Tonight we are having frozen mini pizzas and leftover corn chowder.
What do you guys feed your kids/families at the end of a long day?
I like to stock up on those DiGiorno pastas and little packets of Knorr pasta sauces. It takes about 10-15 minutes. 
I tend to make fish quite often, also, as it takes no time at all to cook. When worse comes to worst, though, Bowen is perfectly happy to have a supper of peanut butter and orange marmalade sandwiches and fruit. Neither of us are exceptionally big eaters, which comes in quite handy when I don’t feel like cooking a big meal in the evening.
If I’m not around my wife (to feed herself and our daughter)makes macaroni and cheese, or pasta dinners (high-class macaroni and cheese), or chicken nuggets. These meet the requirements of being easy to prepare, yet being acceptable to the three-year-old palate.
I am a big fan of making some Rice A Roni, and wrapping it in a tortilla with some corn and shredded cheese.
My son is a big fan of frozen pizza. Go figure.
We’re a big fan of frozen cheese ravioli and Newman’s Sockarooni sauce. Quick, reasonably nutritious and the boy practically inhales them. Bean burritos are also popular, and if you make sure and add a lot of veggie fixins and whole wheat tortillas, it’s pretty healthy, too.
BTW, I don’t actually have a full-time job (I freelance and do volunteer work), so I must say that I admire you ladies who put a full day in at work then do it all at home afterwards.
Leftovers. We cook a bunch of stuff on the weekend - roasts, chicken on the barbecue, spaghetti sauce - then work our way through those during the week.
But when those fail, chicken nuggets or occasionally chicken noodle soup and sandwiches work too.
I don’t have kids. Or a wife. Or a roommate. But anything microwavable is good at the end of a long day. 
Fast food is always good, but that gets expensive, I’m sure much more so with a family.
Ukulele Ike, the Whole Foods Snob, checking in!
Tonight I’m sauteing some veal scaloppine and making a Sicilian sauce with the pan juices. I’ll have some pasta simmering while that’s happening, and a half-cup of bulgur for my wife, the Whole HEALTHY Foods Snob, and I’ll be steaming some broccoli rabe. This will get a shot of good olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice before serving.
I saute chicken breasts, too, and catfish filets. Also good, and cheaper.
Most of the time, though, I grill stuff. A piece of flank steak or a pork tenderloin or a salmon filet or a trout or hamburgers. While the meat is absorbing the seasoning and the grill gets hot, I start rice or cous-cous or potatoes or kasha or some other grain, and steam or saute a green vegetable. Sometimes my wife makes a salad just before we sit down.
These are all pretty quick meals, and quite enjoyable, and not too much more trouble than ripping open a box of dehydrated chemical crap. I save recipes like stews and curries and roasts and braises and chicken-on-the-bone for weekends, when I have more kitchen time.
How about us MEN who do it?
(I’m not the only one, am I?)
I tend to cook big meals when I get home from work. We have meat, potatoes or rice or noodles, and a vegetable… always. I use my George Foreman grill quite a bit. It’s great for hamburgers, pork chops, and chicken breasts. I also like to make casseroles. I like to make hamburger pie and/or a tater tot casserole. Scalloped potatoes don’t take long to throw together so we have them sometimes too. There’s never enough food leftover for us to eat another evening so I do this pretty much every night. We go out once in a while and we order pizza at least 1-2 times a month but still, it’s a lot of work. I like doing it though… cooking is one of my favorite things to do.
Ike, I sure hope not. MisterTot helps, but he’s hopeless in the kitchen. I was talking more about single mothers…I should have said parents. BTW, we love Flank Steak, but unless I think about it ahead of time, all I’ve got is a frozen hunk. Does anyone know how to sucessfully defrost food in the microwave without the edges getting cooked and icky?
Enchiladas are good. I usually keep a can or two of red and green enchilada sauce and some roasted green chiles. The filling can be whatever you have around: spinach, cooked chicken or fish, beans, cheese, whatever. Tortillas freeze well, so you can keep them until you need them and the whole dish is pretty quick to put together.
Ukulele Ike:
Dehydrated Checmical Crap!!?
We use Annies Macaroni and Cheese. Read her ingredients – all natural! Quick yet wholesome. Best of both worlds.
Standards for my house :
All time favorite: “Snackers” - this is whatever little things I can scrounge from the frig - this will include baby carrots, left over whatevers, cheese, whatever can go from frig to table in 10 minutes or less.
“Glop” - ground whatever (meat, sausage, chicken), onions and : something else - left over mashed taters + can o peas= shepards’ pie glop; package of frozen spinach + rice = another one; can o pork and bean= another one; spaghtetti sauce + noodles = another ; can o mushroom soup + noodles = straugenoff (sp?) type; + package of mac & cheese = another one.
Did another one of chicken bits, broccoli, can o whatever cream o soup and swiss cheese.
IQF boneless skinless chicken breasts, with a little seasoned salt, garlic powder, and pepper on the BBQ grill for 8 minutes a side. Rice-a-roni, and a frozen veggie of some sort (or fresh steamed carrots/broccoli, if I am in the mood.)
30 minutes start to finish, with lots of loose time in between.
If it just me 'n the kids, it’s Kraft mac-n-cheese, frozen corn, and maybe sliced watermelon or carrots or something.
When I forget to thaw something out, I put it in a ziploc bag and stick it in some lukewarm water in the sink. It thaws fairly fast (especially chicken breasts, but I do steak as well) and the edges don’t get icky.
trisha
I was inspired by this thread.
Tonight we had chicken parmesan, which including both prep time and cooking took less than 30 minutes.
'Bout time I actually cooked real food on a weekday. And the amazing thing is, my incredibly fussy, never wants to try anything she hasn’t tried before, 12 year old daughter loved it!!
Before I started my new eating I ate a lot of frozen dinners. Stouffers Mac n Cheese is pretty good, with a side of frozen Green Giant green bean cassarole (can’t spell tonight).
Pasta, anything can be topped on your favorite pasta. Top with butter, several herbs and some parmesan cheese (the fresh stuff not the crap in a can. Side with some vegies quickly dropped in the boiling pasta water (one minute is good).
Get a crock pot people, crock pots jam.
You can throw in some veggies and onions a little bit of water (not much) top with some chicken or beef with herbs, set before you leave for work. When you get home the place smells like your granny was there all day cooking. Side that with a salad and your favorite drink and you have a slow cooked meal that tastes like someone worked all day to prepare.
Also great for making green chile – mmmmm, pork tenderloin, green chiles, onions, tomatoes, jalepenos among other ingredients…
Damn, it’s’ time for dinner and I don’t have anything in the house! Spose I better get off my ass and go to the grocery store.
Run the Nuker at a lower-than-defrost setting and let it sit a few minutes between bouts of radiation. It’s slow. But it works.
Hey Ukulele Ike you’re not the only one (man in the kitchen) that is. I’m the cook in my family. My girl’s good at burning stuff and making messes that I get to clean up. But I enjoy cooking. That’s one skill that will always come in handy.
Now I know how my mother felt when she came home from work. Payback’s a bitch!!
Tonight I’m going to have some beef curry, with coconut milk, corriander, and Kifir lime leaves, over a nice bit of steamed Jasmine rice. Last night I made some baked chicken with a little peanut sauce dressing…my girl loves that!