By: Amanda Horwitz, M.Ed.
Making a grocery list is one of my LEAST favorite things to do. Grocery shopping weekly works the best for our family so this means that I am planning meals and shopping once a week. When you add two picky kids who are involved in dance and gymnastics to the mix, deciding what to eat each week becomes a chore (to me). I want to plan meals that my husband and I aren’t going to be bored with but that my kids will eat some of.
After making myself crazy trying to come up with new, fresh ideas that met all of our criteria (quick to make, reasonably priced ingredients and includes foods that my kids will eat), I succumbed to the idea that our weekly meals will include one of the following recipes. I present to you, Amanda’s List of Quick, Reasonably Priced, Partially Kid-friendly Recipes (creative, I know).
- Creme De La Crumb One Pot Lemon Herb Chicken and Rice
- This is my husband’s favorite, and my oldest daughter’s least favorite! We like to add roasted brussel sprouts or sauteed green beans when we make this.
- What we love about this recipe: it’s quick! And ‘fancy’ enough to serve to guests
- Substitutions: we use olive oil instead of butter, and more lemon juice than is called for.
- Weight Watchers Garlic-Thyme Chicken with Cauliflower, Potatoes and Olives
- We love this one because it’s got something for everyone – protein, starch, veggie. The flavor of the lemon and olives works SURPRISINGLY well!
- What we love about this recipe: requires minimal pans and the flavor is cravable!
- We don’t make any substitutions but the olives could be removed easily.
- Recipe Diaries Taco Pie
- Ok, the truth is that we make one pie and leave some of each of the ingredients disassembled for our kids.
- This one is comforting and yummy! We use the leanest beef I can get on sale, usually 85/15. My husband and I prefer different sauces and condiments – he prefers sour cream and I prefer taco sauce (specifically Trader Joe’s Organic Spicy Taco Sauce).
- The View from Great Island Israeli Pasta Salad
- We like to switch it up and do vegetarian meals quite often. This is one of our favorites. It’s packed with delicious veggies, and enough of them that my kids won’t pick everything out.
- It’s easy to delete ingredients. The olive oil, lemon, thyme, salt and pepper ‘sauce’ is refreshing and perfect for summer.
- Pillsbury Italian Zucchini Crescent Pie
- Another veggie option! But easy to add a protein too, we’ve served it with grilled or baked chicken and red sauce.
- Substitutions: sometimes I’ll use sauteed spinach and artichoke hearts instead of zucchini.
This is by no means an extensive list but I hope it is enough to get you started or add some new variety to your weekly meal planning. Have a favorite you want to share? Drop a link in the comments and let us know what you love about it.
Amanda Horwitz, M.Ed. has been working as a pre-health academic advisor at Wayne State University since 2016. Her predominant advising populations are pre-med, pre-dental and pre-PA students. In addition to providing one-on-one advising, Amanda also develops and presents regular programs for students and coordinates a pre-med mentoring program. She co-leads her office’s social media and marketing plan and continues to push the bar in student engagement initiatives. In addition to advising, Amanda also teaches 1-2 sections of a first-year seminar course each semester. She is active in both CAAHP and NAAHP, serving as the co-chair of the Publications and Media Committee for the NAAHP.
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