Dinner Ideas for Just Me and My Son

We often make a double or triple batch of things and then freeze it in portions so it's easier to eat a reasonable meal even when there's no time to get it ready. The crockpot is helpful too. :)

I'm in the same boat! My 3 love peanut butter on ritz crackers topped with a banana slice. I make omelets, crescent roll wrapped little smokies, mini-pizzas (either on tortillas, bagels, pizza dough). Casseroles are wonderful, chili, taco stew, quesadillas, pasta (vary the noodles). Breakfast for dinner, I made waffles, then freeze them for later in the week. Soups & Sandwiches.

I make regular dinners and then just freeze the leftovers. Instant dinner for next time!

I would cook whatever else you would make, your husband isn't the only one who deserves a nice meal, so do you and your son!

But, I know how you feel, when my husband goes out of town, we tend to not eat as well :)

I would just make a nice little meal, but smaller portions, or leave the rest for lunch the next day or for your husband to warm up when he gets home.

How old is your son? One thing my kids like, are these little taco puffs. I ground beef with taco seasoning and onions.

Then, I take those pillsbury flaky biscuits and split each biscuit in half. Top the bottom dough with beef and shredded cheese, then add the top dough on top and press all the sides together. Then I bake them.

When my husband worked nights and I had young children at home, I cooked the main meal for lunch. Yes, on days where we had something that took a long time it meant I had to start cooking by 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning, but I was a stay at home mom, so we were able to make it work. Then I just made more like a lunch meal for dinner for me and the children.
Worked great for us, especially since the kids always napped 4 hours in the afternoon, so there was plenty of time for clean after the big meal.

You don't say how old he is. When my older daughter was 5 it was often just us. We cooked together and she became an excellent chef. We made meat loaf or chicken (lots of different ways) cooked vegetables by steaming or stir frying, made pasta with our own tomato sauce. Fell back on casseroles and omletts.
Your husband can eat the leftovers for his lunch.

Tacos are easy, hamburgers, hot dogs, noodles with a sauce, salads, sandwiches. Also do you make big meals on weekends? You can always eat leftovers from the weekends. Crockpot meals are great too. Get it all ready to go the night before and then in the morning just turn the crockpot on and dinner is ready when you walk in the door.

I'm a single Mom, so it's always just me & kiddo for dinner. I also work full time so it's hard to make anything that takes much time to cook. However, I want to be sure that we eat a healthy meal. So about once a week I will just cook up 5 times as I would need - it takes the same amount of time no matter if it's 1 serving or 5. Then I freeze it or stock it away in the fridge for the rest of the week. Example - I'll cook 5 chicken breasts instead of 1. One night we'll have just chicken, rice, & veggies. One night we'll have chicken pasta - add frozen broccoli to the pasta water. One night, chicken burritos. One night chicken salads. Ground beef freezes and reheats really well, so you can reheat for tacos or pasta. I LOVE the frozen steamer veggies too. I can whip out a healthy dinner in about 15 min every night. All you need is a little prep & planning :)

I'm with you on the not cooking when hubby isn't home. My husband works four 12 hour shifts and he thinks it's funny that I rarely cook when he is working (actually I just rarely cook anymore because he cooks on his days off). It takes up so much time, and I would rather be playing with my kids than spend hours cooking. We love the spinach ravioli from Costco - I put pasta sauce on it for the kids who will eat it. I like to add extra veggies to the pasta sauces too. We get or make our own veggie trays. I usually pull those out in the afternoon so that is what we snack on before I get "dinner" made. Fruit trays are great too, but a bit pricey. Other favorites are bean and cheese burritos or quesadillas. I use Rosaritas beans for both of those. Eggs with ham and cheese (chop up some ham lunchmeat, brown it a little, throw in enough eggs for everyone and some diced or shredded chedder - 1 pan, 10 minutes). Cold cereal or oatmeal, soup (we do lots of clam chowder with fishie crackers or croutons in it), sandwiches of course, chips and salsa, guacamole, bean dip etc...

Chicken breasts in the toaster oven were my favorite go to meal when my son was that age. One large bone in breast would feed both of us. Add a veggie and a fruit and you are done.

We also did mac and cheese with a veggie and fruit.

Hamburger steaks are pretty easy and quick with rice or potatoes.

Stir fries are quick and tasty.

Oh, and hot dogs wrapped in Cresent Roll dough was a huge treat (heck they still are!!!) for us.

I used the toaster oven a lot when my son was small and meals were small.

Does your husband need to pack a "lunch" for work? If he has access to a microwave you could cook a little extra and send it with him.

Allrecipes.com has an entire section on kid friendly recipes. Betty Crocker has Cooking for Two recipes.

Enjoy the time with your son!

I'd look up recipes for two...there are many out there, and some recipe sites will let you customize a meal for however many people.

When we have just a few at home, I might do something like use one of those roasted chickens (or duck or turkey) from the grocery store. Add some pasta or rice and a couple of veggies and you have a quick meal.

You can also do things like a crock pot meal or a stir fry that will give you leftovers, but not be a lot of work in the meantime.

Chili is another good one that can last for a while (maybe pack your husband's lunch?) and is even better as leftovers.

Or individual pizzas. My stepdaughter used to like bagels made up like pizzas. Your son (if old enough) can design his own.

Sometimes we do breakfast for dinner (pancakes, bacon, eggs, etc.) or sometimes we do appetizers (like the potato skins and whatnot you'd find in the freezer section).

Is there anything your son would like? Anything he'd like to learn to make? Can he help? Even my toddler can move chopped veg from the cutting board to a bowl. She's also my official potato inspector to make sure they are clean enough. That might help motivate you to cook more for just the two of you.

My husband has been working nights for the past month or two...so I totally get what you're saying!

My kids love pasta dishes...they're still "stuff from a box", but I think it's ok. ;-) One of our favorites is pasta salad...a box of cooked (and cooled) pasta, some sliced leftover meat (BBQ chicken is yummy), some frozen peas (stir them in straight up frozen...they'll thaw soon enough), some sliced olives. If your meat has a strong flavor, use some sauce from the meat. If your meat doesn't (like boiled chicken breast), then use some Italian dressing. Yum!

Story of my life - I was a single mom with one daughter. We didn't have a lot of roasts and because my sister always hosted Thanksgiving, I never even made a turkey until I was 55 years old! We ate a lot of chicken breasts, chicken strips, fish, those little chip steaks made into fajitas, ground beef recipes like soup burgers, chili, spagetti, tacos. I did cook a "real" family meal on Sunday and we always had leftovers on Monday, we had sandwich night on Wednesday (grilled cheese and tomato soup), and we ate out or ordered pizza on Friday nights. It's actually kind of fun!

If you can get a turbo broiler, it makes things so easy. Besides the sausage and bacon. I have made salt and peppered tilapia (my picky eaters favorite). I throw it in their frozen 350 deg 10 mins. Halfway you can throw in some asparagus. Drizzle asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper. Add corn and you have a nice meal. I have done pork chops there too. Chicken would work as well.

Other stuff.
Pasta with shrimp pesto + garlic bread made from sandwich bread
Pasta (Rotini)salad with grape/cherry tomatoes, mozzarella
Spinach salad with walnuts, cranberry, goat cheese,mozarella , balsalmic vinaigrette
Eggplant omelette or any omelette

Why don't you still make a full dinner, but make enough to last for two full nights. That way, you're eating a healthy/tasty meal but only cooking every other night.

Stir fry chicken and veggies and make rice to go with it
Tacos/burritos - make enough meat and veggies for two nights
Any kind of casserole
Lasagna
pasta with chicken or meat sauce and veggies

We almost always cook two nights worth when we make a real meal so we don't have to cook as often.

K.
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao - fun and educational toys and games for kids of all ages

One idea is to make meat that can roll over to other meals - Like if you cook a roast in the crockpot one day, season it kinda simple and eat it that night with maybe mashed pot and green beans. The next night take left over meat and make fajitas or beef a noodles. Cook a pack of chix breast and use them for 3 days worth of dinners - chix wraps, chix salad, chix parm with spaghetti, chix enchiladas etc.
One of our fav go to quick meals are pizzadillas - whole wheat tortilla filled with pepperoni, mozz cheese, a spoonful of canned tomatoes and some pizza sauce. I take one tortilla, fold it in half, fill it, brown both sides - so yes, you have to flip it. Then serve with extra pizza sauce. Kids love it!

Breakfast!!! We love breakfast for dinner. :)

You can have ANYTHING for dinner that's reasonably healthy:

Eggs, toast, fruit salad
Chef's Salad (regular green salad with ham, cheese, and hard boiled eggs)
Grilled cheese sandwiches with veggies and dip
Soups
Pita pizzas
Wraps
Taco Salad (basically everything you'd put on a taco tossed with broken nacho chips)

Do you have Trader Joe's nearby? I would go with any of their premade meals. They are great and healthy!