouths never stop asking "what's for dinner"? We Moms know a pile of recipe cards with meals that you can throw together in minutes is a must-have. Things happen quickly in families today, and you may be called on to put a meal together in a matter of moments. Wouldn't it be great to have a simple plan for quick meals that the whole family can help with?

Dunk It: Lucky for us, kids love dip. Cut some fresh cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, broccoli, celery, and bell peppers and serve them with ranch dressing. Even finicky veggie-haters will eat their veggies with dressing on them.

Sandwich Building 101: Your child will love experimenting with whatever you have on hand to build a sandwich. Use buns, waffles, bagels, English muffins, or dinner rolls to begin with, or anything you have on hand. Now you can start adding peanut butter, fruit, meat slices, vegetables, cheese, hummus, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, or hard boiled eggs, or whatever jumps out of the refrigerator at you. Let your child give it a try and remember, it is a work in progress.

Never Fail Noodles: Every pantry should have an assortment of noodles at the ready. When dinner plans are unsure, noodles will be there to pull off a family-friendly meal in a minute. Start some noodles boiling and search the kitchen for goodies to add. Try adding some leftover vegetables to your hot noodles and topping with cheese. If you have a can of chicken broth you can make a quick soup with noodles and some celery and onion. A skillet dish with some hot, cooked noodles, pasta sauce stirred in, and topped with cottage cheese makes a great mock lasagna.

Bundle Up: Flour or corn tortillas make a great start for creating a meal in moments. Grab your leftover chicken, veggies, beans, or anything you happen to have, heat it up, top it with cheese, and roll it up. You have a fantastic wrap, just like the food court!

Heavenly Spuds: I believe potatoes are a meal almost by themselves. Of course, adding all the toppings make potatoes a fabulous meal in just minutes. You can microwave a potato in about 4 or 5 minutes. Now top your hot potato with anything you like. Try any meat or veggies that you have leftover, put a little shredded cheddar, Monterrey Jack, mozzarella on top and you have a full meal. You may even want to add a little crunch with sunflower seeds or even some chopped peanuts.

Soup Warms the Soul: Fill a pan with broth and veggies. Then, just throw in whatever you have in the house, meat or beans, leftovers, a can of diced tomatoes, noodles or rice, and spices. You just made soup in minutes.

Turn the Day Upside Down: You can have breakfast any time. Cereal, eggs & bacon, waffles, and pancakes are all so much more delicious when they're unexpected. Breakfast is always better at night.

If your meal planning took a turn for the worse today, take note of these quick and easy dinnertime solutions and your table will be ready for your family in the blink of an eye.

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