I don’t love to cook every day. I like cooking sometimes. But I have to eat three times a day without a break (except for fast Sunday), and sometimes I get tired of trying to figure out what I want to eat and what to feed my family.

On occasion, I want to follow a specific recipes, but more often, I just have fall backs that I go to.

Default Meals

These are meals that easy, I usually have the ingredients for, and don’t take much time or effort.

• Spaghetti
• Grilled cheese & tomato soup
• Sandwiches
• Quesadillas
• Tuna noodle casserole
• Nachos
• Macaroni and cheese
• Instant mashed potatoes (or stuffing) with ham/frozen veggies
• Egg tortilla rolls (like this)
• Pancakes
• Cereal
• Muffins
• Ramen noodles
• Stir fry

No Cooking Meals

For days when I don’t want to cook very much at all.

• Frozen pizza
• Frozen lasagna or other meals
• Chicken nuggets
• Meatballs
• Chili
• Bagged salad
• Corn dogs
• Macaroni salad/potato salad
• Rotisserie chicken
• Hot dogs

Category Meals

I don’t have specific recipes for a lot of these; I just take what I have and use it.

• Rice bowls: beans and rice, Hawaiian haystacks, and whatever other meat/veggie combo you have around.
• Stir fry: more complicated varieties with meat, fried rice, or lo mein. Often serve with wontons.
• Pasta salad: just add in whatever veggies and meat I have and coat it with mayo
• Soup: fry up onion and butter and build from there. You can do tomato based, potato based, or cream based
• Chili/taco soup/etc.
• Crock Pot meat: take meat and sauce and cook it in the slow cooker.
• Pan roast: I am still figuring this one out
• Salad: taco salad, Asian salad, cheeseburger salad–anything with lettuce/cabbage and other things piled on top
• Tacos: Navajo tacos with scones; normal tacos with fried shells; tostadas; etc.
• Burritos: breakfast burritos, chimichangas, black bean burritos, bean and cheese, chicken, etc.
• Pizza: bagel pizzas, taco pizza, fruit pizza, normal pizza

Chopped Meals

Sometimes it’s just a good idea to take the ingredients you have or need to be used, and try to come up with something that tastes okay. Get creative.

Specific Recipes

Sometimes I do use recipes to cook something specific.

And sometimes I eat string cheese and grapes: