Good luck Neecia on selling your home. Do not worry so much about the house being perfect. I had four kids, 2 cats and 2 businesses when my house was on the market and panicked when I got "the call" from the agent for a showing. The day the house sold there was a soiled diaper(and I mean Soiled!) on the coffee table and a pair of my big mama underwear next to the toilet!! Haha so be anxious for nothing!

Obviously, one-pot meals are ideal for these situations - do you own a crock-pot? Fortunately, there are lots of easy crock-pot recipes out there now, where you just dump stuff in a pot in the morning and eat it that night. I hate the "crock-pot liners," they don't work for me - but you might consider them for right now to help with cleanup.

Cutting down on prep work helps, too: use either your local salad bar, or buy pre-chopped frozen veggies (a good grocer will have frozen onions or bell peppers) or chop a week's worth and freeze; they aren't as good as fresh, but are better than doing without.

I also recommend this terrific fast recipe for spinach pasta: http://recipes.kaboose.com/pasta-with-spinach.html (I added cannelini beans to up the protein and veg content, and finished with some parmesan.)

Cooking large batches and reheating seems like a good start, but I know how unexciting that can be. One pot meals where you make a conscious effort to use as few things as possible (one knife, one cutting board) might make the clean-up speedy, especially if combined with an empty dishwasher that you can stash stuff in as you go. I always forget to empty the dishwasher BEFORE I start to cook and regret it when I'm done.

I really don't envy you and hope your house sells quickly! I think the make-ahead meals are a good idea, but I also think you need to make non-smelly things because it's important that your house smells clean for potential buyers. Maybe do lots of salads- grill or saute some meats ahead of time mix them into your lettuce and other salad stuff for dinner. Keep baguettes in the freezer to heat in the toaster oven to serve along side. And maybe keep a roll of cookie dough in the fridge to pop in the oven to mask any dinner smells if the buyers are coming. Good luck.

My first suggestion would be crock pot meals- white bean chicken chili (chicken, canned white beans, canned green chiles, cayenne, and cumin), pulled bbq chicken (chicken + bbq sauce, then shredded and served on hamburger buns) and beans and greens with a little sausage or bacon all spring to mind.
But what about roasting a chicken and serving it with a big salad? I roast mine at 450 for 1 hour in a cast iron skillet- cleanup is really quick b/c I just use that one dish. As for the salad, I use a bagged spring mix blend drizzled with oil and vinegar and tossed with a handful of nuts, dried fruit or cheese.

Any type of stir-fry can be healthy and quick to whip up. You can even prepare a bunch of veggies ahead of time and freeze some. Buy meat individually or slice it up and freeze it separately. Prepare some rice or noodles to go along with it, and poach an egg to go on top.

One pot meals. Example: Sautee onions until golden, add chicken breast cut into strips with kitchen scissors (no cutting board to clean up), add a natural cream of mushroom soup(low-sodium, no MSG), and add fresh or frozen broccoli florets. Switch this meal up by changing to another sauce, such as pasta sauce. You can also try other frozen veggies such as spinach or green beans. Frozen is closest in nutritional value to fresh. Serve over brown rice, which can be cooked ahead and frozen, or whole wheat pasta. For other tips, visit NutritionThatFits.com

i'm a big fan of 2 pot/pan meals of pasta (whole wheat preferably) and sauteed veggies/spices and toss them together. If you mix up the veggies you use and spices you can do 4 or 5 nights a week like this. it's carb heavy, but easy on dishes too (no salad plates or bread plates/knives. this is how I survived grad school.

I went through this last year and found it difficult as a single person, so I can imagine it must be really tough as a family! I found that cooking in advance helped, I'd cook large portions on Saturday and Sunday evenings because no one ever shows up for a last minute visit at those times. I'd also try to keep the rest of the house as clean as possible before leaving for work in the morning, that way if I had a last minute visit I only had to worry about the kitchen.
Slow cookers are great too, and the meals don't need to be boring. I love slow cooker pulled pork.

I just went through the selling process and I can totally relate to the last minute dash to clean up. I found that the we never show'd on Monday (maybe people were tired from the weekend?) and that was our largest meal. we had a schedule; roast chicken or beef mondays, chili tuesdays, sandwhich wednesdays, lasagna Thursdays, left over Fridays and free for all on the weekend.

I would highly recommend having pre-made cookie batter in your freezer or frozen apple pie. once you recieve the call that people are coming over comes in, pop those bad boys in the oven (even if it isn't pre-heated - they aren't really for eating as much as they are for the aroma) as you are dashing around with the last minute pick up the smell of cookies or hot apple pie will permeate the house. there is no comparison to candles. our realtor mentioned that everyone that viewed our house always commented on how nice it smelled. fresh brewed coffee also works in a pinch.

good luck selling.

bake things in little tinfoil packets! i love making little packets of chicken/fish and veggies-- just pop them in a 350 oven, bake 15-30 minutes, depending on the kind of protein inside, and there's hardly anything to clean up!

LIA_BIA, that's basically what I had for dinner last night. :) Pasta in one pot, and kale and garbanzo beans sauteed in the other pot. It's great topped with a little feta or parmesan!

Avoid anything with lots of spice and super strong smells. Last thing you want is for your house to smell like curry or fish when someone comes to see it, even if it's due to just finishing dinner.

I'm a fan of one pot meals that can be reheated anyway. Chili, soups, pasta bakes. Try cooking big batches of stuff at night, after all the visits, so you have plenty of time. Then just reheat throughout the week. Or go with sandwiches or other cold ready to eat foods. Hummus with veggies and crackers, fruit, etc. Nobody says dinner has to be hot.

Use your BBQ as much as possible, the tin foil packs for veggies and grill the meat, keeps smells outside and you just toss the foil. God luck on the selling.

The issue for me isn't one so much of quick cook/clean up as it is of lingering food smells in your home when it's listed. So making meals in advance (soups, stews, chili, on your stovetop or in a crockpot) and refrigerating or freezing individual portions to microwave later is your best way to go because a quick microwave won't leave as much food smell in the house as a freshly made full meal.

One quick meal I make a couple times a week is pasta/veg/sauce. I boil water for pasta, a few minutes before it's due to be done I insert a steamer basket holding greens & fresh or frozen veggies, then drain the water off and combine everything in the pasta pot (lots of residual heat). While the pasta was boiling I make a sauce in an oversized measuring cup: tomato (chopped canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, garlic, a bit of leftover wine or some balsamic vinegar) or peanut sauce (peanut butter or cashew butter, brown sugar, soy or tamari, hot sauce, sesame oil, garlic and ginger - which I buy in tubes in the produce section, salt, pepper) and then mix the sauce with the pasta. The residual heat's enough to warm the sauce, I top it with parmesan (tomato sauce) or nuts & herbs (peanut sauce) and I'm ready to eat.

Cleaning up is easy if you keep one or two of these around, toss everything out of place into it before someone arrives for a showing, it works because they'll open closets during a showing but they'll ignore these:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/7h3fhop

Good luck on your sale!

Anything that's served cold or room temperature means that you can really take your time while you're cooking to wash up everything as you use it.

I'm a huge fan of this shredded chicken recipe adapted from Fine Cooking. It's great with a side of rice or easy to throw on the table with DIY taco fixings. It also freezes really well so you can increase the amount of chicken and store portions in the freezer for later.
http://triedntruebites.com/post/4514443624/stick-em-in-a-pot-and-let-them-get-to-know-each-other

QUESADILLAS

This is extremely easy to make, and good to make if you’re in a hurry to make something. It tastes yummy!

Tortillas
1 can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 can corn niblets, drained
1 onion, diced
Cheddar cheese, grated
Hot peppers
1 can of black beans, drained, rinsed and mashed

Put a tortilla down on a baking sheet. Put on the beans, top with tomatoes, corn, onion, hot pepper and cheese (or add your own favourite toppings). Bake at 350F for 15 min., until cheese is melted and tortillas are browned. Serve with salsa.

I love making a big pot of pinto and/or black and/or red kidney beans from dried. Then over the course of the week we can have bean tacos with onion and lime, beans and rice with sausage, mash/blend them for refried beans with chips, add vegetables and make bean soup, add tomatoes/salsa and raw chicken and corn and cook in the crockpot until the chicken is tender and serve with chips or cornbread. Brown some ground beef in a pot and add the beans and tomatoes and make chili. Warm the beans and serve on top of lettuce with tomatoes, onion, and cheese. The possibilities are endless.

My favorite? Mashed/pureed pinto beans with monterey jack cheese as a quesadilla. So good and the perfect midnight snack.

Other super-fast favorites involve English muffins. You can make mini pizzas and ham 'n' cheese melts in the oven and fried egg sandwiches stovetop. Either way, you just have to wash a sheet pan or a frying pan and you're set.

If you can roast a couple of whole chickens on the weekend or snag a rotisserie chicken from the store that can also be used for numerous one-pot meals like creamed chicken casserole, chicken vegetable soup, chicken in all kinds of pasta dishes, etc.

I hate doing dishes so if I can, I try to use as few dishes as possible when preparing food. If I can get away with just one pot and our plates and cups to wash at the end of the day, I'm pretty happy.

Thank you all so much for all the tips. I have been doing a few crockpot things, but can get in a rut with what goes in the pot so the the suggestions helped me think outside the box. And I love all the other stuff too. This is very helpful! And by the way, we got a contract this weekend, so the showings should be over very soon! Thanks again!

It's a teeny bit more expensive, but why don't you try buying pre-sliced veggies? I always find that the biggest mess makers in my kitchen comes with washing and chopping vegetables. Plus I have a small kitchen and the cutting board takes up a lot of counter space. If you have pre-cut veggies, you can just throw them into a pan with some eggs and make a frittata, or throw them in with some pasta and make pasta primavera, or toss them into some couscous for a hot salad. Sorry that all of my suggestions are vegetarian. This is all I know! :)

One-pot meals are a great idea, but please do not worry about your house smelling like cooking food. Actually, that makes it more attractive to potential buyers. When they smell good food, they subconsciously feel they are "home" and they will fall in love with your house a lot faster than if it smells "clean." Baking cookies, bread, and good-smelling foods are excellent "subliminal" special effects used in staging. I've had 35 years experience in real estate so I know this works very well.

Please post the recipe for the meatballs pictured, thanks!

My fridge often contains a bowl of prepared beans, prepared whole grain (farro, quinoa, or brown rice), a bowl of hard boiled eggs, and prepared greens. They're often used to make an easy lunch (add salad dressing), but are the base for many quick and healthy dinners too - easy to warm beans or grains, and add a few sauteed veggies and/or some protein. Vary it with hot sauce, cheese, etc.

Good luck!

Prep things in batches to be ready to use when needed to save the time and mess of prep when cooking. It is best to do those when you get back from the groceries. Clean your green onions, grate your cheese, clean and dice vegetables, etc. These are tasks that add to the mess of cooking but they can be done ahead, to get them out of the way when cooking.

Also make meals that can be done in one pot or pan and don't require you to use bowls for prep. Meals for which you basically use a knife, a cutting board and a pot. Cleanup for risotto is super easy: a pot or pan, a knife, a cutting board and a measuring cup. Same for most soups and stews.

Try to cook things that smell good to potential buyers. A sweet aroma certainly affects the visitor's perception of the place. Don't make pancakes!