Back to school can be a crazy busy time, adjusting to new schedules, new sports, and new activities, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice a good, homecooked dinner! Here are 4 quick and simple meals you can make when you’re short on time.

1. Taco Casserole

Ingredients: 

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 taco seasoning packet
• Shredded cheese
• 10oz can stewed tomatoes (or salsa)
• Bag of tortilla chips

Brown the ground beef in a skillet, and add the taco seasoning and stewed tomatoes. Simmer for a minute or two before transferring to a casserole dish. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes, just until the cheese is melted and gooey on top. Serve with tortilla chips.

Swap tortillas for tortilla chips, and even your youngest kids will enjoy taco night! It’s much easier for them to hold. Feel free to add veggies to your family’s taste. Diced onions and jalapenos are a good start. If your kids are out of their “It’s too spicy” phase, then swap the stewed tomatoes for your favorite salsa. 

2. Ham Rollups

Ingredients: 

• Precooked sliced ham (like ham steaks, not deli thin slices)
• Cheese slices (I use Swiss.)
• 10 oz can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 bag microwavable steamable broccoli florets
• Toothpicks (for holding it all together while it bakes)

Steam the broccoli in the microwave per package instructions. (One bag of broccoli is usually enough for 4-6 rollups.) Lay ham steak flat. Top with 1-2 slices of cheese. Fold ham steak like a taco with cheese inside, and fill it with broccoli. Use toothpicks as needed to hold it in taco shape. Put in a casserole dish. Repeat until you have your desired number of ham rollups. Once all rollups are in the casserole dish, pour the cream of mushroom soup over the top of all rollups. Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted, the soup is slightly bubbly, and the ham is heated through.

Serve with rolls or a side salad, but most younger kids will eat 1 rollup and be happy. I buy packaged, precooked, pre-sliced ham, but you could use leftover slices from a Sunday ham. Just make sure they’re big enough to hold the broccoli. 

3. Pizza-dillas

Ingredients: 

• Soft tortillas
• Jar of pizza sauce
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Pepperoni slices
• 1 Tbsp butter, margarine, or cooking spray

You’re making quesadillas, but filled with pizza toppings instead! Lay flat the first tortilla. Add a couple of spoonfuls of pizza sauce, spreading not quite to the edge of the tortilla. (How much you add is up to you. Some like a lot of sauce. Some don’t need much.) Add cheese, again spreading not quite to the edges. Melt butter in skillet on medium-low heat. Add first tortilla to the skillet. Add pepperonis on top. Add more cheese, if desired, and top with a second tortilla. Let the cheese start to melt so the two halves stick together, checking on the bottom tortilla to make sure it’s not burning. Once the cheese has started to melt and the bottom is starting to turn golden, flip the quesadilla. Keep in skillet until both tortillas are golden and the cheese is melted. Cut into wedges with a pizza slicer. Serve immediately.

Use whatever toppings you prefer in place of pepperoni, like sausage or ham, or just add extra cheese. You can also make half quesadillas if you prefer to cook two at a time. Fill only half of a tortilla, place in skillet, and fold the empty half over. This should leave half of the skillet open to add a second quesadilla. It crowds the skillet, but it can be easier to flip this way! 

4. Sausage and Peppers

Ingredients: 

• 1 kielbasa, beef, or turkey sausage rope (precooked)
• 2-3 veggies: bell peppers (red, yellow, or orange), zucchini, and yellow squash all work great
• Dried basil
• Soy sauce, to taste
• Rice, if desired

Heat skillet to medium. Make rice per package instructions. (I prefer Uncle Ben’s microwavable rice packs to make it easy.) Cut bell peppers and zucchini into slices or bite-sized chunks. Add veggies to the skillet. Add 1-2 Tbsp of soy sauce, enough to keep the veggies from burning as they cook. Slice sausage. Add to skillet. Add up to 1 Tbsp of dried basil. Add another 1-2 Tbsp of soy sauce. Let cook until veggies are cooked through and tender enough to eat and sausage is heated through, typically about 15-20 minutes total. The sausage won’t need that long to heat up, which is why I suggest you add the veggies to the skillet before you start slicing the sausage. Serve immediately, over rice if desired.

This is incredibly easy to meal prep! Cut up all the veggies and sausage, put them all into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag, and freeze it. When you’re ready to cook it, add it all to a skillet preheated to medium or medium-high heat. Let the ice melt and burn off. Then add your soy sauce and basil. Cook time is still about 20-25 minutes total because you don’t have to chop but it’ll need more time in the skillet.