Something quick and easy for dinner?

Invest in a slow-cooker, fairly small. Maybe 3 or 3.5 quarts at most. You can put plenty of meals into a slow cooker in the morning (stew, boneless chicken dishes, chili, meatballs, pork or beef roasts, bbq pork, etc) and set a timer, and the food will be warm and ready for you when you get home. A lot of slow cooker recipes are very simple, and do not require a lot of ingredients. Also, you can freeze large batches of chili, lasagna, etc, and defrost portions in the fridge the night before and reheat in an oven or microwave in order to have dinner ready within minutes after getting home. Spend your Sunday cooking several meals (boil lots of chicken and then shred it to use in chicken salad or chicken enchiladas or quesadillas or burritos or casseroles that you can put together the night before you plan to bake them). Casseroles are easy to put together and then throw in the oven and forget about for a half hour. Use frozen or canned veggies (I prefer frozen) to complement such meals, or prepackaged salads (or use salads/raw veggies that you prepared yourself ahead of time and stored in tupperware). Invest in a rice pot in order to make easy to prepare carb side dishes (you literally pour in one part rice and one part water, turn the thing on and it is done within twenty minutes..and stays warm while you wait) or use Stove Top and other prepackaged carb sides (mashed potatoes or noodles). Or just heat up a loaf of frozen garlic bread. Search on google for easy slow cooker recipes and casserole recipes.

There are soooo many ideas out there! You can cook ahead like roasting a couple of chickens in the oven. Serving sliced breast and mashed potatoes and a salad the first night, making chicken enchilades (easy breezy) the second night, chicken tacos or chicken and dumplings the third, save the broth from the roasted chicken and put in freezer for when you make a simple chicken noodle or vegetable soup.

You can do similar things with a big roast. First night, roast,

2nd, french dip sandwiches,3rd a beef and noodle casserole, 4th beef and broccoli stir fry...

Get the idea? Just think big and re create leftovers into something new!

I made this the other night and it was so quick, easy and tasty.

Put thin, boneless pork chops (or b/s chicken breasts) in the bottom of a casserole and season as desired. Pour frozen veggies on top (I used a mix of broccoli, peppers, snow peas, etc) or broccoli, whatever veggie you want. Top that with MOST of a package of Stove Top stuffing saving a couple of tablespoons. Mix your favorite cream soup (mushroom or broccoli or celery...) with about half a can of milk or water and pour over the stuffing and veggies. Sprinkle the rest of the stuffing (mixed with a little melted butter to make a crumble) on top. If you want, add a little cheese. Cook at 375-400 for about 1/2 hour or until meat is done.

Rachel Ray's meatloaf muffins are delicious!! It's possible some of these ingredients could be considered fancy so i'm not sure if this will help.. but make it sometime [= Oh and the recipe may seem long and hard by looking at it, but once you read through it a few times it's quite simple. I've made them plenty of times.. it's easy! :D (from the show 30-minute meals) 1 2/3 to 1 3/4 pounds ground sirloin 1 medium onion, cut into chunks 2 ribs celery from the heart of the stalk, cut into 2-inch pieces 1 green bell pepper 1 large egg plus a splash of milk, beaten 1 cup plain bread crumbs 2 tablespoons grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick) 1 cup smoky barbecue sauce 1/2 cup tomato salsa 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce Vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil Micro-way-cool Bacon and Green Beans, recipe follows Smashed potatoes and cream cheese, recipe follows Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Put ground beef into a big bowl. Put onion and celery into a food processor. Cut the bell pepper in half, rip out the seeds and throw them into your garbage bowl. Cut the pepper into a few pieces and add to the food processor. Pulse the processor blades to finely chop the vegetables into very small pieces then add them to the meat bowl. Add egg, beaten with milk, bread crumbs and grill seasoning to the bowl. Next, mix together the smoky barbecue sauce, the salsa and the Worcestershire sauce. Pour half the sauce mixture into the bowl with the meatloaf mix. Mix the meatloaf together with your hands. Wash up. Brush a 12-muffin tin (1/2-cup each) with vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil. Use an ice cream scoop to help you fill meat into a each tin. Top each meat loaf with a spoonful of extra sauce. Bake about 20 minutes. Cut open 1 muffin to test that the middle is cooked through. Or maybe try

Boneless skinless chicken sprinkled with(McCormick grillmates Roasted Garlic and Herb) if you don't have or can't find use some garlic powder, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning Place in deep oven safe dish and broil Put tabs of butter on top of chicken to keep it from drying out turn as it browns keep in till cooked through. Make some instant rice and a veggie and your good

One of my quick ideas is to bake the meat. Take steak or chicken breasts and season with your favorite seasonings. I like to use lemon pepper. Usually I turn the oven on about 375 and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the meat. I use frozen vegetables that I can cook on top of the stove as the meat cooks. For a starch you can cook noodles or rice, try to stick to whole grains as much as you can.

Put the raw chicken tenders in a baking dish with a can of creme of chicken soup. Cover with aluminum foil and cook 35 minutes. Then pour over rice to serve. garnish with parsley for presentation.

Think about using a crock pot. You can get everything chopped the night before, throw it all in the crock pot in the morning ( takes about three minutes), and let it do its thing on low all day. You come home and can put your feet up !! There are several recipes on line for crockpots. That little invention has saved many a working woman.

Pasta Carbonara is a great and fast recipe .

While You cook the pasta You make a plain white sauce based on a white roux .

Chop up some bacon and bake them .

Season the sauce with salt and pepper and mix it with parmezan cheese .

Once your pasta is 'al dente' You put it in a bowl , cover it with the sauce and baked bacon . To finish everything of you mix the lot with one egg yog . Buon appetito

Best website ever, www.kraftfoods.com recipies that are SUPER Simple, they give you PICTURES, plus nutritional facts, and you can make most of them in like 20-30 min tops.