Love this Pesto Pasta Link

Click here for a post by "Charlotte Mom Favorites" titled "The best meal you'll ever make in 10 minutes flat".  Obviously it caught my attention :)  Pesto pasta mixed with any of several options to mix it up- this is a must have pantry meal :)

Are you chicken?

My mom's favorite "real" dinner to make with her roommate in college was the following.  Its super easy and does not require you to remember to defrost the chicken first, and it comes out super tender and juicy because the acid in the tomatoes breaks down the meat.  (You might not care about that last part- its the science geek/ "Alton Brown wanna be" side of me.

Ingredients:
Boneless skinless chicken breasts (can still be frozen)
Italian diced tomatoes (or regular)
packet of french onion soup mix

In the baking dish (spray it with pam or cover the bottom in aluminum foil first) throw in the chicken, top it with the tomatoes and sprinkle on the soup mix  and cook at 400 for an hour.  Serve with rice you lazily cook using this recipe right after the chicken goes in, and you have a super quick prep dinner.

I'll call this 5 minutes and 5 ingredients because it only takes 5 minutes of prep.

All. By. My. Self.

I had a sweet friend watch the kids the other day while I had an appointment, and since I needed to pick up a prescription on my way home, I stopped in a grocery store with a pharmacy to kill two birds with one stone.

As I walked around the store (All.  By.  My.  Self.)  I noted the fact I, not only had time to think about a fun lunch and time to casually shop for it, I had an adult to share it with.  What a wonderful opportunity!  I wouldn't, however, have hardly any time to make the lunch since, by the time I finally got home, it would be a little past lunch time already.  After wandering around (All.  By.  My.  Self.  No one.  Crying.  No one.  Running.  Away.  So.  Relaxing.***)

Anyway, I settled on frozen Spinach Ravioli, a jar of alfredo, and a package of Kielbasa sausage.  When I got home all I had to do was boil some water, cook the Ravioloi for 5 minutes, during the last minute I dropped in the kielbasa I had sliced, drained everything and dumped the sauce on top.  in 7 minutes we were eating our quick easy lunch that barely took longer to make than a sandwich :)

Moral of the story- high quality sausage gives you a meat without having to cook it and can make meal prep almost instant.

***How sad I now find even grocery shopping relaxing, as long as I'm alone to do it.

Picnic

A few weeks ago my friend was dropping in for the night with her husband and two girls on their way south after a vacation in Canada.  We were trying to decide were to eat, which wasn't entirely easy considering we had 4 younger kids to keep entertained, 4 younger kids' palates*** to appease, and her two were pretty tired to being cooped up in the car all day.

We ended up going to the Subway that's super close and then swinging in the grocery store for a big bag of chips and drinks.  I was impressed at how reasonable the cost was (especially compared to us going out to eat, really about anywhere else)  and the plan was for the kids to play at the park while everyone ate.  It didn't exactly work out that way, but in the end everyone was happy.

***I definitely have my kids eat "adult" food all the time, whether they like it or not, but there are times I think its best to just give them something they'll enjoy so I can talk with my friends and not be hounding the TinyTwo the entire meal to eat.

Kielbasa in la casa

We had a babysitter on the way and I needed to get ready for the Parent's Open House, get the house looking presentable, get the kids looking semi-presentable, and cook dinner that would be acceptable for the family and the sweet babysitter friend to eat, all in a very short amount of time.

Ingredients:
Rice (I like to add bouillon to the water sometimes)
Kielbasa Sausage, sliced
Can of Italian diced Tomatoes
Can of Black Beans
Seasonings (Rosemary Garlic blend and Italian Seasoning blend)

I added the water to the stove, brought it to a boil, dumped everything in, turned off the heat, and left it for 20 minutes.  When the timer went off, dinner was ready.

5 minutes of work, 5 ingredients, so easy, so good, so awesome.

Green Cleaning

Click here for Cozi's post on easy green cleaning.  I think only using a few ingredients is the lazy way to go- that way I don't have to keep up with lots of different bottles.  Also, I don't have to worry about leaving stuff out for the TinyTwo to get into :)

5 minute meals

I've collected a few blogs with 5 minute meals.  They may or may not have 5 ingredients.  Hope you get some ideas!

http://happyhealthymama.com/2011/06/5-minute-pantry-dinner.html

Black beans and rice

http://iowagirleats.com/2009/11/20/5-minute-5-ingredient-dinner/

egg drop soup

http://financialhighway.com/5-and-5-minutes-to-a-great-appetizer/

http://realmomhealthnut.blogspot.com/2011/06/short-on-time-5-minute-dinner.html

couscous and beans

http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/816775/Ten-Minutes-to-Dinner

potato broc cheese soup

http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/816775/Ten-Minutes-to-Dinner/page:4

French bread pizza

http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=from_a_box_and_a_can_to_a_five_healthful_meals

http://www.zenfamilyhabits.net/2009/11/5-ingredients-5-minutes-5-meals-out-of-the-can/