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What is your “favorite” last minute meal idea?


Spider-Man
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Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with responsibility and other things. Sometimes I’ve just lost track of time. As such sometimes dinner comes around and I am left flabbergasted at my lack of prep in the kitchen. When this happens I have a couple last minute meals I go to. White People Taco Night is the number one go to, followed by White People Ramen Night.

One of the ways I can pull a taco night out of the blue is because I have often planned ahead for the eventual dinner time oops. After grocery shopping, placing a pound of hamburger into a freezer bag and then flattening it out like a giant square Wendy’s burger so it can be frozen allows me a quick pivot to White People Taco night. It also helps with things like spaghetti and meat sauce, sloppy joes, and even plain old hamburgers, but my kiddos respond most favorably to tacos. Anyway just throwing that giant, flat meat square into a pan has it cook exactly like a burger. It can be broken up into small pieces as it cooks, then just add the seasoning and add some canned black beans to the now seasoned meat. Boom, a big part of White People Taco Night is done.

White People Ramen Night is the failsafe, the plan b, to Whitey Tacos when I have forgotten to prep hamburger meat to be easily cooked like above. Here I just have to make an brand’s instant ramen, then add seasonings and an egg. Keeping egg rolls and soup dumplings in the freezer then rounds out this dinner.

What is your failsafe move for a meal? Any tips to help out a fellow?

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We do the same thing to ground beef for quick tacos or spaghetti. 

Also, if you have an Instant Pot or any pressure cooker, you can have perfectly cooked chicken breasts from frozen in about 20 minutes. This can be shredded for a variety of meals including tacos but our favorite it to melt a block of cream cheese into a large can of green enchilada sauce then add the chicken and serve over white rice or tortilla chips. 

And also, breakfast for dinner. 

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Hamburger helper is very.....helpful.  OMG, you guys,  I think that's how they got the idea for the name!

In a pinch, I always keep a box of HH and a pound of ground beef if I'm running behind and need to get something whipped up super fast. 

I can't do spaghetti in a flash, I absolutely have to let my sauce simmer for several hours or it's not the same.  

And I always keep a few Red Baron pizzas in the freezer if I'm not in the mood to cook. 

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Turkey sausage (the one that is like a u--cut it up and fry it in a pan), broccoli (put in water and microwave a few minutes), and rice (but rice and water in a pan for 10 minutes).

I also do quesadillas with taco night---flour tortilla and cheese. 

 

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I make these meatballs for Tina. Pretty much it's a dialysis recipe where you take 1 pound hamburger, shredded up white bread slices like maybe three?, 1 pound ground pork, chopped onion and garlic and some parmesan with an cracked egg and roll it up in balls after mixing it and then bake it in the oven for 25 minutes on 350 degrees. Serve over rice or noodles and you can just reheat canned spaghetti sauce or put in a sammich bread roll or eat it like a pot sticker snack. I keep them in the fridge for a few days because the recipe makes about 20 two inch meatballs. Tina then has something she can either microwave or heat up in the toaster oven to eat when hungry.

If it's not meatballs I do a batch of dialysis chili that goes on Fritos, rice or just a bowl with cheese and onions. Heat up a Dutch oven on the stove with some garlic, a half a chopped onion or whole depending on how much union you like, salt and pepper and some ground beef, I  do like two pounds because she's anemic and we have to feed her lots of iron rich meat, and cook until the onions are soft and the meat is brown, then dump a can of undrained crushed tomatoes, a jalapeño diced and chili powder to taste (She LIKES A LOT) and a cup of water or beef broth and simmer for 15 more minutes. Then pour over whatever. It gets better in the fridge as it goes. I usually just store a ladle in the pot for her to dip the chili out in the fridge and reheat with cheese on top in the microwave.

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Oh and the poor mans tostada... 

Get those prefried tostada shells, your favorite can of refried beans and spread it on the shell with some cheese. Put in the toaster oven or oven on a pan and heat until cheese is melted. Buy shredded lettuce and taco sauce and put it on top after and serve like a giant pizza nacho. I also put shredded chicken or taco meat on top if I have some.

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Macaroni and cheese and steamed broccoli is a go to, so is spaghetti and jarred sauce. Hot dogs, frozen pizza, bagged salad, are all things we try to keep on hand.  The past two days I've made frozen cauliflower wings.

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