Homemade Meals for Busy People

You’re busy.  I understand!  Life gets crazy, doesn’t it?  But I firmly believe that supper at home is possible, even in the midst of busy lives.  All it takes is a little creativity and some good planning.

The recipes I’m sharing are all on my blog, but sometimes when you go looking at a list of recipes it’s hard to know which ones you could make in a hurry, so I thought I’d make a list this week of some of my favorite meals that are quick.

Let’s start with Breakfast.

• The homemade Pop Tarts  (pictured above) can be made with purchased pie dough if you opt out of the homemade dough.
• Baked Oatmeal can be made the night before and baked off in the morning! 
  
• Make a stack of pancakes or waffles on the weekend and freeze them.
• Pre-cook a pound of bacon until it’s half way cooked.  Put it into a freezer bag and put it in the fridge.  When you need it for breakfast it will take half the time necessary.  You could cook it all the way done, too!
• Double a batch of muffins and freeze them .  That way everyone doesn’t get tired of blueberry muffins because you’ve had them for three days in a row. 
• Breakfast burritos can be made ahead of time. These are so good! Scramble eggs.  Add cooked sausage, bacon or ham.  Spread on tortillas.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Wrap tortilla in Saran wrap. Place in fridge.  When needed, heat at 30 second intervals until warm.  Add salsa, if desired.

Lunch:At home:

• Pizza crust in the freezer is a huge help.  Take it out at breakfast so it’ll be ready to bake off.
• English muffins can serve as pizza crusts, too.  spread with pizza sauce, cheese and other toppings.  Broil.
• Grill extra chicken at supper and use the extra for wraps or chicken salad.
• Chicken or veggie Quesadillas

At school or Work:

• Corn Dog Muffins 
• Tortilla filled with veggies and cheese.
• Homemade Lunchables.  Making lunch for children that is appealing is all about doing it creatively and in small portions.  Get a divided lunch container or use cupcake liners.  Put crackers in one, pepperonis or salami slices in another.  Add grapes, blueberries, strawberries or orange segments.  Other “little” items you could add – Grape tomatoes, baby carrots, celery and peanut butter, 
• Freeze crustless sandwiches.  Peanut butter and jelly work great.  Just put peanut butter on both pieces of bread; it’ll keep the jelly from making the bread soggy.

Supper:

• Apricot Orange Chicken
• Taco Salads in baked shells
• Taco Soup
• Chicken Piccata 
• Oven Baked Fajitas
• Easy Chicken Pot Pie

I hope this list helps you the next time you’re in a rush for a meal!     With love from my country kitchen,