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Too busy. That has become my mantra. I think I say it at least 10 times a day… I’M TOO BUSY! From about 6am until dinnertime I am on the go. After grabbing breakfast, packing lunches, and dropping the kids off at school, I’m working straight until they get picked up again between 2:00 - 3:00. My afternoons consist of either helping the kids with homework, watching Temera play tennis, or more work. By dinnertime, we are all starving and I need to throw something together ASAP. It’s all about effortless meals for us… because nobody in my house has time for the elaborate.
We’ve been eating out (or bringing in) way too much lately and the husband is not happy. He knows I don’t have the time to spend cooking a lot, but he likes coming home at the end of the day to a meal that hasn’t been prepared by a restaurant. I’ve given it a lot of thought this summer and I know it’s all in the planning and preparation. So I finally came up with a few ways to make dinner a lot easier and it all starts with shopping smartly during my weekly trip to Walmart.
I love chicken… as in, I could probably eat it every day. I especially love rotisserie chicken, but since I don’t have a rotisserie at home and I rarely have time to roast a chicken, I count on Walmart to feed my cravings. One tip: shop early in the day when stock is at a premium. By the end of the day, they are often completely sold out. No wonder… it’s a great bargain.
The deli section has an amazing array of prepared foods. I often pick up a large Marketside Pizza for the family - one feeds us all and with a salad you have a complete meal.
And don’t forget to pick up a 2 liter of Coke for your favorite team… the HOME team!
The trick is to find that combination of prepared food and homemade. Did you ever watch the TV show on the Food Network “Semi-Homemade” with Sandra Lee? I loved that show. It was all about taking prepared foods and creating a great meal that didn’t take you a ton of time, but looked like it did. That’s exactly what I was going for with these meals: they look complicated, but they are really effortless.
I actually planned out a week’s worth of dinners (something I need to do more of) and it worked out pretty well. To give you the run-down:
Monday: BBQ Chicken Sliders
Tuesday: Gnocci
Wednesday: Hot Dogs
Thursday: Out
Friday: Chicken Orzo Soup
I had purchased 2 rotisserie chickens from Walmart that I wanted to use during the week and having those in the fridge was a huge help. It’s been over 100 degrees here in California and I certainly don’t want to turn on the oven if I don’t have to. Plus, I don’t always have a few hours to roast a chicken myself. I used one of the chickens for the BBQ Chicken Sliders and the other one for the Chicken Orzo Soup. We are a family of 5 so yes, we eat a lot. If you are a smaller family, you could use one chicken to cover two (or more) meals.
For the sliders, I just shredded the meat from one chicken and added BBQ sauce to the bowl. I microwaved it until warm and piled the chicken on Hawaiian sweet rolls. Yum! So fast and easy and I served the sliders with Walmart’s Potato Salad that I picked up in the deli section of the store. It was so good that Amanda ended up taking the leftover potato salad to school for lunch.
Tuesday we went with my daughter’s favorite Gnocci and on Wednesday the kids were craving hot dogs so we made those. On Thursday night I went out with my book club friends for Indian Food, while David took the kids out to dinner. He doesn’t cook… don’t get me started. Friday night is family night and we like to stay in and rent a movie and just hang out after a long week. I love Chicken Orzo Soup and rarely make it, but I thought it would be so incredibly easy since I already had the chicken.
If you shred your chicken as soon as you get home from Walmart, you’ll be WAY ahead of the game. This is the big trick: do as much prep when you get home from the store and you won’t have to worry about having the time to do it when you need to make dinner. That’s what stumps me most… not being prepared.
With prepackaged chicken soup (or soup you may have made earlier… you can freeze broth), you just need to fill a large pot and bring to a boil. Add in your orzo (as much or as little as you like - keep in mind that the orzo will soak up a lot of the liquid, so make sure you either like your soup heartier or you add enough liquid to make it more of a broth-type soup. Once the orzo is soft, go ahead and add in your shredded chicken and whole leaf spinach and squeeze that lime.
- 2 cups rotisserie Chicken, shredded
- 4 cups chicken Soup, homemade or prepackaged
- 2 large handfulls of spinach
- 2 limes
- 1/4 cup of orzo
- Fill a pot with the chicken soup and bring to a boil.
- Add the 1/4 cup of orzo and let cook until tender.
- Turn off the heat and add the shredded chicken and the spinach.
- Add juice of one lime.
- Cut the second lime in slices to add to the top of your bowls.
We got through an entire week without too much complaining about what we were going to eat each night. YES!
I love the mix of prepared foods and homemade, especially on these hot nights when we’re all so busy and don’t have time or energy to cook a full course meal. Look for the Effortless Meals signs in your Walmart.
Be sure to check out more delicious effortless meal inspiration. What is your go-to effortless meal?
I am always on the hunt for easy meals! Between working, and walking back and forth to school six times for various drop off/pick ups for the kids I feel like my day just gets totally away from me. Using the Effortless Meals from Walmart looks like a great way to have a homemade meal without all the prep work usualy required! Thanks for sharing your recipes! #client
Yep… we’ve been getting home around 6pm and if we don’t have something prepared ahead of time, it’s a huge fight for what we’re going to eat.
Since school has started for the kids, I’m all about effortless meals and love to mix pre-made with home cooked items to make things easier. Rotisserie chicken is always one of my “go to” items for quick meals.