Can you share your favorite quick weeknight dinners with me?

[Deleted]

Since I started working later, we're eating dinner much later.  I can't seem to get it together.  The instant pot helps since I got it, but I can't make everything in there.  I'm not opposed to some freezer meals, but sometimes stuff just tastes off after it's been pre-made and frozen.  
I'm bored with blue apron so I have canceled it for the past few weeks.  (and most of their recipes require standing over the stove which is ok, but I like some meals that are kinda not as involved)  It's just the two of us and we like everything.
Help please? TIA

[trident0]

My answer to lazy and fresh cooked is stir fry. All the raw ingredients last forever: frozen veggies, sauce in the fridge/cabinets, and the smaller pieces of frozen raw chicken (tenderloin? The raw chicken strips not breast). Occasionally I'll throw in cashews. If I remembered to throw some chicken in the fridge it's ready in less than 10 minutes, 15 if I didn't, and the variety of different veggies and sauce combos keeps it from getting stale. If you want to include rice you could easily keep some of the minute stuff around or the frozen instant rice.

[hisno1girl]

Pancakes are quick and easy.

Pasta w/grilled veggies & a little bit of Alfredo sauce

Quesadillas

Tater tots casserole + side veggies

Tacos

[renna]

Basmati rice
Pour some Amy's lentil soup over it
Steamed broccoli on the top

[lilybug]

My go-tos:

Tacos or burritos

Breakfast (eggs, waffles, pancakes, cut up fruit)

Omelettes filled with cheese and veggies

Frozen tilapia or other white fish (thaws super fast, cooks even faster in a skillet with butter and lemon)

Ravioli or tortelini

Grilled cheese (or add meat and make a panini) and tomato soup

Jambalaya (rice, tomatoes, spices, chicken, sausage)

Pork chops

Sloppy joes

[DarcyLongfellow]

Tacos -- brown meat, add taco seasoning (homemade in bulk and stored in a container or from the packet), heat up taco shells, set out with toppings.

Stir fry

Grilled chicken breasts/pork chops/pork tenderloin, microwaved sweet potato, microwaved frozen veggies

Mix grated parmesan and mayo in a bowl. Take raw chicken breasts, pound them flatter if you feel like it (but it's not necessary). Top with the parm/mayo mixture, then sprinkle bread crumbs on top. Bake at 400.

[sonrisa]

An easy option is pesto. Put water on to boil. Cut the garlic cloves in half and throw on the stove with some of the olive oil on low for a minute. You don't want to cook it, just get the aroma started and take the bitter edge off. When the heat is off, add more oil to bring down the temp. Toss in cusinart with basil, arugula (in lieu of pepper), pine nuts and good parmesan. Puree. boil pasta. Put extra pesto in fridge. It will taste even better in a day or two when you can put it on chicken or whatever. Your prep time is about as long as reading this description :-)

[puppyluv]

my fast dinners are usually premade frozen items or panty dinners
frozen or dried ravioli/tortellini with jar sauce.
mac and cheese with a veggie side
frozen chicken strips with onion rings
orange chicken with spring rolls and rice
pizzas on pita bread with pesto or red sauce


we use a toster oven to cook most of our meals. it fits enough food for 2 people and doesnt heat the whole house. plus it pre-heats way faster. i usually can cook dinner in less than 20 min when using it.

[hymen]

We had chicken fajitas Monday night that were literally ready in about 15 minutes. Cook sliced chicken breast and pepper and onions in taco seasoning, warm up some tortillas in microwave, and serve with sour cream, salsa, and cheese.

I also make an easy tortellini bake: combine cooked cheese tortellini, half a jar of marinara and half a jar of Alfredo in a baking dish. Top with mozzarella and parm cheese, and bake for 10 minutes at 400 until cheese is melty. I usually serve this with garlic bread and salad.

And if you don't use your crockpot - do it! It saves my sanity when I'm working.

[lovelyshoes]

Bake everything: marinade chicken breast or tenders overnight and bake them when you get home. Same for fish.
Cut up different veggies: zucchini, broccoli, squash, asparagus, portobello mushrooms, Brussel sprouts and put a bit of olive oil and salt over them and bake while chicken or fish is baking. That's what we eat most nights. You can always make nachos, rice, pasta or whatever side you want at the same time.

[Deleted]

Without fail we eat these things pretty much every week:


Pan cooked chicken with BBQ sauce over brown rice with salad or broccoli

Stir fry with chicken or strip steak

Spaghetti with meat sauce and salad

Tacos and/or taco salad

Baked chicken with black beans and carrots

BREAKFAST (lol) Which basically means whatever I had in the fridge - waffles, eggs, sausage/bacon, pancakes - whatever

I also do a rice/chicken/cheese/broccoli casserole that does not take long at all and lasts quite a few meals.

[Muddled]

I bet you are missing seamless right now, aren't you?

[cajunmom]

This takes less than 15 mins to throw together. Add a salad and you're good.

 

[meowmaps]

My trick isn't so much a specific recipe as it is, cooking in bulk. Over the weekend I'll prepare something like chicken souvlaki, for instance, but I'll make eight chicken breasts (there are also only two of us) so that we have dinner all week. This would typically be accompanied by brown rice, which we also make a big pot of so it lasts. Veggies are a little harder so I might have to steam green beans or whatever more than once in a week.

[sunshineandpinot]

This is crazy fast. I use a can of tomatoes (w/ basil) and sometimes sub spinach for the watercress. (bc watercress is really dirty and has to be washed well.) My entire family loves this.

www.eatingwell.com/recipe/252051/gnocchi-with-tomatoes-pancetta-wilted-watercress

[Deleted]

Chili mac that is super filling, takes 15 minutes and makes an insane amount of food:
www.budgetbytes.com/2016/01/cheesy-vegetarian-chili-mac/

Salad with breaded chicken (we use Gardein veggie chicken strips), cheddar cheese, blueberries, strawberries, candied walnuts, spring mix and honey mustard.

Crock pot anything.

[alexis]

Avocado tacos

Mash avocados and spread on warm corn tortillas, top with black beans, sour cream, queso fresco, salsa and lettuce.

Asparagus in ambush

Cook asparagus spears until tender. Place a few slices of ham and Swiss cheese on a tortilla, place a handful of the asparagus in the center and roll the tortilla up. Bake the wraps until the cheese is melted and the ham is hot.

At the beginning of the summer I cooked 7 chickens in my smoker, shredded and froze then in individual portions. I got about 15 meals of chicken out of it and I do various things with it.

[fryjack2]

Call in a take out order on the way home.

[fryjack2]

We are really bad at dinners. For example, the last two nights, I have had rice cakes with Pb and a peach as my dinner. H had left over Blue Apron and a grilled cheese.

We eat burritos or veggie burgers a lot. Or salads with whatever veggies we have in the fridge. An option we do a lot is a rice bowl- basically a bag of 3 minute frozen rice from trader joes with beans, salsa, cheese, peppers on top. Or cereal.

We are not the best cooks and have no desire to spend a lot of time prepping and making meals.

[nahoku]

I'm not thinking of any specific recipes off the top of my head (and the ones I have though of, PP have mentioned) but if I want to cut out time from cooking and still use fresher ingredients, I'll buy pre-sliced veggies at the grocery store. I know Target has a section of prepared veggies for stir fries and fajitas, etc, or I'll buy the bag of brussels sprouts that are already chopped or buy the rotisserie chicken and use the meat in other dishes. I'm not very fast at food prep so this saves me a lot of time.

[sandytoes]

I make turkey burgers once a week and it's so fast. I use 85% ground turkey, mix it with garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasoning. Then I put a spoonful of crumbled blue cheese in the center of each and form the patty around the cheese. I cook them in a grill pan. I serve them on a potato roll and a side salad. So good and it takes maybe 20 minutes tops.

[nahoku]

Aug 3, 2016 8:21:28 GMT -5 sandytoes said:

I make turkey burgers once a week and it's so fast. I use 85% ground turkey, mix it with garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasoning. Then I put a spoonful of crumbled blue cheese in the center of each and form the patty around the cheese. I cook them in a grill pan. I serve them on a potato roll and a side salad. So good and it takes maybe 20 minutes tops.

That sounds really good!

[sandytoes]

Aug 3, 2016 8:22:15 GMT -5 nahoku said:

Aug 3, 2016 8:21:28 GMT -5 sandytoes said:

That sounds really good!

It is! You have to get the 85% ground turkey. Otherwise, it's dry.  I add hot sauce to it sometimes and that's really good too.

[hulley]

DD and DH love Italian Chicken - mix 1/2 cup brown sugar and a packet of Italian dressing mix. Bake at 375. I serve it with salad or instant mashed, which I love but DH and DD hate so it's usually salad

I also like to do a stir fry wit Trader Joe's General Gau's sauce. I serve with their frozen fried rice.

burgers on the grill

Rotisserie chicken on the way home. I pass Sam's Club so I can be in and out in the minutes with chicken and a side.

[cari]

Aug 2, 2016 23:02:55 GMT -5 renna said:

Basmati rice
Pour some Amy's lentil soup over it
Steamed broccoli on the top

View Attachment

This is genius and I want to try it.

[BaliHai]

I've been working a ton of OT lately, so my dinners are usually quick ones because I'm just making them for me.

-Salmon burger in a wrap with a ranch spread (powdered ranch + sour cream) and hot sauce.
-Turkey burger cut up over salad with salsa, sour cream, avocado, shredded cheese.
-Salad with crab meat, croutons, peppers, tomatoes, avocado or a HB egg, Northern Italian dressing.
-Shredded buffalo chicken* on salad with bell peppers, or on those pretzel thin things.
-Shredded Mexican chicken* on hard taco shells with shredded cheese, sour cream, avocado, taco sauce.

*crock pot chicken - I will make it on Sunday and it lasts all week.

I eat a lot of the same things, obviously; sorry this isn't more diverse. lol.

[googled]

We like to take chicken breasts, spread a little pesto on them, put a slice of tomato on top, then cover in shredded mozzarella. Bake at 400 for like 30-40 minutes. It's really tasty and very quick to prep. I usually serve with rice and vegetables.

[glitzyglow]

A quick summer favorite for me is couscous mixed with pepper, fresh diced tomatoes, fresh basil, and feta cheese. Leftovers are great because I can heat it or eat it cold. Couscous is so easy and quick to make...sometimes I'll even boil the water in the microwave, dump the couscous in the dish and cover, and then add all the ingredients in the dish: one dish meal!

[pantsparty]

A favorite around here is browned ground turkey, add taco seasoning packet and a can of chili beans, serve over lettuce, crushed tortilla chips, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, etc.

I've also recently been buying a rotisserie chicken, removing all the meat, and making a salad with lettuce, corn and black beans (canned; drained and rinsed), halved cherry tomatoes, avocado, and chicken. I eat with ranch dressing and my H adds barbecue sauce. I usually have a lot of extra chicken leftover, so you could make chicken tacos, chicken quesadillas, chicken chili, etc.

[Deleted]

Quick ideas:

Baked sausages, frozen veggies--corn, peas, broccoli, steamed fresh broccoli, raw grape tomatoes as a side, sliced cucumber as a side, boxed mac and cheese, baked chicken tenderloins, omelets, fresh salad, burgers, hotdogs, tater tots, frozen pizzas, baked fish. 

Beans and weiners, make hotdogs, heat up beans, make buttered toast to serve on the side.