Sounds like you need to do what I call "steaks and chops"...and fix them very simply.
Think just meat, potatoes and a veggie and you will feed your family well ( not necessarily cheaply!) and healthy meals.
Pork chops, steaks, chicken breasts ( boneless, skinless) fish fillets, minute steaks, ham steaks, bratwurst, turkey tenders all will cook in 20 minutes or less, fill in with a baked potato or Basamati rice a steamed veggie and you have dinner.
Buy and freeze those items, and take what you need for the next night out of the freezer as you finish dinner and let it defrost in the refrigerator. Then when you come home, heat the pan or grill, start the potatoes, cook the meat and cook the veggies while the meat is cooking and you have dinner.
Salt and pepper is good...or you can add seasonings to your taste...or add a bottled "sauce" after the meat is cooked.
Nothing fancy, just good food.
Linda C

Also consider 'Breakfast For Dinner'. Omelets with lots of veggies (no cheese), potatoes, ham, whole wheat bread, & some type of fruit. Quick, easy, good. Since you need to watch your carbs you could pass on either the potatoes or the bread...hubby may want both?

/tricia

You might get some ideas from this thread of simple recipes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Simple Recipes

A homemade hearty soup is part of my regular rotation. Rotation, ha! That makes my meal planning sound more organized than it actually is, but you get the idea. I use mainly vegetables (don't overlook some kale or other greens) in my soups and usually beans. You could use a small amount of beans or none at all and use a small amount of meat instead. Prep, or the finished soup, could be made the night before. These soups are tasty and I like to eat them frequently.

I had a light meal the other night of egg salad with sliced tomato on the side. I should have added some lettuce to the plate. It was good. The egg salad was practically no work and it was made made ahead.

A chef salad or antipasto can be a satsfying meal if it is large and has a good variety of ingredients such as mushrooms, spinach, onion, tomato, hard boiled egg, crumbled bacon, olives, etc. A small amount of cold leftover grilled meat such as salmon or thinly sliced steak or chicken are excellent as a topping if you have it, but I don't consider it necessary. When I say "large", I mean "large". You want to really chow down on this and not go away unsatisfied. Don't skimp.

Along the same lines, but with a different twist is salad Nicoise. Make it with salad greens, marinated diced cooked potatoes, calamata olives (which I prefer to Nicoise olives) and cold poached or canned fish of some sort such as tuna, salmon or mackeral. Arrange it all attractively on the plate and dress with vinaigrette.

Jim

The Atlanta paper has a regular column called, "The 5:30 Challege." It's for5 ingredients and 30 minutes. You might find some good ideas. There is also the "Seven Day Planner" that includes ideas like one big roast and followup meals using the leftovers. Scroll down on the left...

Here is a link that might be useful: The 5:30 Challenge

Thank you everybody for your responses, please keep adding if you come up with anything else too.

Linda and Tricia - some of those are my current staples that I'm just tired of and I think DH too as he is finding more excuses to not eat dinner. Guess too much of a good thing :) Need to get something new mixed in there.

What is minute steaks?

ruthanna and adoptedbygreyhounds - Great recipies in the simple thread and the 5:30 challenge too.

Jim - We have soup fairly often too. I'll make a huge pot on the weekend and freeze and just re-heat. Good idea on the salads especially now with summer heat. How do you make antipasto?

In my post, I was thinking of antipasto as synonymous with chef salad, which it is pretty much. But it is Italian in style so it includes cheese, coldcuts and pickled peppers. But hey, a chef salad could have those too. There is a lot of overlap.

Jim

Spend some time on the weekend prepping and cooking and you can have a great meal on the table very quickly.
Here are some of the things I do:

Wash and prep veggies like celery sticks, celery, cauliflower, broccoli and even bell peppers. Store in ziploc bags. Chop up onions, peppers, etc. During the week, you can roast them, add to salad or soup very quickly. Or stir fry them.

Cook 2 or 3 kinds of meat in the oven at the same time.
Beef or pork roast, chicken and fish. and toss in a casserole too!
Use it later in the week.

Make your own Jojos or fries and freeze.

Soups are always good.

Fried rice reheats well and uses up little bits of meat/veggies.

Wraps are a good way to use up small amounts too. Either tortillas or large lettuce leaves.

Use a crockpot and the meal will be ready when you get home!

Deanna

Like Deanna, I make good use of my crockpot to make a pot of beans or pork carnitas or pulled pork or beef BBQ.

I like to make a big half sheet pan of various roasted vegetables, whatever sounds good to me that day. I can warm them up for a meal whenever I need them, I've used potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, onion, beets, zucchini, asparagus, cauliflower. I try to keep them "sorted out" with things that cook quickly, like asparagus and zucchini on one tray. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and put in the oven at 400F or so until they are as done as you want. Watch asparagus, it gets crispy quickly! I try to have one vegetarian meal per week, minimum.

I think most recipes today contain altogether too much cheese, so I'm not guilty of that, but I often make a tub of hummus and eat that with celery sticks so I'm not sure what those carbs would do to your blood sugar. It at least has lots of fiber.

As for low carb, how about a nice frittata? I'm a big "breakfast for supper" person because I don't like much food in the morning but I love breakfast foods.

I also like "finger food" sometimes, like a steamed spear of asparagus, or some sticks of veggies of your choice, wrapped in a slice of turkey or ham that's been spread with some low fat herbed cream cheese. Lots of protein, no bread.

Finally, I make stir fries with whatever sounds good, add a shot of soy sauce and whatever seasonings you like. You can make it with shrimp, chicken, beef, pork, tofu, no meat at all, a couple of different kinds, any vegetables you like. Stirfry is my friend. LOL

Here are two of my favorite recipes. The first goes together really quickly but does require that you keep a bottle of fish sauce, whichi I only use for this recipe, LOL. The cut up chunks of chicken cook quickly, it takes longer to make the brown rice that I like with it. Add any veggie you like. I cut the chilies down to one and I use whatever boneless chicken I have on hand. Sometimes it's a mix of dark and light, sometimes not. Compliments of solsthumper...

Chicken in Caramel Sauce
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup fish sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon slivered ginger
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 small dried, red chilies, broken in half
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 shallot, sliced
1-3/4 lbs. skinless, boneless dark meat chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/4 lb., skinless, boneless white meat chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
Cooked rice
Fresh cilantro sprig for garnishing
Combine the sugar, water, fish sauce, vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, ginger, pepper, and chilies in a small bowl. Mix well. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the shallot and sautfor a few minutes. Add the chicken and sauté until slightly browned, about 3 minutes. Add the sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half, about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Place rice in a serving bowl and spoon the chicken over it. Garnish with cilantro.
Also from Sol is my go-to-crockpot-recipe, pork carnitas. Unfortuantely I'm at work and don't have it here, anyone else have that recipe handy?

Annie

One of my standbys is a quick chicken picatta. If he won't eat capers, save them for you or skip them. I use chicken cutlets (pounded out skinless boneless breasts from the market) dip them in a seasoned flour mixture (one lb of chicken to a couple of Tablespoons of flour) and then saute in a bit of olive oil. I add lemon juice, chicken broth/stock (canned or homemade) and cook until almost done (less than 10 min) and add a bit more lemon juice and capers. Voila!

Hi,
haven't posted here since forever, but this is a FAVORTE go to recipe...yummy!!!

Easy Caramelized Onion Pork Chops
(my adaptation from a recipe on allrecipes.com)

Prep Time approx. 5 minutes
Cook Time approx. 40 minutes

1 tbs. vegetable oil 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
4 pork chops-1/2" thick 1 med. to large onion-sliced in rings
Salt to taste 1 cup chicken broth

Rub chops with salt and pepper.

In a skillet (dont use a nonstick skillet), heat oil to medium heat. Brown pork chops on each side. Add onions and broth to the pan. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Turn chops over, add more seasoning to taste. Cover and cook until broth has reduced almost entirely and onions have turned light to medium brown. Remove chops from pan and serve with onions on top.

Bon appetit!
Claire

Sorry...this recipe didn't copy very well. This is more clearly presented (I think)

Easy Caramelized Onion Pork Chops
(my adaptation from a recipe on allrecipes.com)

Prep Time approx. 5 minutes
Cook Time approx. 40 minutes

1 tbs. vegetable oil
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
4 pork chops-1/2" thick
1 med. to large onion-sliced in rings
Salt to taste
1 cup chicken broth

Rub chops with salt and pepper.

In a skillet (dont use a nonstick skillet), heat oil to medium heat. Brown pork chops on each side. Add onions and broth to the pan. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Turn chops over, add more seasoning to taste. Cover and cook until broth has reduced almost entirely and onions have turned light to medium brown. Remove chops from pan and serve with onions on top.

Bon appetit!
Claire

Quick prep, great results. This recipe made a frequent appearance on our table when I was working. It is still a FAVORITE.

Here's something to make in advance and have for lunches -
Ensalata Russa (loosely translated to "russian salad") I'm having it for lunch today, it travels well!

In current times many countries or regions have their own variations to the "russian salad" but the basic components are root vegetables and/or meats mixed with mayonnaise. Mine was boiled new baby potatoes, frozen peas, chopped carrots, scallions and celery, black olives and tuna, bound together with pesto mayonnaise and some white wine vinegar and seasoned with Penzey's sandwich sprinkle. Can use green olives with pimentos too, if you like them. Can add capers instead of olives.

I served it over a lettuce salad which I packed separately, with tomatoes and hard boiled eggs added before serving, and a little more vinegar and oil dressing. Could also add toasted sunflower seeds for even more protein. Meat eaters add ham or chicken pieces, which you could do if you don't like tuna. Vegetarians can add tofu or fake bacon bits.

Could sub dill and pickles for the basil and add beets and goat cheese if that doesn't set off the lactose intolerance.

These all sounds yummy!! Thank You!!

Try this website, I just ordered this cookbook called "The Six O'Clock Scramble." The whole concept is dinner in a jiffy for busy people. She offers a subscription to a weekly newsletter that has meal plans and a shopping list for 5 dinners for the following week. I'm a nutritionist and I recommend this website to clients. Many people love it. It takes away the nightly strain over what to make for dinner for busy, juggling people who still want to eat well.

In addition, I find a lot of good ideas in the Martha Stewert monthly magazine Everyday Food ($12 for 10 issues). Great food fast is the concept behind both of the Scramble newsletter and Everyday Food. I just made some oven baked tilapia the other day that I brushed with fresh lemon juice & a little Hellman's light mayo mixed together, and rolled in Panko & parmesan and baked - delicious and very fast.

With resources such as the above, make a list & menu plan for the week on Sunday, go shopping & you are set. In addition, I usually serve three things for dinner: some main item, fresh fruit, and a veggie or two. Tonight is black bean, red onion & shrimp quesadillas, corn on the cob, and orange slices. Even easier would be to serve frozen corn. You can sub rotisserie chicken in the quesadillas or just make veggie ones. Whole grain, low carb tortillas are readily available in supermarkets now. You can control your blood sugars by focusing on high fiber, whole grain carbs, and including lean protein and healthy fats in your meals (along with your insulin, as you know.)

The cheese is a hard issue, good luck with that one. Does taking lactase enzymes with meals help him? There is limited availablity of lactosefree cheese in stores, but lots of other lactose-free versions of dairy products if he can tolerate those. Aged cheese contains very little lactose - maybe it's soemthing else in the cheese that bothers your husband. There is a brand of lactose free cheese made by a company called Lifeline. Do a google search and you will find info about them.

Good luck!

Rose

Here is a link that might be useful: Six O'Clock Scramble