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I am trying to come up with a menu plan to make our homeschool days run smoother.

Would you please share any ideas you have for QUICK and easy lunch ideas (breakfast and dinner too if you have any to share )?

Thanks so much!

One I have for dinner is:

The frozen bags of ravioli/tortellini with tomato sauce, french bread, and bagged salad. The ravioli/tortellini only takes a few minutes to cook in boiling water (at least the cheese ones that we purchase). I have also heard of someone putting it in the crock pot to prepare it.

Ways I do meals quickly include...

Lunch -

Pack their lunches the night before. Sounds crazy since you are at home but my kids actually love it. Makes it easy to grab them & head to the park, an appointment or just eat at the kitchen table. The great thing is that they won't need my help. Grab your lunch and get started while I finish up laundry, a school subject with oldest, whatever.

Ideas for lunches include sandwiches (change up the breads using pita pockets, wraps, etc.), bagel & cream cheese, Chinese chicken salad (greens, little container of mandarin oranges, baggie of sliced almonds & crunchy asian noodles), pasta salad (cold pasta, cherry tomatoes, diced cheese, other veggies they like, and italian dressing), tabouli stuffed in a pita, hummus on flat bread, hummus and veggies for dipping, cheese and crackers, cold fried chicken, etc.

Dinner -

The crock-pot and grill are my friend.

I like to make cold salads in advance (green, tabouli, pasta, fruit, green bean, etc.). Then we just throw some chicken on the grill, maybe microwave some whole potatoes and we are good to go.

Crock-pot is great for making soups, spaghetti sauce, roasts, whole chicken, beans, chili, etc.

Pre-cook your meat helps with some things. You can cook up a pound of hamburger meat and then just dump it frozen into your spaghetti sauce. Boil or Roast a whole chicken and shred the meat for tacos, salads, sandwiches, etc.

I menu plan and prepare all my veggies on Saturday. That means I chop up the carrots, onions, and celery for soup later in the week. I wash the lettuce. I cut up raw veggies for snaking on, etc.

Hope that sparks some ideas.

Something saves me a ton of time (and money) is using my freezer. I cook for our entire month in about a day. I shop the night before, brown/cook any meat, then assemble everything the next day. My hubby watches the kids that day (usually Saturday) and it's a lifesaver!

The night before a meal, I pull things out of my freezer to defrost in my fridge. The day of the meal, I bake them 30 minutes before we're ready to sit down to eat. Saves a TON of time & prep. I just assemble the salad or fresh fruit with the meal.

Lunches can be:
mac'n'cheese
sandwiches - lunchmeat, sloppy joes
mini pizzas
pasta salad
soups/biscuits
grilled cheese - pre-made with buttered bread & cheese slice, just pop out of freezer and heat on griddle

Some of our breakfast favorites are:
Cinnamon Rolls
French Toast Casserole
Waffles
Egg, Sausage & Tater Tot Casserole

Some of our dinner favorites are:
Baked Ziti & Garlic Bread
Chicken Pot Pie
Spinach Lasagna
Sweet & Sour Chicken
Taco Meat - warm and stuff in tacos, over salad, tortillas or over a baked potato
Sandwiches - turkey, ham, roast beef - Bake 30 minutes
Sloppy Joes
Chili

I just sent a PM to you with some websites that are "how-to" and recipes if you're interested.

Hey I like the pack the lunch the night before idea. Menu planning is a big weak spot for me and unfortunately I do the "what am I or they hungry for" approach. This does not help things flow. The deep fryer is my friend for lunch some days but I try to use it as a treat like for things we would get if we went out town. For supper, the oven is my friend. I can fix burgers, chicken, potatoes even veggies without being continually present. Some mornings cereal, yougurt and granola, eggs...some days pizza, leftovers, soup. Also, as mentioned in the pp you can cook extra meat at the same time you are fixing it for one meal and already be part way with another by storing the extra in the freezer. This is the most advanced that I have gotten so far . I just try to have meals at the same time every day. I think there were some menu ideas on some of the blogspots that talked about toddlers sorry I can't remember all of them but I found them with threads about activities for little ones. And there were some more ideas in the thread about schedules. I think it may have been page 4,5 or 6 and I think it was from my3sons. I would like to see more ideas as well. Best I can do without a chef

creativemommy................can you share the websites that are "how-to" and recipes? this has been a problem for us as well.

Baked potatoes with toppings!
Broccoli, cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, etc.

Make 1 x-tra large batch of soup per week for lunches!

Tuna salad with shredded cheddar & Mini pizza on English muffins! Heat until cheese is melted! (Add crumbled bacon on either & everybody likes it!

Quick Mexican salad: Lettuce, canned black beans (drained) salsa, shredded cheese, avocado (when available) and dressing - ranch or jap. ranch. Add left over chicken if available.

Pick up an extra rotisserie chicken (or 2 or 3 depending on your family size!) at the grocery store to make quick chicken corn soup, add to your salad, use as a healthy alternative to lunchmeat in sandwiches!!

I could really use help with the menu planning too. I would really appreciate tips, web sites, etc. that anyone could share. I tend to be a "what sounds good today kind of person" and I don't get to that point until around 3 in the afternoon which makes it a bit difficult to put a healthy meal on the table by supper time. I have done the make ahead dinners at Let's Dish before, but I haven't been back in quite a while because it can be pricey. I would love to do something like that on my own at home and have a number of dinners ready in the freezer. It would be really super to have meals that could go from the freezer to the crock pot the night before or in the morning and be ready for supper. Anyone have any recipes like that?

This would really help me, too, if I could get the ball rolling! I have just made radical changes in our eating as I discovered that my terrible migraines are caused by MSG. Problem is, MSG is called about 30 different things you would never suspect! Basically, anything canned, boxed or prepared in any way is a problem for me. Gone are my days of convenience cooking! Replacng them are the days of major healthful eating. Also, about half the time we are abstaining from any meat or dairy products. Is there by chance anyone out there who eats like this and has it figured out how to not take so much time to cook? The good thing about it is, my whole family will benefit from no MSG (which is neurotoxin after all, so I should be thankful I discovered this so my family will be healthier!). Bad thing is, it is one more thing overwhelming me! But, at least I am not the Grinch that I used to be much of the time, plagued by headaches and turning mean!!!
I just started using Deceptively Delicious, a cookbook for sneaking in more veggies into your family's diet...you steam and puree veggies and freeze them in small portions, then add them to recipes for your family. I now have a freezer stocked with good-for-you veggies ready to add to spaghetti sauce, mac and cheese, cookies, etc.

Here is my breakfast/lunch menu:


For supper, I'm with Daisy - we love the grill and the crocked pot. The George Foreman grill was an excellent investment, since we can grill through the winter too. Marinades are quick and easy to do on the grill, as are burgers and salmon patties. We like pot roast or pork tenderloin with carrots and potatoes for a quick to assemble and complete meal (does need to bake long though). Otherwise, meatloaf, spaghetti, chicken and rice, etc. are some of our favorites.

In Christ,
Julie

Ok let me go through some things you might like to look at

http://www.savingdinner.com Healthy Dinner plans, I have the regular, low carb and vegetarian books

http://www.cookingtf.com There is a very inexpensive menu plan service here for people who cook traditionally (nourishing traditions type diet), cook whole foods or need glucose or caesin free meals.

http://www.Menus4moms.com This one has a free dinner menu plan made by a homeschool mom

http://www.recipezaar.com If you go here you can do a search for OAMC and you will find tons of lists of make ahead food to fill your freezer with. Some of my favorites are the mini bagel pizzas, stuffed chicken, meatballs, stuffed shells, smarties (M&M) cookies, perogi lasagna, macaroni and cheese, chicken pot pie, and chicken burritos. In fact I think I might go look up some of those to make for my freezer! http://www.recipezaar.com/cookbooks.php ... chr=Search

A fun thing you might like to do is get laptop lunch boxes or bentos for your kids. You could fill them the night before and have them ready to go.

You can also set up a crock pot meal in the crock the night before so you just need to pull it out of the fridge and put it in the warmer in the morning.

Lastly one thing that worked for me was to make a simple menu that listed what general kind of food we would eat for each meal everyday. For example

Breakfast-
M-ceral, milk, fruit
T-muffins, milk
W-eggs, toast, juice
T-cereal, milk, juice
F-Oatmeal, fruit
S-pancakes and meat
S-Toast, peanut butter, fruit or juice

Lunch-
M-sandwich, chips, apple
T-soup, crackers
W-sandwich, carrots, apple sauce
T-macaroni and cheese, veggie or fruit
F-sandwich, yogurt, fruit
S-Leftovers
S-out to eat (or whatever, that was just an example)

Dinner-
M-Pasta Meal
T-Chicken
W-Crock Pot
T-Tex Mex or bean meal
F-Homemade pizza or take out
S-Stir Fry
S-a traditional Sunday dinner or casserole

I was a vegetarian for awhile but I can not find the good links I used to have for them. I LOVE the Vegan Dad blog though. He has awesome kid tested recipes on his blog and I think he even put out a cookbook recently.

Thank you all for your input. I know I'm not the OP, but this post has really helped me. I loved hearing how others manage and plan their meals. I really like the idea of the a general menu plan. That really helps me a lot to figure out what sort of supper would work best for each day of the week. As I thought through the week, I was able to come up with days that I had more time to cook and other days that I had to have something in the crock pot. It has really helped me to sit down and think it through. You all motivated me as well and I dug out my freezer cookbooks, checked out the recommended web sites, and went shopping. Today was a big cooking day and I now have 18 entrees in the freezer! Yippee! Now I'm going to work on getting some side dishes, breakfast items, and desserts in the freezer. Before long, I should be able to easily make a menu plan and have many items ready to go with little effort. I'm excited about menu planning for the first time in a long time. Thanks!!!

I am enjoying this thread so much, as meal planning can have a huge impact on the homeschool day. So, I'm bumping it up for anyone else who wishes to respond or has other ideas that may bless someone else in this needed area.

Blessings,
Carrie

We do something different with Lunch. I rotate who makes it on the chore chart and they take orders within certain limits. The kids actually like it and it takes it off me. Breakfast is often oatmeal (which you can make ahead if you want) with frozen (but thawed in the microwave) blueberries or raisins. If it is not that then it is cereal or toast and fruit. Other things are bran refrigerator bran muffins. I try to always have that made and on hand. You can either bake them in the morning or else they can be made ahead and even frozen. We do this with banana bread as well and that is sometimes breakfast. Sometimes we make whole wheat pancakes from scratch (we grind the flour)but this is usually only on Fridays and often for dinner (dh works late). We call it Flapjack Fridays. I am thinking that now since we are going to 4 days of real school this might move to the morning. Saturdays varies for breakfast and so do Sundays.

One very huge thing that helps for keeping my life sane and I am in the process of stalking up right now is making meals ahead and freezing them or OAMC. I usually do three months at a time. Think about it four major cook sessions a year not counting holidays, can't beat that. You can do things like muffins and quick breads as well. My biggest focus is dinner. I do not want to cook dinner on a school day period. When I am done with school I am done, period. And another tip on that is to have a "Sous Chef" volunteer help you. That is a coveted position in my house. They help decide what will be taken out for dinner and get it thawed and ready. They usually get to pick things like what kind of juice to make etc. You can do bulk cooking for lunch as well. I used to have it running like clockwork then life hit a bit but now we are getting back into it. Definitely for us it makes a huge difference!

Ooooh, I really like the Sous Chef idea! My kids would really like doing that. I love all the breakfast ideas and Flapjack Fridays too. I'm going to have to give that t try. Thanks!

I put things in the crockpot. We do healthy eating. Also, I re-use leftovers. We had beans for supper, so I will make refried beans and we will have
bean burritos.
I am trying to add more raw foods. Also, we make wheat bread 6 loaves at a time, so we have bread with our soups.
We usually just do fruit or smoothies for a snack.

I like this website for recipes...
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/recipes.htm