Desperation dinners

There are those times when you absolutely don't know what to make for dinner. For me, it's usually around Wednesday evening. Weekend leftovers have been completely depleted, as has my ability to come up with anything new.

Or maybe you don't get home from work until 6 and everyone is hungry at 6:15.

Or, for once, you wanted to play, too--you've been out throwing a frisbee until dinnertime, and then you realize when you walk back into the house that there's no dinner waiting for you.

At such times, it's best to have on-hand a few "desperation dinners"--things your family will eat without much complaint and without much work on your part. Most of these will be frozen and ready-made. Some can be tossed together from things in cans.

As long as you don't rely on them everyday, I see no reason to feel guilty about serving them occasionally, even if you are a stay-at-home parent.

Here's what we have on-hand or make quickly for such occasions:

Trader Joe's Orange Chicken (frozen). PE loves this and can eat it again and again; the rest of us are getting sort of sick of it. You can cut the sugar in half if you use only one of the two flavor packets.

Frozen pizza. All can eat this except M., who can't eat milk. On such evenings, she might eat scrambled eggs or some small portion of a previous dinner she had squirreled away in the freezer. 

Burritos. (Assuming you have tortillas on-hand, in freezer, etc.). You also need to keep cans of pinto beans around. It helps if you have salsa and cheese, too. If you only have cheese and tortillas, make quesadillas.

Omelets. This works for everyone except TA, who hates eggs. M. makes hers with goat cheese.

Spaghetti/cheesy pasta. We try to keep small portions of pre-made tomato sauce with meat in the freezer. When we don't have it, we can make a quick, meatless sauce using a can of crushed tomatoes. If in a real rush, we'll just cook noodles and grate some cheese over them.

(Still quick but less desperate--and limited availability)

Pesto. In the summer, when we have pots of basil growing on the deck, this makes a quick meal that, unbelievably, everyone likes. We use pecorino (sheep's cheese) rather than parmesan, for M.

======================================

I'll post additional Desperation Dinners lists in the future. I'm also soliciting ideas for other things to serve. Please feel free to share via comments.