5 o'clock is Staring You in the Face, Quick Meal Ideas

By

Maryeileen

Grilled cheese and soup or french fries.

By

Tapestry Lady

Any spare lunch meat you have can be a quick way to dress up a pasta or rice dish and make it into a meal. It saves the extra step of cooking up some meat.

Apart from pasta and rice, the most important staples for me are canned tomatoes, new potatoes, and cream of mushroom soup. A can of tomatoes cooked up with some herbs and spices makes an inexpensive sauce that's ready in minutes. Canned new potatoes are versatile and nothing makes a better meal on a cold day than fried potatoes with onions and ham. Cream of mushroom soup can be a quick gravy or pasta sauce, or just plain soup! Along with a selection of frozen vegetables if I have these things on hand I can always whip up a quick meal.

By

Patty Lynn

Another one of my favorite "quick" meal ideas is using the crock pot. When you get up in the morning, toss your ingredients in the crock pot, then when you get home in the evening, dinner will be waiting for you. Or if you don't have time in the morning, you could get the crock pot ready the night before, and put the crock part of the crock pot in the fridge. Then in the morning, just take it out, put it back in the crock pot, and plug it in. You can find many quick and easy crock pot recipes on the internet.

By

Patty Lynn

I keep a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables in the freezer for occasions like this. Cut some pork or chicken into small pieces so they cook up quickly in a little oil. Better yet, save your leftover meat and keep it in a container in the freezer for when you need a quick meal. Then I mix in some chicken broth and soy sauce and throw in the frozen veggies and cook for a few minutes more. Serve over rice, which takes less than 10 minutes to cook. It's quick, easy, healthy and it tastes good, but the best part is there is very little to clean up.