So most working mom’s know the struggle of trying to provide your family a home cooked meal while also maintaining a job. I was single for 5 years after my daughter was born so it was a bit simpler. I was fortunate to work a 9am-6pm job Monday-Friday. My go to meals had a lot to do with the crockpot. What an amazing invention right? Toss veggies and a protein in with seasoning and sauce, set the temp and timer and go. I always loved walking into my apartment with my little one to the smell of scrumptious meal.
Nowadays things are much different. I am getting married in May and I also have a night job working from 1:30-10:30pm Monday-Friday. I am also going vegetarian.. for both environmental and health reasons. So providing that home cooked meal, not so easy!
My Christmas dinner plate
Here is what I have on the plate.
I am writing this blog post to give you an idea of how I do it, at least 4 days a week. So meal planning is super important. I rely heavily on Pinterest, here’s a link to my Weeknight Meals board. And don’t forget, I am going vegetarian so these are meatless meal ideas. Before I dive in I’d like to note that I cook my family dinners each day before I go to work. I usually start cooking after my breakfast as I do chores around the house.. kind of the same routine I would have after work when I got out at 6pm, just during the morning instead. I cook the meals and pack them in glass pyrex and put them in fridge with directions for my fiance. He loves popping the pyrex in the microwave like a TV dinner.
The first recipe I want to highlight is one of my go to weeknight meals. It’s a cheesy veggie pasta casserole dish. It takes a little more work to put together than some of my other recipes but the ingredients are things you might already have on hand or be using for other meals. Bonus… D and the hubby both love it! Oh, did I mention you are getting your veggies in the dish??
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The next dish I want to showcase is a fish dish.. yes I am going vegetarian.. also pescatarian for the time being. I love eating fish and shrimp. I often make pasta and throw in some shrimp that I cook in my air fryer.. Its so easy, you just toss the peels shrimp in some seasoning (I like garlic salt and onion powder) and pop them in the air fryer for about 8 minutes and your done! The pasta is simple, boiled pasta and a jar of sauce and you’ve got a meal! I am half Mexican so I of course love tacos, so when I found this next recipe I was excited. It’s really simple.. It’s just cod, some veggies and tortillas.
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The last dish I am featuring is lasagna. So I’m marrying an Italian/Greek so learning how to make this was crucial. I was really overwhelmed with the idea though because I thought it was such a hard dish to make. Well let me be the first to tell you it’s NOT! This recipe uses no boil lasagna noodles that takes the hard work out of the dish. You just have to buy the ingredients, mix then assemble. Baking is the longest part, but the product is amazing. My family looks forward to lasagna night and it makes me feel like a BOSS knowing I can still provide them with home cook meals even though I am at work during dinner.
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I hope you enjoyed this post. Please feel free to share you favorite weeknight meals in the comment section. I will likely be doing more posts about weeknight cooking.. and I am always looking for another meal to make for the fam!