Friday Five - easy food

It's Friday already!  This week has flown by for me. And now it's time to link up with Mar, Cynthia, and Courtney for the Friday Five link up.  This week, the theme is food.  We've been busy lately and it's been a struggle not to resort to take out.  But we've been doing our best and in honor of that, I'm going to talk about some of our favorite go to options for quick, weeknight meals.   

1. Grilled cheese - so easy and comforting.  A classic grilled cheese sandwich is always a delight but it's also just as quick to jazz it up a bit.  My favorite is cheddar, apple and mustard and we usually serve it with veggies to bulk it up with a healthy side.  And I have no problems using pre-cut vegetables from the store.  They're not the most economical option but there are definitely weeks that convenience and ease outweigh the costs.

2. Crockpot freezer meals - This is something new I've discovered.  I can't believe it's taken me so long, and it was so easy that I was skeptical that it could taste good.  But basically, you just throw a bunch of things in a gallon zip-loc bag and put it in the freezer.  The day you want to eat it, throw it in the crock pot in the morning and 8 hours later, dinner is ready with hardly any work!  I made the chickpea curry and the veggie-barley soup from the linked article for a friend who was going through some hard times and needed help.  They met with rave reviews from the whole household. A slight cheat that made it even easier, I used frozen veggies for everything except the onions and peppers so there was minimal chopping involved.

3. Grain bowls - This is a regular for us.  We'll make a big pot of grains on the weekend and again use pre-cut vegetables from the grocery store so pretty much all we need to do to make dinner is throw the grains and veggies together with some canned beans and a dressing with some cheese or nuts if wanted.  It's great and so easy on a weeknight when we get home from work starved.

4. One Pot Pasta - Pasta is a classic go to.  But this is so much more than pasta with tomato sauce from a jar.  Not that there's a problem with that, I've done it a lot of times.  But this one pot pasta is almost as easy and includes some great veggies.  It's all cooked in one pot, the pasta, the veggies, the sauce, everything.  So clean up is really easy too.

5. Grab and go breakfasts - Breakfast is another thing I struggle with at times.  It feels like we're always rushing out of the house in the morning to leave for work and I don't have time to put a breakfast together.  I end up buying breakfast way too often.  But that definitely doesn't happen when I spend a little extra time on the weekends making a breakfast that's ready to grab and go on the weekend.  I've done a frittata and cut it into slices that are put into ziploc bags so I can just grab a bag and go.  This week I made steel cut oats in the crock pot and put them into individual serving containers so that again, I could just grab them and go in the mornings before work.  It makes mornings so much easier!

 

So that's it!  Those are some of my go-to's for when the weekdays get crazy.  I'd love to hear some of yours :)