Back to school is such a hectic time. I can’t believe it’s right around the corner! There are so many things to consider when you have students of any age heading back to school or campus. Clothes, Supplies, Textbooks, the list goes on and on! We tackled many of those topics on last night’s Back to School on a Budget episode of Frugal Coast2Coast.
But that isn’t all there is to think about when heading back to school. The beginning of the academic year brings big changes to a family’s schedule. The kids have to get up earlier to head out the door for the bus. There are sports practices and games, extracurricular activities, scouts, even PTA meetings start filling up the evenings. Don’t even get me started on the homework and projects. . . . . .
One of the first thing to fall apart when schedules get hectic is family dinner. It can just seem that there is no time.
No time to prepare a hot healthy meal.
No time to eat it.
You rush in the door then right back out again for one of a million things and grabbing that fat laden burger at your local drive through begins to sound like the only option.
It doesn’t have to be.
You all know I am a big advocate of family dinner. Huge. I think that the time a family spends around the table together is extremely important. It’s a time where parents and children can bond. Where they learn, through the parent’s example, social skills and manners. Where families have discussions that are important not only because of the topics discussed, but because they teach children that they can and should talk to their parents and that they will be listened to.
Nestle asked me to participate in their Back to School Basics campaign helping families stay on top of the school year. They want to talk about how food is an important part of the back to school rush. So how can you make dinner happen? How can you get a meal on the table amongst all the chaos?
Of course I have some thoughts to share~you all know me, I’m never at a loss for ideas! Here are my top 4 tips for getting a meal on the table in a hurry:
#1-Use your crockpot.
I love the crockpot. I could sing odes to it. Throw dinner in the crockpot in the morning and it is hot and ready when you get home. You can even toss it together the night before, stick the crock pot liner in the fridge and then pull it out in the morning!
#2-Precook and freeze your meats
Thawing & cooking the meat portion of your meal is the most time intensive part. If you have cooked ground beef or cubed/shredded chicken frozen in meal sized portions you have dozens of quick and easy meals at your fingertips. Check out my article on avoiding the drive thru trap for some specific recipes!
#3-Have a few “Go To” meals
Everyone should have a couple of desperate dinners that they can pull out on a rushed night. Mac ‘n Cheese w/hotdogs. Scrambled eggs. Spaghetti with jarred sauce. Any one of these can be cooked and on the table in a hurry.
#4-Keep frozen meals on hand.
I like to cook from scratch~you all know that. I like not only knowing that I have provided for my family, but also the quality of the food they are eating. But let’s face it~there isn’t always time. There is nothing wrong with falling back on some frozen meals! These days you can buy some very healthy options. With all the traveling & conferences I’ve attended lately I have picked up some Stouffer’s family sized frozen meals. Lasagna, Beef Stroganoff, and Chicken Alfredo are some of our favorite. While these meals are more expensive than cooking and freezing a meal yourself, they are still much cheaper (and more healthy) that your typical grease burger and fries!
So now on to the exciting part~the giveaway!
How would you like a $500 Walmart Gift Card to help cover your back to school expenses, courtesy of Nestle?
Note: I am trying something a little different this time. You will have TWO posts that you can enter on, both this post on making dinner happen and one early next week on lunchbox after school snack ideas.
This giveaway runs from Wed August 5th to midnight EST on Friday August 14th.
To enter: Leave a comment with your best tip or recipe for “Making Dinner Happen” on a busy school night.
Want some additional entries?
Here you go:
-Head on over to Nestle Family and tell me what your favorite recipe/idea is from their “Family Food” section.
-Subscribe to Frugal Upstate via either RSS or Email.
-Tweet about this giveaway linking back to this post.
-Subscribe to the Frugal Coast2Coast joint newsletter/show reminders.
Good luck, and keep an eye out for another opportunity to enter next week!
**This is a Sponsored Post**
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=fe368b05-3b1b-4589-9de5-7815538c62b6)
Our favorite dinner on the run involves making a hotdog circle by taking crescent rolls with the wide triangles making the centre of the circle (points out like a starflower) cutting up hotdogs into 1/2 inch slices within two inches of the thick part of the bread, layering with cheese slices, cowboy beans and then more cheese….we fold the triangles of the crescents over the meat, beans, and cheese, and bake as usual. It takes about 20 minutes, the children love it and its something different.
When we’re in a run for time these can be eaten on the run.
Yesterday was one day when I wasn’t going to make it home before my husband to get dinner ready. I stuck a whole chicken in the crockpot that morning, and I gave him instructions to “pull off the biggest pieces” (the rest will be shredded & frozen for future casseroles). He opened a jar of home-canned green beans & heated those up, and dinner was ready in no time. The crockpot is awesome, when I remember to use it.
I’m an RSS subscriber!
The “Mom’s Special Breakfast” parfait looks great, and I also liked the instructions for the solar oven, though it’s not a recipe, it looks like an interesting project!
I think that the key to making sure you can have a healthy meal together as a family is planning ahead. We make sure to plan our meals out on the weekend and get all the shopping done for it then so we are prepared during the week. It also helps to go ahead and have some “go to” meals that you always have on hand. It can be as simple as tuna for tuna sandwiches or a frozen meal. I have a recipe for a citrus garlic shrimp that can be made pretty quickly with very few ingredients, so if I have frozen shrimp on hand it is a go to meal.
If you plan ahead knowing that you will likely be strapped for time you have options that do not involve drive thrus!
One of my favorite “go to’ meals is chicken with pasta. I pre-cook and freeze boneless skinless chicken breasts. I always keep pasta and Knorr* pasta mixes on hand.
It’s fast, easy and great! I usually serve it with salad. I take salad to school for lunch so I usually have some on hand.
mj.coward[at]gmail.com
I subscribe on RSS.
mj.coward[at]gmail.com
banana nut bread looks good
mj.coward[at]gmail.com
I am already a subscriber…
prepare the majority of food during the weekend to help speed up the process during the weekdays
subscriber
i like the Hippity Hoppity Bunny Lunch recipe idea
I have a quick soup recipe that I throw together on busy nights. It is very easy to make and very filling. We also have pancakes for dinner. It is fun for a switch and a quick meal. I also try to keep a couple frozen lasagnas in the freezer.
I subscribe.
We make homemade pizza a lot on nights when we want something quick. Premade crust, pizza sauce (always have a few can stocked!), cheese and veggies. Yum!
m_huston(at)hotmail(dot)com
I subscribe to your newsletter in my email. Thanks.
The Easy Tropical Chicken sounds really good.
We are trying these pork chops next week! They sound sooo good!
http://www.nestlefamily.com/Food/Allrecipes/Default.aspx?ArticleId=FBAD50AA-C6B6-4918-BA6E-DAD00156F2E1
m_huston(at)hotmail(dot)com
I’m an email subscriber!
m_huston(at)hotmail(dot)com
For my comment on “Making Dinner Happen”, it depends on the week. I frequently make two of something, freezing one for later. I also do the “marathon cooking day” and make 4 or 5 dishes to freeze for later. The best days are when the husband cooks. :o)
Our best tip for busy nights is just to get everyone involved in the process. When the whole family helps with prep, cooking, setting the table .. things just run smoother and more quickly. Plus, we have fun!
I also subscribe via reader. Thanks!
On the Nestle site, I like the “Letters for Lunch” idea!
On the Nestle Family website I liked the Pesto Chicken & Vegetable Kebabs. My daughter loves helping and kebabs are something she could even learn to do by herself. Thank you for offering this giveaway.
We have soccer practices right during our dinner time twice a week. I do crockpot meals on the first night and we have the leftovers on the second night of practice. Since there is one or two days in between we aren’t tired of having the same thing two time in a row. It is what keeps us sane and eating together as a family.
Thank you for this opportunity.
I subscribe via Google Reader.
I am a huge fan of foil packets. If I do fish and vegetables, then I will start the veg. first in their own packet so the fish does not overcook. There are endless ways to season the packets. While that is in the oven, my rice cooker will cook up the rice and I have a great meal in about 45 minutes.
In the Nestle Family Food section there is an article about dinnertime. I find their idea to remove distractions from the table to be the best idea. No toys, no television, no phones, etc. That makes it so much easier to connect as a family.
My best tip is to plan your meals ahead of time. Freeze what you can and then you will just have to reheat and eat. Of course I also love my crockpot!
I am an email subscriber.
I love doing once a month cooking and prep work. I always have cooked ground beef, shredded chicken and meatballs prepared and frozen in meal size portions. I also purchase all my meat at once and do prep work like: slice and season chicken for fajitas and freeze uncooked; slice and season beef for stir fry, pepper steak and shish kabobs! No matter what i’m cooking for dinner, most of the work is already done =)
i am a subscriber
From the Nestle site the Baked Potato Casserole sounds great!
I like the Ortega Fiesta Bake from the Nestle website.
Tweet!
http://twitter.com/simplyandreah/status/3145726739
To make dinner happen you absolutly NEED to plan AHEAD! When I go to plan I try to look at cookbooks to get ideas so i can get as many igredients for a weeks worth of dinner at once. Its easier to make dinner when you already have everything and aren’t running out last minute. We can take the meat if frozen out earlier in the day so it can defrost too
http://twitter.com/dwalline/statuses/3145791372
Have the kids contribute. I have a daughter who loves to cook. She likes to get a night to cook. She is 13. Nothing crazy but it takes the burden off me.
My son also likes to contribute by finding cool recipes. I’ll make them on the weekdays as long as they are easy.
When I was in school last year too, I had my parents help me watch the kids after school some days. On those days, I was still in charge of dinner but used the crock pot a lot!
Lastly, do not stress out. Dinner can be easy, made ahead, last-minute or anything as long as you take the time to be with everybody as many times per week as you can!
Flexibility is key. My kids always have activities to get to (we try to limit them but there are 3 kids) so we sometimes have dinner very early and sometimes late. That way we can be together for dinner. If one can’t be there we make a dinner that is not their favorite. I also make double the amount of dinner and eat it the next night when there is no time to cook.
I already subscribe.
While not exactly super frugal, I like to keep a container of “Spring mix” salad in the fridge. It’s a super easy veggie to serve (salad) and I can add bits of leftover veggies or meat to it. It’s frugal in the sense of getting your daily veggies.
my favorite quick & easy meal is just a glorified “fridge dump” — caramelize some onions, saute your veggies & meat, and add whatever carb is on hand (I’ve used everything from leftover roast potatoes to torn-up pieces of bread); it’s so tasty and great for using up odds and ends from the produce drawer.
I’m also an RSS subscriber!
To make dinner happen, I try to always have some sort of easy option on hand at home, and I like to freeze components of meals as well as whole meals, so we can have variety. I’m not a planner, so I compensate by having plenty of options available in the pantry and fridge/freezer.
I did not have to look far – swirled mint ice cream bars?! Yum. Almost everything looks good, but the corn soup really caught my eye – it’s a little different and I’d like to give it a try.
I am an RSS subscriber
And I just subscribed for show updates/reminders
Chicken ceaser wraps. Precook the chicken (we grill a bunch on the weekend) for quick meals. A bag of salad, pantry dressing, precooked chicken, and store bought/homemade wraps makes for an easy and delicious dinner.
I love the cranberry porkchop recipe from the Nestle site:
4 (about 1 1/2 pounds total) ¾-inch-thick boneless pork loin chops
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, thickly sliced
¾ cup Apple NESTLÉ® JUICY JUICE® All Natural 100% Juice
2 to 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
¾ cup fresh cranberries
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
¾ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or ¼ teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
¼ cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)
I plan ahead alot. When I buy ground beef, I decide what will be burgers, meatball, meatloaf etc.. and patty/roll them before I freeze it. Then in the morning before work, I throw whateveer I am making in the frindge to slowly defrost. There are soo many different things you can do with meatballs. I always have spaghetti sauce and gravy mix on hand. I love swedish meatballs. It’s a great go to meal.