This is a long overdue post, that I started at the beginning of summer.  I was concerned that my children would just starve, since we were going to be running to  baseball fields 4-5 days a week.   We needed some fast and on the go meals that didn’t require some sort of drive-through.  I only really chose things that I could foresee being actually eaten in the car, as that is about only what we had time to do.  Get the kids home, change, warm something up and get in the car! I sent out my plea on Facebook, and I got some ideas and recipes from some of my friends:

Empanadas

I asked my lovely friend from Chile what her recipe was for empanadas, and she gave me ideas of what she uses for filling.  She bakes them and uses ready made roll dough.  Works for me!  I also added a few other things that I think would work well. Roll out the dough after it thaws, fill it up, use a fork to press the crease shut, bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes or until it looks like it is getting browned. Note: You could also use ready made biscuits for this, too.  Or make your own dough, if you are an over-achiever.  Or if you forgot to buy dough.  Like me.

Empanada dough

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon cold water
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Put the dry ingredients into a food processor.  Pulse.  Add the butter chunks and pulse until it is all incorporated.    Turn on the processor and stream the wet ingredients.  Mix until it forms a ball.  Take it out and knead for a few minutes with the extra flour.  Turn into a ball and refrigerate an hour until chilled.  Roll out the dough and cut into circles, put filling in the middle and seal.  I brushed them with some olive oil and sprinkled some kosher salt on top before cooking.

Fillings:

• Cheese and Ham
• Ricotta and Spinach
• Chicken & Broccoli (get a rotisserie chicken and this would be pretty quick)
• Potatoes, Lentils & Peas (samosa filling)
• Philly cheesesteak filling
• Jerk Chicken (Put two chicken breasts in crock pot with jerk seasoning and juice of 1 lime, cook 6 hours on low, shred), cheese, corn
• The one below: roast with potatoes and carrots, that I had thrown in the crock pot.

Burritos

This is one where I made breakfast burritos, but regular burritos would work great, too.  Basically, just roll them up with the pre-made fillings and freeze, either in plastic wrap or aluminum foil.  When ready to eat, take out of wrapping, wrap in moist paper towel, and microwave for 90 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on your fillings.  This may be some trial and error to get the reheat time.  After reheating, you can open them up and add lettuce, sour cream, etc. to them before wrapping up again.

Make a batch of Mexican Rice, and different chicken/beef/black bean fillings and you can do a whole bunch at once.

Kai is a big fan of the first one, and that is pretty easy to throw together.  He even helped me by wrapping them up.

Fillings:

• Scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese
• Scrambled eggs, sausage links, cheese
• Scrambled eggs, spinach, goat cheese (this will be for me…my kids won’t touch that!)
• Hamburger cooked, with taco seasoning, salsa, cheese
• Lime honey chicken, red pepper, cilantro-lime rice, cheese
• Cafe Rio crockpot chicken, cilantro-lime rice, cheese
• BBQ chicken (do this in a crockpot, too…I love Sweet Baby Rays sauce), black beans, corn, cheese

Other ideas…

If you have time to cook (10-15 minutes), here are some other ideas:

• Grilled Cheese sandwiches
• Quesedillas (whatever leftover meat you may have, cheese)
• Sloppy Joes in a crockpot, just hard to eat in the car.  Get home, make a sandwich quick and eat before getting into the car.  You could also put the sandwich in a bowl and give them a plastic fork.
• Taco meat in the crockpot and throw together walking tacos

If you have any other ideas, feel free to throw them out.  Kai started back to football this week with three days of practice and in September Anya will be in volleyball, with Dad as her coach most likely.  At least they are active!