Plan B

Planning meals, making lists and going to the grocery store are among my least favorite tasks. If that wasn't enough, every night I have to figure out how to assemble the ingredients in some kind of meaningful, likable way. Sometimes it's a struggle. Between me being gone 2 1/2 nights a week and the kids' sports schedules, it's a miracle we eat anything but PBJ. But we do okay.

One thing that helps is to always have the ingredients for 3 or 4 meals on hand for nights when time gets away from me. Here are a few of our Plan B meals:

• Baked Spaghetti: Mix cooked pasta with prepared spaghetti sauce and place in a greased baking dish. Cover with mozzarella cheese and bake 20-30 minutes until cheese is melted. We like this better than regular spaghetti. I can also leave it in the fridge for the kids to heat up when I'm not home.
• Grilled Panini: Guess what my kids' favorite Christmas gift was? Our Panini Maker. As long as I have "good bread" (a somewhat elusive quest at my house) and ham, turkey and cheese, my kids are thrilled to eat panini for any meal or snack. John has also gotten very creative with the peanut butter. Why it's better than a traditional grilled sandwich, I'll never know. But it is.
• Nachos: It's kind of lame to melt cheese and chicken on chips and call it a meal, but if you throw a few vegetables and Ranch dressing on the side, it qualifies.
• Quesadillas: And speaking of cheese and the panini maker...it's a great way to make a quesadilla. I can work a lot of magic with a flour tortilla. One of my latest (and high protein) creations is to mix one cooked and chopped Morning Star sausage patty, 1 scrambled egg and a sprinkle of shredded cheese and place in a warmed flour tortilla. (Mission has a new--to me at least--whole wheat tortilla that is actually pretty good).

Throughout the week I'll be sharing more Plan B recipes along with some of my grocery shopping lists and tips. I'd love to hear your ideas for dinner in a hurry.