8 Must-Have Foods for Family-Friendly Meals in 10-15 minutes or LESS!

8 Must-Have Foods for Family-Friendly Meals in 10-15 minutes or LESS!

I have been pretty good about planning our meals ahead of time and have been using the crock-pot a lot lately; however, there are those nights when I get home late, have nothing planned but still need to get dinner on the table. There are now 8 must-haves that I keep in the house at all times in order to get dinner prepped, cooked and served in about 10-15 minutes or less. (Note: These items can be on the pricey side but are often on sale! Keep a look out for when these items go on sale and buy a few at a time).

1    Fully Cooked Meats- Fully cooked Perdue ChickenStrips, microwaveable Hormel Bacon, Fully Cooked Tyson Roast & BeefTips, Deli Roast Beef

Use the chicken strips in wraps, quesadillas, tacos, quick stir fry (mix with micro stir fry veggies and rice) or casseroles (chicken strips, cream of mushroom or chicken soup, broccoli and shredded cheese, mix and top w/Ritz cracker crumbs and bake for 10mins. OR you could omit the broccoli and top w/stuffing mix and bake)

The bacon is perfect for on-the-spot BLTs, macaroni and micro bacon (boil elbow macaroni while you micro the bacon, mix with small can of tomato paste and crumbled bacon.  Place in casserole dish, top with remaining bacon and bake till crispy) or even bacon and eggs (breakfast for dinner ROCKS!).

I like to keep the precooked roast and beef tip on hand to serve with a quick side or as pulled pork/beef sandwiches. The Beef Tips are also great to add to egg noodles and cream of mushroom soup for a quick stroganoff!

2.       Tortillas- Tortillas are great for quesadillas, wraps, soft tacos, burritos, thin crust pizzas

3.       Pizza Crusts- Besides the normal cheese and sauce pizzas, we often use leftovers as the next day pizza toppings.

4.       Pie Crusts- We love cheeseburger pie, quick & easy chicken pot pie (using precooked chicken strips, cream of chicken soup and micro veggies). You can also use leftovers, sauce and cheese, deli meat (whatever you have on hand) to make “fold-overs”. You place your filling on ½ of one crust and fold it over, like a spinach pie and bake.

5.       Shredded Cheese- This is an essential. Add to soup, omelets, quesadillas, tacos, casseroles, pizzas etc.

6.       Canned Soup- Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Chicken, Chicken Noodle, Minestrone

Add the cream soups to casserole dishes as mentioned above. Add chopped chicken strips, micro veggies and rice to the chicken noodle and minestrone to beef it up.

7.       Pasta and Rice- Regular Macaroni, Frozen tortellini and Ravioli. Micro Steam Rice

Pasta- Add red sauce and serve. Add alfredo sauce, chicken strips, broccoli and shredded cheese and bake for 10mins till bubbly.

Rice- As a quick side dish,  add to chicken strips or other meat for stir-fry or add to quesadillas, soups or casseroles

8.       Frozen Veggies- Micro-Steam Broccoli, Micro-Steam Stir fry Mix and frozen micro Potatoes (Ore Ida mashed or Steam Fresh Potatoes & Sauce)

As a quick side dish, added to stir-fry, casseroles, soups etc.

Keeping these 8 Family Made Simple must-have’s have made dinner time a lot less stressful. I hope you got some new ideas for quick & easy meals. Please  visit our Facebook page for more ideas or to even share some of you family faves!