We keep having unexpected things cropping up and need to fix dinner on the fly. This isn't working out so great, lol! What things do you keep on hand for a quick grab and go meals? Or even meals that aren't for on the run, but can be prepared quickly.

Hi. I hear you - I work until 7:00 pm, so I ain't cooking when I get home! I have two main strategies. One is to do as much prep as I can on Sundays when I'm off work (and electricity is cheaper ). I'll cut veggies, maybe make a quick fritatta, cook up some hard-cooked eggs, cook some bacon, or cook up a big piece of meat in the crockpot. Different quick meals can be made from that all week.

Second, I make good use of my freezer and pantry.
- I keep aforementioned chopped veggies in the freezer. I could whip up chili or soup pretty quickly with a tube of frozen ground beef, veggies, spices and a can of tomatoes.
- Every time I make soup or chili, I make enough to go back in that freezer in containers for two (it's just the two of us here.)
- Salads are a nice quick option. I often pick up cole slaw mix because it lasts in the fridge for quite a while, and you can do different things with it. You can make any kind of salad out of it; you don't have to stick to cole slaw dressing. Throw some tuna, cooked egg, or whatever cooked meat on top, and there's your salad. You could also sautee it. Google "crackslaw". Lots of different ways to do that, too.
- Keep smoked sausages on hand, and maybe burger patties in the freezer. Whip out the George Foreman grill for a quick meal. I like doing a few sausages and sliced red bell peppers on the side, all on the grill.

Those are my stand-bys.

(ETA) I keep myself organized by doing a daily 'quick scan' of the fridge and making notes on a white board if there's a food that needs to be used up or put in the freezer, or thrown out, but I try to avoid that. I throw out very little.

I can't eat any packaged food so we do frittata or ham and eggs for these kinds of meals. If there is a little more time I make butter chicken which is pretty quick.

I do the same thing as Kristine, use my freezer and cook my food on the weekends. But for a very different reason, I have a lot of food related issues, so the less I touch, prep or cook food, the less likely I am to overeat or eat the wrong things!

I portion out everything I cook into plastic containers to freeze. In the morning, before work, I pop a frozen container into my friggie and it's thawed and ready to eat or heat up when I get home.

I love canned tuna or chicken for a quick meal and I'm the biggest fan of "bag 'o" salads ~ I'm into Romaine lettuce these days with a homemade Garlic Dijon Vinaigrette dressing.

Salads: Pre-washed bags of greens, olives, pre-chopped green onion, feta cheese, canned tuna, roasted pecans.

I don't cook every day. I usually cook in batches and eat the same thing for a few days in a row.

1. I second Krostine's suggestion for "crackslaw." We always have a bag of coleslaw or rainbow slaw in freezer, plus a bag of shrimp. You just toss it in a skillet with sesame oil, soy sauce, unseasoned rice vinegar, a little garlic, a little splenda and a little crushed red pepper. Voila! A great chinese stirfry in 10-15 minutes
There are LOADS of variations on this if you google it.

2. In an emergency, i will buy a rotisserie chicken and a bag of salad greens. Throw on some dressing, cheese, roasted bell peppers in a jar, etc.....easy, easy.
rotisserie chickens are often sold cheaper than a whole raw chicken, as it entices customers to buy more, because the scent makes them hungry.

3. grab and go quiche in a muffin pan- these freeze well, and are easy to reheat. if at home, you can toss a side salad on, or some frozen sausages!

4. eggs! eggs! eggs! scrambles take under 10 minutes including chopping the veggies.

5. i always have a thing of hardboiled/ steamed eggs in fridge. if i am starving, they are a perfect snack. also, they can be throw over a salad for a quick meal.

6. frozen veggies can be really handy (and cheap!). it takes no time at all to heat them, while cooking some chicken on the stove.

7. italian dinner sausages cook up quickly- pair with onions and bell peppers, which you can even buy pre-cut, or just prep them on weekend.

8. for actual on the go, i would grab hard boiled eggs, cooked chicken breasts, a block of cheese, raw veggies and dip in a container.....nuts and jerky are also handy travel snacks.
don't forget utensils! we have a show box with everything we could need- napkins, cutlery, salt and pepper packets, some nuts, a couple Quest bars, even a corkscrew
that way, we can't forget anything when we travel
deli meat is also great to grab for the road. i like to roll up slices with cheese- but at home, it is nice to microwave them- reminds me of the grilled turkey and cheeses i loved so much as a kid.

9 soup! i keep the chicken stock that comes in a jar on hand. spoon into water, as it heats, grab chopped celery, carrot, onion (i keep the pre cut stuff on hand for convenience, or make sure to chop on weekend). throw into water as it heats. then toss in shirataki noodles or beaten egg- end up with noodle veg soup or egg drop soup within a couple minutes.

Throw a batch of cut up zucchini, peppers, mushrooms olive oil s&p into a roasting pan and then into the oven ~500 degrees.
Meanwhile cook on the stove a piece of meat like ground beef patty.
Done in 10 minutes...

Crackslaw is good, but I love any quick veggie stir fry. I do chopped up veggies of whatever is on hand in butter or lard or coconut oil, and maybe some sesame oil. Tossed in sliced almonds, chopped bits of meat, toss in some eggs or shredded cheese maybe. Ready in 10 minutes. My go-to meal.

I'm off to make a list, ya'll! This is great! (I apologize for posting in the wrong forum... again!)

I bought a white board for just that reason and need to be more diligent in using it.

No idea why I never think of breakfast for dinner, lol! We keep chickens so there are always eggs on hand.

Thank you, Kristine!

Would you mind posting your recipe for butter chicken?

I love the idea of weekend cooking, but have some health issues that make it challenging to do it all at once. I'm going to have to focus on making double batches of things when I do cook.

Your salad dressing sounds amazing! Would you mind posting the recipe?

It's going to take a while to get us all out of the mentality of meat/potatoes/veggie for dinner every night! I love how easy the salad sounds, and how many millions of variations there must be!

Robin, crackslaw is my favorite! I think we've had it a couple of times a week for the past couple of weeks, lol!

Have you found any issues when you eat the rotisserie chicken? I've always wondered what they use to season it and was afraid of the sugar content, but we'll give it a go. It's a nice, on the run kind of thing.

Love the idea of keeping a box of stuff in the car like that!

Thanks!

You have chickens...Lucky You!!!!
Do you feed them the veggie trimmings, they love that!

You should make some quiche for dinner.
My DH had made a batch of taco meat all seasoned and put the leftovers in the refrigerator so I didn't want to let it go to waste so I used it for a quiche and that was the best taco quiche ever!! Cumin is the spice that gives it the taco flavor.