Busy Sports Schedules and Mealtimes

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #EffortlessMeals #CollectiveBias

This was my view last night, the first night of soccer practice, the first Fall sport to start for us. Since more activities will soon be starting, I have to start thinking about effortless meals so my family can still have a healthy dinner and skip the drive thru. At least most of the time.

On the nights when we have more than one activity to get to, I need some help with dinner. You can easily pick up the fully cooked rotisserie chickens at Walmart and create a meal around it quickly, especially for busy parents on-the-go.

Effortless Meals are convenient to purchase and help provide healthy, fresh options for dinner during back-to-school and back-to-sports, and create a positive mealtime experience for my family. In Walmart, you can pick up these effortless meals:  16″ pizza and 2 liter Coca-Cola or a rotisserie chicken, 2 lb. side like potato salad, macaroni salad, or cole slaw(all found near the deli), and a 2 liter Coca-Cola. For those times I’m just feeding myself, I can grab a 6″ Marketside deli sandwich, chips, and a 16oz Coke(in my Walmart, this was just $5).

 I picked up a rotisserie chicken meal, knowing there’s a lot of really quick dinner ideas I can make with it. On days when I don’t have much time to prep or when we need to eat on the go, I need to keep things simple.

The effortless part of this effortless meal is that you can simply cut up some chicken and serve it with the side you chose and Coke and you’re done. Or because you’re already starting out with the basics there for you, you can quickly customize (and even put it together differently to accommodate your family’s different preferences, but without feeling like a short order cook). 

For one of my boys, I made a to-go container as is. For another, I added the chicken to a bed of spinach and used an OPA Greek Yogurt Feta Dill dressing I found over by the bagged salads in Walmart. For the third, I took the same salad ingredients but made them in a wrap. That child says he doesn’t like salad, but add it to a wrap and he’ll eat it. Go figure. For on the go, wrap your wrap in foil and twist the bottom so food doesn’t fall out of the bottom and into your car.

Since my boys will always gobble up fruit, I add that as super easy addition to their meals. While they’ll happily eat fruit plain, sometimes I add a dip on those days when they aren’t going to eat dinner until after they get home from practice. This 2 ingredient fruit dip is delicious:

Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip

• 3 Tablespoons honey Greek yogurt
• 1 Tablespoon creamy peanut butter
• Mix together until combined

*I found The Greek Gods Greek Yogurt in honey flavor in Walmart, in a 32oz container, so I can easily make this recipe multiple times and for multiple kids. If you can’t find honey flavor, just add about 1/2 Tablespoon of honey to plain yogurt and peanut butter.

When it comes to effortless meals, I realize they don’t have to be anything that requires a fancy, complicated recipe, yet the kids (and the parents) are fed and full, without having to resort to the drive thru.

Be sure to check out more delicious effortless meal inspiration.

Do you buy rotisserie chicken? What do you make with it?