Dinner On The Run

Soccer season has begun and the Fish Fam is finding ourselves on the run about 2 nights a week.  Because our school does not have a home soccer field yet, our games have been about 1 hour away, meaning that we leave straight from school and get home about 7 p.m.  This calls for me to be prepared for dinners so that we don't have to spend $50 on our family at McDonald's or some other fast food restaurant.

All it takes is a little bit of pre-planning to feed your family a healthy, inexpensive meal on the run.

For our first soccer game, I made sub sandwiches and individually wrapped them around lunch time and packed them in a cooler with a bag of chips, water bottles and a small bag of mini peppers.

Last soccer game I boiled 16 hot dogs, placed each in a bun and wrapped individually in foil.  Threw in a can of Pringles and a bag of baby carrots with a carton of hummus.  The hot dogs were still warm when we ate them during half time.  I had a baggy of mustard and ketchup collected from fast food restaurants that were perfect for everyone.  There were enough hot dogs to feed a couple, hungry soccer players on the way home too.

For tonight's supper I just browned 2 lbs. of ground turkey with 1 chopped bell pepper.  Put it in the crock pot with garlic powder, salt, pepper, a few small squirts of mustard, a couple tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 1/2 cups of ketchup.  I set it to simmer on low until I go to pick up the kids at school - in about 3 hours.  I will put the Sloppy Joe meat on hamburger buns, wrap individually in foil, throw in a bag of pretzels and baby carrots and there's supper!

I buy popcorn seeds in bulk and will pop a large pot of popcorn, toss it with sea salt and Parmesan cheese to pour in a paper grocery sack for snacking during the game.  We always have plenty to share.

So remember this the next time you have an afternoon/evening filled with ball games.  You don't have to spend tons of money to eat out during the season.  Just do a little bit of prepping and you can feed your family for a fraction of the costs.  Who wants processed chicken nuggets and greasy fries when you can have yummy, homemade Sloppy Joes??