This is another of those great examples of ambiguous questions. I was all set to chime in with:
- uncompleted homework assignments
– late sports practices for multiple kids at different locations
– late from work, traffic jams, and bad weather
– a sick pet
– missing main ingredients for dinner
– a headache on top of everything else
So, it’s a cooking question: “What can I serve on stressful evenings?” Oh, a different question entirely.
I like grilled kielbasa, french fries (or baked potato if you have them, and the time to do them properly) plus a vegetable and/or baked beans. Succotash is a good combination: equal measures of canned, fresh (cooked) or frozen corn with (cooked) “Roman” beans. (Also called cranberry beans or speckled beans.) And if you don’t feel like going outside to grill the kielbasa, you can broil it or even fry it – or serve it cold from the fridge, since it’s already cooked.
I also and quite often do meatless burritos: burrito shell, cheese for me (you can leave it out easily enough), lots of chopped raw onion, garbanzo beans, refried beans, guacamole, dill pickle chips, hot sauce. That lends itself well to mismatched schedules, since you can cook them up individually if you need to.
And turkey club sandwiches are always a great fallback.