Soup and the freezer are your friends. I have chhickens, cats, and a kid (there are other pets, but the H and kid are in charge of them), working ft, so I hear ya!
Shopping and knowing how long things take to cook and how long they can stand around after cooking -- these are the harder things to learn.
Can you take a couple hours somewhere in the week to cook ahead? If you can make a big batch of whatever, then freeze portions, that is a big help. So, lentils (they cook in under 30 minutes; you can make soup, or you can drain them and toss them with italian dressing/feta/tomatoes, or mix them with rice for pilaf as a side...), any kind of beans (soup, mix with corn/green onion/bell pepper, veggie burritos...), hummus, big batch of pasta sauce.
[ETA: you may need to add water along the way. If it's too thick, not soupy, especially after you add the pasta or rice, add some liquid]
Easy minestrone -- Can of diced or petite diced tomatoes, can of cannellini or garbanzo beans (rinsed), baby carrots right from the bag, green beans (fresh or frozen, don't need to thaw), smash some garlic cloves, chop an onion, can or two of broth (veggie, chicken, beef -- doesn't matter). You can saute the onion and garlic first, but don't have to. Throw it in a large pot. Crank the heat. Simmer, throw in italian seasoning, salt, pepper. Throw in a handful of tiny pasta or barley or rice or just break up some spaghetti. Simmer some more, then throw in a bag of frozen spinach. You can throw in some cut up chicken, or cooked sausage, or premade meatballs. Or make it meatless. Serve with salad, bread. Freezes great. (lol -- "throw" is my fave cooking action!)
Veggies: I steam or stir fry most of the veggies we eat, unless they are in salad. I buy whatever is in season and is a reasonable price.
Shopping -- I always have two cans of each kind of beans (garbanzo, black, cannellini or navy, pinto, refries), dried beans and lentils, rice, different pasta shapes, canned tomatoes (two of each: whole, diced, petite diced) and tom sauce and tom paste. Couscous is great because it is even easier and faster than pasta. Grits (my H is a southerner). Always have some hillshire farm polish sausage in the freezer, frozen spinach, frozen sweet pepper strips. CAnned soup, of course. Several cans each of chicken, beef, and veggie broth.
Whole wheat tortillas. These are awesome for quick quesadillas, which was my son's favorite breakfast for a long time. Hot skillet, throw in a tortilla, sprinkle on shredded cheese, add some hot sauce if you like, put another tortilla on top of it. When the bottom tortilla starts to puff and the cheese starts melting, flip it over, brown, done. Five minutes. If you add something like cooked chicken (warm it in the micro first) or even crabmeat, that's lunch or dinner.
I love the Zatarain's mixes. (Buy the low sodium versions) Great when you are waaaaaay too tired to cook.
Eggs, yogurt, cheese (buy pre-shredded, you're busy and there is no shame in it!).
I'm a very good cook NOW, and I do canning, pickles, all that sort of stuff now -- but a lot of my cooking is the easy stuff.
Have fun!
Oh yeah, and Jamie Oliver is the bomb!
[This message edited by StrongerOne at 7:42 AM, April 15th (Tuesday)]
