I'm a mom of 2. My picky eaters love these Trader Joe's staples for a quick, easy dinner.
Courtesy Elliott Harrell
- On busy weeknights, dinner needs to come together in 15 minutes or less.
- Trader Joe's has an impressive amount of options for quick meals.
- I'll mix and match a fully-cooked protein with a carb and veggie for our dinners.
As a mom of two little girls trying to balance a career with the demands of motherhood and running a household, I sometimes find myself in need of quick weeknight dinner ideas that I can get on the table in 15 minutes or less.
Even when I'm making something quickly, I try to include a protein, a carb, and a vegetable for most meals and will mix and match common ingredients. Trader Joe's has been a lifesaver with its wide range of ready-to-eat — or almost ready-to-eat — foods, and I always make sure to have their products on hand for fast and easy dinners.
My family eats a lot of the same vegetables right now
I wouldn't say my girls love eating vegetables right now, but there are two that they really like, and I can always count on them to eat. Those are staples for us right now, and they appear on our plates several times a week.
The edamame from Trader Joe's comes ready to eat, so I can just dump it right onto their plates. Green beans are also a preferred veggie in our house, and I love that these ones from Trader Joe's steam in under five minutes in the microwave.
Courtesy Elliott Harrell
The ready-to-eat protein selection at Trader Joe's makes dinners easy
Trader Joe's has a plethora of quick protein options for lightning-quick meal prep.
The Just Chicken strips and chicken meatballs are in the refrigerated section and can be eaten as-is, which we often do. If we have a bit more time, we will often warm the chicken meatballs up in a skillet or microwave them. I love that neither of these options doesn't have a ton of seasoning, which means it's easy to add flavors to suit what we're eating that night, whether it be ketchup for the girls or a creole spice mix for Mom and Dad.
Courtesy Elliott Harrell
I've been impressed that the fresh lasagna only takes five minutes to heat up in a microwave. You can heat it in the oven as well, but that takes 20-25 minutes, and sometimes that's just too long to wait to have dinner ready. Their fully cooked bacon takes even less time in the microwave — I can have six slices ready to serve in about 30 seconds.
I do turn the oven on for Trader Joe's turkey meatballs and turkey corn dogs and find that it takes between five to seven minutes using the air fryer setting on my oven to cook, but they are both still great options for quick meals since the oven doesn't need to preheat at all to air fry.
Both of my girls really enjoy shrimp, so I always have a bag on hand. Thawing what we need for dinner is quick, as long as we run it under warm water.
Courtesy Elliott Harrell
Quick-cooking carbs are fan favorites in our house
Luckily, it's easy to find carbs that my girls will eat, and Trader Joe's has a wide selection to choose from. Their frozen jasmine rice is a crowd-pleaser and cooks in three minutes in the microwave, and their four-cheese ravioli cooks in three to four minutes once the water starts boiling.
I'm also a huge fan of their couscous, which takes five minutes to cook and is foolproof to cook. My girls also enjoy the blueberry waffles and fries, both of which cook quickly despite being frozen.
Courtesy Elliott Harrell
When all else fails, I mix and match these ingredients for quick dinners
We have our tried-and-true staples, and we also have tried-and-true combinations that work well together. I have a few shortcuts that I use for throwing together ingredients to create a meal that I know my whole family will eat. Here are a few different dinners we frequently have in our house:
- Meat lasagna and green beans
- Shrimp, couscous, and edamame
- Waffles, bacon, and any fruit I have on hand
- Meatballs, waffle fries, and edamame
- Chicken strips, rice, and green beans
- Ravioli and green beans
- Turkey corndogs, waffle fries, and edamame
The options for combining these ingredients are endless, and it makes a huge difference knowing that I can go from no dinner to putting dinner on the table in under 15 minutes using these staples.