Even with access to Whole Foods, getting a meal together in 10 minutes that didn't include a PB&J or grilled cheese sandwich would be a trick. It doesn't sound like you really want to cook. Reheating might be a better idea for you...

I was never a fan of frozen vegetables until now. I think the frozen veggie companies have created some very good products for busy people--and during the off season the price of the frozen stuff is similar to the fresh and maybe doesn't have to travel as far. My favorite quickie supper is one of the new frozen mixes specifically for stir fry, mixed with baked oriental style tofu. I use store bought good quality sauce and instant brown rice, unless I have some regular brown rice to use up. Whenever I do manage the 45 min. to make brown rice I always double the quantity. Cooked brown rice freezes well and I guess you can thaw it in the micro. If your kids don't like tofu you can use boneless chicken breasts or pork meat, (sorry, being veggie I don't know my pork cuts for stir fry).

Another great quickie is some kind of pasta mixed with some kind of protein. For me it's quick because I use canned beans or italian style baked tofu, but I guess in your case it would have to be some kind of ground meat or again with the boneless chicken. I LOVE pasta with tuna and marinara, made with capers and olives, but I don't know about kids. I know they pretty much like pasta. I was one of those kids who loved everything. Again, there are lots of kinds of frozen veggies you can mix in with it depending on what your kids like. Even a fresh zuchinni or green pepper would only take a minute to saute and add. My Bubbe made us noodles and cottage cheese seasoned with butter and cinnamon sugar for a quickie meal. We loved it. Good with applesauce.

Preshredded carrots, chopped celery, walnuts and raisins for a quick carrot salad. When I wasn't broke I also bought the pre-shredded cabbage for quickie coleslaw, there are a gazillion yummy variations of that.

You can also whip together burritos very quickly if you buy the pre-shredded cheese and other ingredients. Again, you can sneak in some veggies with the beans and enchilada sauce--I like zuchinni and peppers and even shredded carrots in my burritos.

Grilled sandwiches with whole grain bread and good quality premade soup is also a good quickie supper. I often have a pb&j with cottage cheese and some reconstituted pea soup for supper.

I make soup on the weekends in the crockpot and freeze it though, so I rarely eat pre-made soup.

One pot pasta meals are good - throw in the pasta when the water is boiling, then throw in some broccoli during the last 3 minutes or so. Drain the pasta and broccoli and put the pot back on the burner. A little olive oil and garlic, then some chicken broth and oregano and red pepper flakes and toss the pasta and broccoli back in and some s&p and parmesan and its dinner really quick. Plenty of variations with veggies and herbs to your family's liking, add in tuna or sliced sausages or some white beans too.

The only way I think you can get a good meal on the table in 10-15 minutes is to do the prep the night before or on the weekend.

As Woodie mentions pasta is easy to get together and stir frys can be on the table in no time at all but you need to prep your veggies and meat etc before.

I use to do it on the weekends and have baggies of veggies ready to steam, throw into a stir fry or pasta but you need to plan your meals in advance.

Make a meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, prep your veggies and chicken for a stir fry, make a quiche, a big pot of soup or stew, prep everything for a salad on the weekend or after the little darlin' is in bed. Add a grilled cheese to a soup or salad, try breakfast for dinner.

I can get a scratch dinner on the table in a half hour but 10 minutes...that's pushing it. Personally I think you need to rethink your schedule a bit. Perhaps making dinner the night before could work. Walking in the door, dropping everything and trying to put a nutritious meal on the table in 10 minutes is asking a lot of yourself.

If budget permits there are lots of those "heat and Serve" places open now and Whole Foods has a plethora of ready to go food....but the price is a bit much.

Even one pot pasta meals won't be done in 10 minutes!
If you do your prep ahead, you can cook thin slices of chicken breast or pork or beef in 10 muinutes....and if you ahve precooked rice you can easily reheat that.
If you want your toddler not to live on a diet of take out and nuked frozen stuff, you will have to work her to eating about 1/2 an hour later.
Or you could have a constant diet of crockpot meals. Get in the habit of tossing some meat a can of broth and a cup of rice, an onion and perhaps some tomato into your crockpot every morning and you could come home to a dinner that only needs some salad to make a meal.
When I had young kids who needed to eat NOW, I would quickly fry up a hamburger patty , nuke a baking potato and quickly cook a frozen veggie. Not my idea of a good meal but the kidsw ere fed and when I had prepared something civilized for us, they could sit with us and nibble and enjoy our company. Good way to get fussy eaters to0 try new stuff.
Linda C

Oh Good...I'm glad it's not only me. Ten minute dinners seems like a bit of a joke. Are you sure you're not pulling our legs? If not, may I ask the poster what she makes for her family in 10 minutes? Does that include all the food groups? (If this isn't a joke that is, perhaps you could give Us some tips! Of course I realize I risk the OP never coming back to enlighten us, as so often happens.)

I love Woodie's idea of pasta, but boiling the water takes more than 10 minutes in MY kitchen! Really, I'm not even sure you could scramble an egg well in 10 minutes...

If you are looking for 10 minute gourmet meals, stop reading now.... these suggestions are certainly not original, but they got me through many years of trying to fix dinner for seven people between 5:30 and six, and some are things my mother used to make.
If you cook a large package of ground beef or turkey on the weekend and freeze it into meal sized portions in a ziploc bag, you have a start for a quick meal. You could leave it in the refrigerator all day to thaw, or (if you are like me and never remember to take something out of the freezer for dinner) put the ziploc bag into a bowl of water to thaw when you get home, while you start the rest of the dinner. If you also chop up some onions and green peppers (if your family likes these) and put them into containers in the refrigerator, you can use these all week to cook with. Or you can buy them frozen. Wash some lettuce, dry, and store this in a ziploc, or buy premade salad. Buy a bag of preshredded cheese.
The hamburg can become chili (add onions and green peppers, a can of diced tomatoes, chili powder, and a can of drained and rinsed pinto or black beans. You can add seasonings and a can of refried beans for tacos or tostados. (Your cheese and lettuce are already ready, you can use canned diced tomatoes.) Or mix hamburg with a can of golden mushroom soup and serve over baked potatoes (baked in microwave) or over toast or biscuits. Mix it with a can of cream of mushroom soup and a package of onion soup and serve with noodles. Of course, there is always spaghetti.
Then there is canned tuna fish, added to macaroni and cheese, with a can of mushroom soup and frozen peas. Real macaroni and cheese doesn't take long to make, as long as you don't bake it. Have the macaroni cooking while you make the white sauce and melt the cheese in it (don't forget the mustard), and just mix them together when done.
Tomatoes and cheese (an old "Depression recipe") is ready in 5 minutes. Melt some american cheese in a can of tomatoes and serve over white bread.
If you get in the habit of cleaning up (taking off the fat, gristle, and bones) chicken or roast leftovers before putting them away, you can add them to frozen stir fry vegetables, or reheat them in gravy and serve over bread, rice, biscuits (which are very quick to cook) or with leftover potatoes. Or alongside leftover cooked pasta which has been quickly reheated with some onions, green peppers, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. Buy some large cans of chicken or beef broth, and make leftover soup. Start the broth heating, add a can of diced tomatoes, and clean out your refrigerator -- leftover vegetables, leftover meat, leftover spaghetti (cut up), SMALL amounts of leftovers like spaghetti sauce, chili, meat in gravy. Add any canned or frozen vegetables (cooked in microwave first, so they will not take too much time to cook in soup), season. A drained and rinsed can of pinto beans or black beans is good. You can add hot sauce (not for your little guy) or sprinkle the top with cheese. Serve with rolls or italian bread. Quesadillas are another quick way to use up leftovers. I hope these haven't been too basic for you, I don't read this forum much, but some of the pictures of the food I see here are way, way out of my "just Mom food" league....

The only way I can think of to truly have a meal ready in 10 minutes is to have it all in the crockpot. Technically, it's ready in ZERO! But...You have to be willing to do the prep the night before or in the morning. Otherwise, you're looking at sandwiches, canned soups, other 'prepared' foods.
You can barely get a pan hot enough to sear a steak in 10 minutes. However, if you nuke a potato and some frozen or canned veggies and then sear a steak or chicken cutlet, you can come pretty close!!

Do let us know how this works out for you!!

Deanna

I'm wondering if your toddler can be given a few crackers or raw vegetables to give you some time to produce a decent meal? All the suggestions here are great, but you still need a little time to put them to use.

Maybe your strategy should be to have your meal for your toddler ready and waiting when you arrive home, feed the little one, then spend 30 minutes (+or-) fixing dinner for yourself. I do understand about hungry demanding little ones - I had to put a bowl of dry cereal covered with wrap on the highchair tray the night before for DS#2 who could not stand to wait one extra minute to eat in the morning.

The only 10 minute meal I can think of is beans over toast.

We have breakfast stew (veggie chicken, onions, celery, potatoes and chicken seasoning) over toast. It is an easy make-ahead breakfast. A small serving for your toddler while you are making dinner may stave off starvation and keep him/her busy while you are cooking.

Thanks all for your suggestions!!

As an example, last night I made pasta with garlic/butter sauce and shrimp, and raw snow peas for a veggie. I got my husband to put the water on as I was coming home, shrimp was frozen/cooked so I just heated it up in the sauce when sauce was done. I was home at 545, changed, cooked, dinner ready at 607.

We do do a bunch of pasta meals, frozen peas for the kidlet and regular veggies/salad for us. My stove is *very* quick so things don't take long to cook, but I do use a lot of ground beef, chix breasts, and fish/shellfish.

Will give baby snacks and stretch out prep time to 30 minutes - I think that should cover it.

Again, thanks. :)

I'd feed the toddler first, which would give you guys a little more time and relaxation. Depending on when the little one goes to bed, you could feed the kid first, and have Dad do bath and bedtime while you rustle up dinner. (Or the reverse.) Even if you do this once a week, you and your husband will enjoy each other's company more.

Seems like when LF was very small, I didn't eat until he went to bed; if at all. At toddler stage, he got his meal plopped in front of him while I worked on preparing mine/hubby's meal. Now, he's doing homework while I am preparing dinner, followed by everyone sitting down together. It takes about 30 minutes. So you're on the right track and going down a similar path as many parents. Adjusting back to your "old/new" life is a dance that will take time. Eventually, you will all eat the same meal at the same time.

Consider a pressure cooker. It changed forever the way I cook. If you're put off by the thoughts of exploding pots, rest assured that the new modern PC's have all sorts of built in safety devices.

How does this sound: steamed artichokes in 12 minutes instead of 45; pot roast in 60 minutes instead of 3 hours; even fancy stuff like osso buco alla Milanese in under an hour; really good curries in about 20 minutes...

Get any of Lorna Sass's cookbooks (her latest is 'Pressure Perfect' but all of them are good) and go to town.

Fagor makes a 'Splendid Multi' set for around $100 that consists of a 4 qt saute-shaped pan, an 8 qt stockpot and a pressure lid a and clear lid that fit both pots.

And you don't need any real recipes--brown a chicken breast, throw in a few ounces of stock, wine or water, some seasonings, and pressure cook it for 12 minutes or so--delicious, tender, and quick.

If you're interested, do a forum search here and on the Cookware forum for 'pressure cooker'--they have been the subject of numerous threads over the years. Also, a great starting point for PC info is Miss Vickie (see the link)

Here is a link that might be useful: miss vickie

Right after I saw your post, I saw a 10-minute cookbook on the sale rack at B&N. I flipped through it and it looks pretty good. Lots of stir fries with different sauces, 1-min steaks, etc. Had a seafood section, a vegetarian section and a dessert section. With the frozen veggies/salad sides, this could probably help you out a lot. (Link at the bottom.)

Mine is 13 months old and I'm getting to be where you are. We're still feeding the baby totally separately, but I rarely spend more than 20 minutes on dinner. After everyone has eaten and the baby is in bed, I like to bake so I have a nice bread side the next day. And so that I know I'm not giving my son bread products loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, regular sugar, and salt. But baking has always been relaxing to me and I wouldn't try to add it to my routine if it were a chore.

Good luck!

~Amanda

Here is a link that might be useful: 10 minutes

You've received some good suggestions. I usually eat dinner within 10-15 minutes of getting home from work; no kids, but I usually get home between 7:30 & 8.

The only things I can actually 'cook' in 10-15 minutes after I get home are stirfries pre-prepped with very thinly sliced meat or seafood, and couscous with broiled fish and salad or sauteed veggies.

What I usually do is cook dinner the night before and reheat when I get home. Or if I'm cooking something that will be baked, I will assemble dinner the night before, and then stick it into the oven as soon as I wake up, and let it cook while I'm in the shower & getting ready for work, then refrigerate it. If I know DH will get home a lot earlier than I will, I may assemble a dish, cover it with foil, and mark baking instructions on it so that the can stick it in the oven before I get home.

It's probably been covered earlier in the thread (I'm off to my jazzercise class and just took a quick spin through the postings on my way out the door) but arm yourself with good small electrics that make your job easy/fast/healthy. I love my pannini maker; use a slow cooker; a multi-layer steamer is very useful for quick meals and plan ahead.

My standard go to dinner is boneless chicken breasts, boneless pork chops, fish fillets or (rarely) small steaks seasoned and cooked on the George Foreman Grill. Ready in under 10 minutes.

Frozen steam in the bag veggies (usually broccoli) and small salad for DH and I (pre-prepped cut up veggies) and rice or pasta for the kids.

All ready in about 10 minutes. I often add applesauce for the kids. Not gourmet, but healthy and tasty.

If your family will eat the same meal two or three days in a row, cook a couple casseroles on the weekend. I was blessed with kids who didn't mind eating something they liked for several meals. One of my sons complains that his wife refuses to eat the same food two days in a row. They eat supper quite late--I couldn't stand that.

One of my DDs was frantic to eat so I would give her the veggie portion of her meal as a snack. I didn't mind if she ate raw veggies with L-F ranch dressing or PB. She especially liked grape tomatoes and baby carrots.

For 10-minute meals, I agree with many of the suggestions above and now that my girls are 9 years old, I've tried a lot of those fast cooking techniques.

What has worked: Double or triple a recipe on the weekend to have frozen meals available during the month. (I didn't invent the term POOF for nothing!) I make large batches of taco seasoned ground chicken and thick black bean soup for tortilla night.

Prepping a dinner ahead of time so it is ready to cook immediately when everyone is home.

Finding some quick frozen entrees (at Trader Joe's or the grocery store's natural food section).

Stirfrying. There are even some frozen stirfry veggie packages that may be used in a pinch.

Pan grilling ham, fish, turkey cutlets with a grill pan.

Precooking rice or whole wheat pasta to keep in the fridge.

I supplement some meals with frozen packages of veggies including some that include little red potatoes. My kids love the prepackaged mashed potatoes by Bob Evans that are sold in the meat department.

Also, I recently bought a small, six-cup rice cooker which will cook rice then hold it at a warm setting. You can put the rice and water in the cooker in the morning then have DH turn it on when you're on your way home. It's worked with lots of different rices and grain blends.

Soups are always a big hit. Flavors melded in the fridge for a day taste even better.

We never got in the habit of having the children eat separate from the parents but I know a lot of families do that because it is less stressful. We always ate together and now make dinner time a priority (about 4-5 nights a week) because everyone has to slow down and converse. My DH is teaching an evening class one night and my girls have an activity another night.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll experiment and find what works for your family.

Read the below with a smile and an open-mind ok ?

I have just asked for help in this forum for a recipe for "a moron in a hurry". That is me. In a hurry only because I want to make a surprise on this special case between 2 events. That would not be like that every day.

Don't you think it is kind of sad to only have 10 minutes to prepare the food to the ones you love ? In that case I think I would have a solid thought about my family style of living :-). No offense here, just a thought. I used to be a stock trader. Always on the run, lots of money but no time for nothing and for no-one. Now I own a youth hostel, make MUCH less money but I have so much time for the ones I love.

Does any of you remember the discussion you had with your parents while they were cooking and filling the house with great smells ? Do we really want to take these sweet moments away from our kids' memories ? Asking for a 10 minutes recipe sounds like a symptom :-)

Phil

Rotisserie chickens are your friend. So many good recipes to whip up quickly from one - and you can give your little one some of it while working on it!

Phil: I couldn't agree with you more. I cherish the memories of my mom, dad, grandmother in the kitchen. All of us kids doing our homework on the kitchen table until it was time to "set" the table. Later, my mom and dad in their kitchen with all of us and our spouses and friends gathering around to talk and help prep. IMO families today are not giving the food experience enough time. It's not about chugging down some food and dividing up to go your own way. Much of a good family life are the smells coming from the kitchen; discussions and the gathering together, especially at dinner time. It's a good thing to preserve for the family. And it doesn't really require a lot of time. Just some planning and commitment to family time.

That preservation of time in the kitchen with the family is a lovely idea. It works for some families, not for others.

I remember when my kids were toddlers, if dinner was not on the table by 6, our lives went to he!! in a handbasket quickly. They were in bed usually by 7 which didn't leave much time after dinner. I was very fortunate in that I was able to be home during those years, so dinner on the table was doable. The downside was that daddy wasn't always home by 6.

Flash forward a few years. The kids are now 13 and 11. I'm still at home, but I'm working at home from 7 a.m. to about 4 or 4:30 p.m. Dinner is more challenging now due to our schedules. There are nights when there are activities until 6 or there may be activities starting at 5:30 or 6, requiring an ealier dinner. Although I'm working here, it does not provide me the time to leave the office to start dinner.

Sons are currently involved in karate with one son taking piano lessons and the other taking guitar lessons. The 11-year-old has been begging to play soccer, so I investigated it as it's spring sign-up now. They practice 3 to 4 nights a week with 1 to 2 games a week. They're kidding, right? In 5th grade he typically has at least an hour of homework. Karate will be going by the wayside here soon, but that still doesn't free up the time for soccer! I don't know how some families do it.

What I find the most helpful is to spend a day on the weekend making dinners for the freezer. In our lives, certainly I have the opportunity some nights to make a chili or soup or meatloaf or whatever. When I do that, I usually at least double what I'm making so I can throw some in the freezer for those "crazy" nights.

It's all about priority. Who's the mom here!? Make it what you want and prioritize. If you want chaos...?!! Continue to do what you're doing.

Um, if that was directed at me, I have a busy life but not chaos. I vetoed soccer, earning me the "worst mom in the world" award. Actually, that's a repeat for me, because I also won that award when I eliminated PlayStation and computer on school nights. Wonder what I'll do to win "worst mom" a third time?

It's directed at anybody that thinks they have to feed their family in 10 flippin minutes! Get it together and set your priorities! Feed your family with good health and quality time together. Stop assuming that your time is more important than that of your ancestors'. We all have 24 hours in our day. Make the most of it.

I am in the same boat as you. My toddler is 20 months and when we get home, it seems like he is starving. Every Sunday I make something big, like lasagna, meatloaf, or soup, and we usually have that on two of our weeknights. I also do an occasional crockpot meal. Otherwise, I prep a good deal of my food at night or early in the morning when everyone else is asleep. I do prefer that we all sit down together to eat and this system seems to be working out for us.

I am sorry, Ganggreen, my message was not done by any mean to ask anyone for a justification. It as just a nostalgic thought, ans some opinion upon our today's life :-)

kszal - first I want to welcome you to CF! It's a great place with lots of opinions, and help. Makes me think, whether I agree with everyone or not, and gets me out of jams, and - while I'm not the most active on the site - I do feel like I have some friends here!

On to your question. I agree with a lot of the suggestions. Weekend Cooking is my savior. My commute is now over an hour, and when I get home I'm tired and hungry. DH does a lot of the cooking these days, but I love to cook, and he's not quite as "health conscious" - his taste buds were developed by growing up on processed foods... His favorite meal (as others know) is hot dogs and stouffers mac and cheese - which by the way can be done in 10 minutes!! If not hot dogs when he cooks we eat a lot of frozen meals or "TV Dinners" and occaisonally chicken, fish, or steak on the grill. His driver isn't time, it's simple. That means easy, uncomplicated, not a lot of steps.

So I can prepare healthier, lower-fat, lower chemical foods on the weekend, and he can heat them up and have them on the table as I come in the door.

At this stage in your life, I completely understand the "dinner in 10 minutes" question. Hopefully as the kids get older you will be able to spend more time on meal prep, but to gangreen's point, the reality of life is you may find your family eating in shifts to accommodate all the schedules.

Sounds like you really are trying to prepare healthy and quick meals - not just quick. Good Luck to you!! Just takes a little planning, good shopping. As annoying as Sandra Lee can be, think Semi-homemade. I agree with the rotisserie chicken, and the pre-cut veggies, bags of salad, etc as good starters. We also buy the chicken tenders which broil or stir-fy up quickly. Some fish like flounder can also be done in 10 minutes... with frozen veggies and those pre-made mashed potatoes or reheated cooked rice makes a good meal. DH has discovered Stovetop stuffing, which cooks up quickly, too. He served it the other night with Grocery Store fried chicken, canned corn, canned green beans... and then the stovetop.... Certainly quick!

I often have my just turned seven grandson and my two year old granddaughter with me at dinner time. The trick is to keep the seven year old busy and out eh junk food while entertaining the two year old and having dinner ready when the bread winner, my wife comes home from work. What I like to do is prepare meals they can help we with. My grandson is old enough to crack eggs and stir. My granddaughter can carry things to the counter for me. These jointly prepared meals must be quick due to the attention spans of my helpers so mostly they are stir Fry and pasta Fry. Pasta Fry are stir Fry with- pasta instead of rice. Both children can help set the table, while the food cooks and when my wife comes home the kids are usually starting their dinner and we can sit down with them.

Here is a link that might be useful: traveling and cooking with grandpa

Ksal again welcome to the Cooking Forum! You life doesn't sound like chaos to me, it sounds like you're very considerate of the kinds of foods you eat and your kid. You sound pretty well organized. I'm no toddler, but due to not being able to find work closer, I have an hour commute and I come home starving so the sooner I can get dinner on the table the better for me. That way I can spend more time eating and savoring. Weekend cooking is my real savior. Soup is a great thing to get a toddler started--with fun crackers. Plus some chopped up veggies and dip. I often munch on baked tortilla chips and black bean salsa dip while prepping dinner. Also toasted nut mix and maybe a piece of cheese or small dish of cottage cheese. Most of my friends with toddlers I see making simplified versions of mom and dad's meal. Toddlers have much smaller tummies so they eat less but more often, and are often sick with a runny nose and don't always have the tolerance for the heavy and spicy foods that grownups do. Sometimes yes, I know my friend's daughter loves salty greek olives and I loved smoked oysters and braunschweiger as a kid! But a fruit cup and cottage cheese or a PB&J on whole grain bread are fine starters too. Nothing wrong with good ol' spaghetti O's. There are more healthful versions of instant kiddie foods out there now, in some of the higher end markets. I sometimes buy little chicken drumsticks and bake them with barbecue sauce on the weekends and them have them for quick protein during the week.

Check out the homeade applesauce thread. You could make your own applesauce and can it up in little jars that would make a good starter for your toddler. My brother lived on hot dogs, cottage cheese and applesauce as a kid. And a lot of milk. The only veggie he would eat was green peppers, so mom always had some gp sticks on hand to serve him. To this day he still like plain individualized foods. If I had a toddler like him, I would make stuff up on the weekends and freeze it in those little plastic freezer cups--mashed squash, mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes. I think I remember reading that if you add cream cheese to mashed potatoes they freeze well. I buy the lowfat stuff.