Favorite convenience foods

[bbdoll]

Sometimes I don't have the time or energy to make a proper dinner. What are your favorite premade convenience foods that your family enjoys? So far, the parmesan encrusted chicken from Aldi has been a hit.

[sproctopus]

Trader Joe's. The whole store. LOL.

[tacokick]

Aldi red bag chicken (made into sandwiches) and their wild caught fish sticks are pretty good.

Pierogi

Red beans and rice mix (also Aldi) that we add sausage and veggies to

Refrigerated ravioli boiled with spinach and drizzled with bottled pesto


This is an area of food my husband keeps saying we need to explore more lol We do too much from scratch cooking and get burnt out but our take out options aren’t great. A lot of convenience food is $$ and not very tasty though so I’m always nervous about trying new things.

[jwright]

Rotiessiere chicken, minute rice and bag salad is a common dinner at our house.

[marie]

I like grabbing a rotisserie chicken and working off of that. My kids love stuffing, gravy and chicken with cranberry sauce. I just have to cook the stuffing, which literally takes a minute, and throw it all together like a mini Thanksgiving meal with chicken vs turkey.

I have been trying to go to Aldi more... I will have to look for that chicken! Is it frozen or fresh?

[leahcar]

The stuffed peppers and the ravioli lasagna from Costco are both delicious.

Whole Foods - smoked mozzarella pasta salad is so good. Add some cubed deli meat for protein.

[bbdoll]

Feb 8, 2023 18:09:40 GMT -5 marie said:

I like grabbing a rotisserie chicken and working off of that. My kids love stuffing, gravy and chicken with cranberry sauce. I just have to cook the stuffing, which literally takes a minute, and throw it all together like a mini Thanksgiving meal with chicken vs turkey.

I have been trying to go to Aldi more... I will have to look for that chicken! Is it frozen or fresh?

It's in the frozen section in a green bag. It's good on its own or makes excellent chicken parmesan.

[bee20]

I don't have kids, but my lazy options are:

-bagged salad with beans on top for protein. Either black beans (rinse a can, add salsa, microwave) or chickpeas (rinse a can, add TJs green goddess seasoning, good cold or hot).
-Madras lentils from Costco, they're in plastic pouches. Good on their own or as a soup side to salad, sandwich, cut veggies
-Trader joes chicken gyoza dumped on top of caulifower fried rice (both in the frozen section) Low calories too.
-Trader joes turkey meatballs on top of frozen veggies or their rice/veggie mixes if you want more carbs.
-I feel like nobody will say this, but frozen pizza

[mofongo]

Wait, we just got an Aldi, is it red or green bag chicken??

[bbdoll]

Feb 8, 2023 18:19:09 GMT -5 mofongo said:

Wait, we just got an Aldi, is it red or green bag chicken??

Green bag. They call them tenders, but they are basically the size of a small chicken breast. One is the perfect size for me.

[simpsongal]

We had some premade chicken meatballs from Costco this week that were tasty.

[underwaterrhymes]

Someone here recommended Factor 75, and we’ve been loving it. Super easy and pretty tasty. We get 6 meals for $75, but there is no prep. You just poke holes in the film and into the microwave for 2 minutes.

[underwaterrhymes]

Feb 8, 2023 18:19:09 GMT -5 mofongo said:

Wait, we just got an Aldi, is it red or green bag chicken??

Red bag is also awesome.

[mpm]

I put out bread, cheese, crackers, cold cuts, and fruit and call it charcuterie so it sounds less lazy.

[beerlover]

Boring, but I like a bagged Caesar salad mix that I'll put salmon or shrimp on. Or a bagged Asian salad mix that I'll put steak on. Easy, quick meals.

I also agree with sproctopus with all of Trader Joes.

My favorite Trader Joes items are the mandarin orange chicken (with rice and broccoli on the side), and the sweet potato gnocchi (roasted with kielbasa/other sausage and veggies).

[mofongo]

So, there’s a red AND a green bag! Lol

[christy082]

Costco-
Beef chili
Stuffed peppers
Chicken street tacos
Ravioli lasagna
Rotisserie chicken (over bagged salad, made into nachos)
Madras lentils (over frozen microwave brown rice)
Egglands Best frozen cheese omelets (sold elsewhere too but more cost effective from Costco)
Quiche
Bbq pulled pork
Smoked pulled pork

I haven't tried them yet but I've heard the Aldi pizzas are good.

[sadie]

Baked potato in microwave+ canned chili

Costco rotisserie chicken noodle soup

Costco meatloaf + mashed potato dinner

Variation on bagged salad-caesar salad wraps with rotisserie chicken. I add grapes too.

Trader joes frozen rice+ costco madras lentils+ frozen broccoli on the side

Tjs frozen rice+ aldi hawaiian chicken/teriyaki chicken + rice

We do lots of rice bowls. Frozen rice, sauced frozen protein, frozen veggie.

Costco frozen taquitos + veggie

[TR]

Costco chicken pot pie or ravioli lasagna, they also have frozen Detroit style pizzas that are really good

Stouffer’s lasagna

[okla]

Aldi has some shrimp bites and salmon bites that seem to only be available a few times a year. I just stocked up. The two of us will split a box of those over a bagged salad for a quick meal.

[al dente]

I have never seen ravioli lasagna at my Costco and now I'm sad.

We like the two pack frozen lasagna from Costco though.
Everything salad mix
Chicken tacos in prep food area
My H likes the ramen that starts with a T and is a big bowl.

We don't have Trader Joe's or Aldi so that's all I got from Costco!

[estrellita]

We had Costco frozen orange chicken in the air fryer, and I added eggs to Trader Joe's frozen fried rice for dinner tonight. It was delicious!

[jlt19]

Costco Frozen Lasagna (not quick, but no prep or anything).

Last night I made a salad with some of the kids chopped up chicken nuggets I had air fried, lol. It was actually pretty good. They had that and Annie’s Mac n Cheese. Air fried meat and Mac n cheese is an embarrassingly common meal around here.

Frozen pizza

Fried eggs and toast or a bagel

Frozen burgers and fries

Pancakes via mix + water

I’m a very lazy cook lately (as in over a year now). I used to do everything from scratch (homemade bread, pizza dough, pancakes, etc). But I don’t have it in me anymore. I’ve decided that’s a thing to let go.

Thing is, it’s not even the cooking part, but the planning part I loathe. We do meal delivery a lot, but it’s gotten really expensive, so we’ve cut back.

Plus kids hate or won’t eat any of it anyway, so it’s all a waste of my time and energy, really.

I wish we had a closer TJ’s but it’s probably best we don’t because I’d buy it all.

[redheadbaker]

Trader Joe's turkey bolognese over pasta

Trader Joe's carnitas with salsa and Mexican cheese, either in taco shells or on fried tortillas to make tostadas.

[jobae1234]

I really love frozen pizza.

Did a PF Chant’s meal for two tonight over white rice. It was super easy and not bad.

[dancingirl21]

Costco street tacos

Costco sells a box of premade cilantro-lime rice. You heat it in the microwave. I will often do that with ground Turkey and taco seasoning (some cooking here), cheese, pico de gallo, black beans.

[1confused1]

We eat a lot of Trader Joe’s frozen meals: fettuccine Alfredo add the chicken from the deli section, orange chicken over vegetable fried rice, BBQ chicken teriyaki over the frozen jasmine rice, chicken Italian sausage with gnocchi.

[lac]

Feb 8, 2023 18:12:53 GMT -5 bee20 said:

I don't have kids, but my lazy options are:

-bagged salad with beans on top for protein. Either black beans (rinse a can, add salsa, microwave) or chickpeas (rinse a can, add TJs green goddess seasoning, good cold or hot).
-Madras lentils from Costco, they're in plastic pouches. Good on their own or as a soup side to salad, sandwich, cut veggies
-Trader joes chicken gyoza dumped on top of caulifower fried rice (both in the frozen section) Low calories too.
-Trader joes turkey meatballs on top of frozen veggies or their rice/veggie mixes if you want more carbs.
-I feel like nobody will say this, but frozen pizza

If you can do tofu, try Trader Joe’s marinated tofu on top of the salad. It last forever in the fridge and is so good.

I’ve been living off of frozen TJs Indian food for weeks right now.

My favorite “convenience plus” meal is by budget bytes. Ingredients are literally rice, frozen broccoli, shredded cheese, and cooked chicken. Sometimes I use quinoa. My husband tries to get creative and I yell at him because the beauty is how all the simple things come together.

www.budgetbytes.com/easy-cheesy-broccoli-rice/

[sonrisa]

I like Costco's salmon with pesto butter. We'll add bibigo rice and heat some edamame.

I like Kevin's chicken dishes (also over rice - I mix frozen peas in at the end for east veggies)

Trader Joes tamales from the refrigerated section

[VillainV]

Can of Campbell’s Cream of Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Morningstar farms black bean burger with air fryer tater tots.