Weekdays are busy and tiring, and sometimes you don’t have time to cook an elaborate meal. Produce Made Simple to the rescue! We have lots of recipe ideas to help you create tasty, speedy and easy school-night meals that also incorporate extra veggies!

Easy School-Night Meal Ideas:

• When you come home from your weekly shop, take a little time to wash and prepare your salad ingredients. For example, wash and dry lettuce leaves, then store in a re-sealable plastic container in your crisper drawer.  Be sure to tear or cut your lettuce with a plastic knife rather than a metal knife. This will prevent the leaves from turning brown as quickly. When salad is ready to use, you are more likely to eat it when time is short.
• Spaghetti is a family favourite, and this quick mushroom spaghetti bolognese blends in some mushroom to fool the picky eaters.
• Fajitas are often an easy dinner option, so have the family DIY their own fajitas and provide tons of veggie options for them, like these sweet pepper fajitas!
• This veggie-loaded take on the classic shepherd’s pie is a great dinner option that makes great leftovers too.
• Grate some carrot, zucchini and mushrooms into your spaghetti sauce to get some extra veggies into your kids. They won’t notice, and it’ll add flavour to the sauce.
• Only have time to make some mac & cheese? Add some peas or broccoli florets to make it a little healthier. If you have a little extra time, try this butternut squash mac and cheese to sneak in those veggies!
• Sometimes it’s faster to make your own pizza than order it in! Use a pre-made pizza base or flatbread to save time and hassle, then add your own toppings.
• Cook more potatoes than you need! Store the leftovers in the fridge and use them in another recipe like mashed potato waffles within 2-3 days!
• Salads are a great ways to get veggies in, but sometimes it’s time consuming to prep. Take a shortcut from a popular restaurant chain and serve a lettuce wedge topped with cherry tomatoes, grated carrot or beets as a salad instead of chopping up all the lettuce. You could also add a little cheese for flavour.
• This cheesy mushroom and beef skillet is an easy one pot meal that takes less than an hour to throw together. Pasta is always a hit at family dinners!
• Sweet potato chicken jalapeno chili (you can omit the spice) is great for batch cooking and serving big families that need tons of fuel. It’s packed full of protein and veggies that will keep bellies full until bedtime!

o   Alternatively, create a Cobb Salad platter and let everyone serve themselves!

• Let your kids make their own personal pizzas: take naan bread, pita bread, or English muffins and let them cover it in marinara sauce and then add their own toppings: cheese, mushrooms, green peppers, broccoli, or tomatoes. Bake at 350° until the cheese is melted, and serve everyone their personal pizzas.
• Stir-fry is quick, easy, and full of veggies. Onions, carrots, celery, and broccoli are stir-fry staples, but spice things up by adding bell peppers, cabbage, or zucchini for some new textures.