When time is short, try these for dinner.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

The back-to-school shopping isn't over once you've outfitted the kids with clothes and stocked them with supplies. You still need to lay in groceries to keep the family nourished on those hectic school days ahead.

Most of us strive to have a home-cooked meal ready at the end of the day, and many of us have tricks up our sleeves _ a great Crock-Pot pot roast, a flash-in-the-pan pasta dish _ that make that doable, even on the busiest nights. But we all need a backup plan for those inevitable days when there's simply no time to cook _ a meal maker we can pull from the refrigerator or freezer and have on the table in 20 minutes.

A few weeks ago I set out to do the legwork for you, searching supermarkets and warehouse stores for convenience …