Are you running from here to there at dinner time? Need a solution that fills the belly but doesn’t require being at the dinner table? These on-the-go dinners are for you!
With Fall upon us and school (and the extra-curricular activities that come with school) back in session, many of us are all over the place during the normal dinner time at least one night of the week. You may be running kids to soccer practice on Monday evenings, piano lessons, on Tuesday evenings, and youth group on Thursday evenings and barely get a chance to eat dinner between the hours of 5:00 and 8:00 pm anymore. You want your kids to be involved in activities they love to do, but you want them to eat a filling, nutritious meal too. It’s a tough season of life.
I’ve recently realized just how tough this season is from the mom perspective, as I am a brand-new hockey mom. Now, one night a week, I pack up the kids (both the one who is playing hockey and the other one) and head to the rink. Hockey practice, of course, takes place from 5:30-6:30 pm and is about 20 minutes away from home. The dinner hour is, thus, completely occupied by hockey on this night of the week. When faced with this new reality for the first time with kids, I needed to find good options for on-the-go dinners that would be kid-friendly, car-friendly, and bleachers-friendly.
I set out to find meals, honest to goodness meals, that can be eaten anywhere – in the car, on the sidelines, during half-time. These meals needed to be able to be eaten anywhere at anytime by anyone, even my 2-year-old. It was a tall order, but I’m happy to report that I was successful. I have gathered a great list of on-the-go dinners from which we can all pull on nights when dinner just can’t happen at the table. Keep this list handy, friends!
On-the-Go Dinners
Roll-ups
Roll-ups couldn’t be easier to make or eat, so this is a great one to kick off this list of on-the-go dinners. You simply take a can of crescent roll dough, separate into triangles, fill each with the filling of your choice, roll them up, and pop them in the oven on 375°F for 12-15 minutes.
You can choose any filling combination that you and your kids like. This is truly a customizable on-the-go dinner option. In my house, we like pizza rolls (pizza sauce, pepperoni, and shredded mozzarella cheese), ham and cheese rolls (thinly sliced deli ham and shredded cheddar cheese), pigs in a blanket (hot dog and cheddar cheese), and breakfast rolls (scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, and crumbled bacon) best, but the options are endless. Add some slices of cucumbers or baby carrots and you have yourself a balanced meal.
Calzones
Another handheld option that should be high on your list of on-the-go dinners is the calzone. Similar to the roll ups above, calzones can also take many forms depending on your choice of filling. They’re also pretty simple to put together, freeze well, and re-heat beautifully. I use a simple pizza dough recipe when I make calzones and I make a bunch of them at a time. I choose my filling (pepperoni and cheese, ham and cheese, broccoli and cheese, whatever your heart desires) and bake them all at once at 400°F for about 20-25 minutes. Then I freeze at least half of the big batch. To freeze them, wrap each individually in tin foil and pop in the freezer. When you’re ready to eat the frozen calzones, just throw however many you need in the oven at 350°F for about 20minutes. No need to thaw them!
Hot sandwiches
The key to many on-the-go dinners is that they are handheld. Don’t forget about the obvious handheld meal – sandwiches! Of course you can just throw together a simple cold turkey and cheese sandwich and that’s a fine dinner, but you can make hot sandwiches too!
The grilled cheese is, of course, a classic kid pleaser, but you can jazz up your on-the-go hot sandwiches too. Turkey, bacon, ranch is always a good combination, as is roast beef and cheese. Heck, you can even make hamburgers work! A personal favorite of mine is a stuffed pita. Try these BBQ chickpea pitas for a real treat! For any of these hot sandwiches, you want to wrap them in tin foil to retain a bit of their heat. This method should keep them quasi warm, but don’t expect them to be piping hot.
Mason jar salads
Mason jar salads, a classic meal prep lunch, can also be a great on-the-go dinner if your kids like salad. The key to making mason jar salads successful is proper layering so they don’t get soggy and gross. The dressing goes on the bottom, then crunchy vegetables (like carrots), then protein, then softer veggies (like tomatoes), then any grains you want to add, then cheese and/or nuts, and finally the greens top it off. Don’t pack it full. You’ll need some space to shake, shake, shake, shake, shake it!
Don’t forget that you don’t have to use actual glass mason jars if you’re worried about children and glass containers. They make plastic mason jars that would be great for this purpose!
You can seriously turn any salad you like into a mason jar salad that can easily be eaten anywhere if you follow this layering technique. I like a classic cobb salad best. I make a very simple Dijon-based vinaigrette, then go in with grilled chicken and hard boiled egg, top that with some chopped cherry tomatoes and avocado chunks, followed by blue cheese and chopped romaine lettuce. Delicious!
Homemade Lunchables
I was a Lunchables kid in the 1990s. I liked them all – the deli meat and cheese with crackers and the pizza versions. These days, I don’t necessarily want to eat an actual Lunchable anymore, but the concept is fantastic for on-the-go dinner.
If you want to make your own Lunchables, my rule of thumb is two proteins, one carb, a fruit, a veggie, and a dessert. When I make homemade Lunchables, I stay pretty classic. I opt for sliced deli meat (usually ham for my ham-loving kids), sliced cheese, whatever crackers I have on hand, some carrots sticks (matchstick-cut for the toddler in my life), blueberries, and a small piece of whatever cookie or bar we happen to have in the house. It could not be easier and the kids love it every time.
Cold wraps
Like sandwiches, wraps are also a great option to put on your list of on-the-go dinners. You can make warm wraps, but I like to keep my wraps cold when we are eating them on the go. I am partial to the wrap I had every day for lunch in college – honey mustard, sliced turkey, sliced provolone cheese, and baby spinach. Another great option is a chicken Caesar salad wrap. Pick whatever combination you and your kids like and go with it.
Quesadillas
I’m partial to quesadillas as an easy no-recipe dinner any night of the week, but they absolutely belong on a list of on-the-go dinners. Throw whatever you have on hand onto one side of a flour tortilla, fold it over and cook it on the griddle for a few minutes each side to brown the tortilla and melt the cheese. Wrap the warm quesadilla in tin foil, and pass them around to the kids on the way to whatever extra-curricular activity is on tap for that evening. You can even pack little tiny containers of salsa and sour cream if your kids are dippers!
Meatloaf cupcakes
If you’d like to serve your kids something a bit heartier for dinner on the go, enter the meatloaf cupcake. Not only are they portable, but they’re so darn cute too!
Start with meatloaf. Any recipe will do. I like to mix together ground turkey, seasoned bread crumbs, an egg, ketchup, yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper for my classic meatloaf. Instead of making a loaf with your mixture, portion it into the cups of a muffin tin. Not only are the resulting meatloaf muffins individually portioned, they take a lot less time to cook too!
Once you have your meatloaf base, it’s time to frost – with mashed potatoes of course! If you have time to make them from scratch, more power to you. I usually buy the pre-made mashed potatoes from the refrigerated section of the grocery store and warm them up in a pot on the stove while the meatloaf is in the oven.
Then it’s time to decorate. My choice is to use frozen peas and carrots, cooked according to package directions, as sprinkles on top of the mashed potatoes. Every bite is a balanced meal with minimal mess!
Burritos
Burritos also make wonderful on-the-go dinners. I’m sure you know how to make a burrito, but we will walk through the process just in case.
Take a warmed flour tortilla and to it add rice, beans, meat, cheese, salsa, sour cream, guacamole – really whatever you prefer. Then tuck in the sides and roll it up. Wrap the burrito in tin foil for ease of portability.
You can also turn breakfast burritos into an on-the-go dinner option. Instead of the traditional filling, add scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, cheese, and potatoes to the warm tortilla. Equally filling and delicious and a fun way to mix up your on-the-go dinners.
Frittata bites
My 4-year-old son is on a major frittata kick, so it’s wonderful that I can turn this obsession into an on-the-go dinner option. Simply whip together eggs, milk, cheese, and the seasonings of your choice. Add your mix-ins into the bottom of a muffin tin sprayed with oil. Pour the egg mixture into the muffin tin. Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes or until the egg mixture is set.
These frittata bites are great because they’re packed full of protein and they taste just as good at room temperature as they do warm. A wonderful on-the-go dinner to be eaten on the way to a sports practice!
Other posts
If you need some more food inspiration, you might find these posts interesting:
I see you, chauffeur moms! I hope these easy options for on-the-go dinners take one item off the list of things stressing you out. Please share your on-the-go dinners with us over on Instagram @sarainseason!