Can you share your favorite quick weeknight dinners with me?

[Deleted]

TACOS! Or taco salad.

I am actually trying to make it to where I only have to truly cook 2 nights/week.

I try to cook something on Sunday that will get us two nights of leftovers. Then I either cook one more thing that gets us a night of leftovers, or I cook two separate things. Fridays we have been having friends over for spaghetti and meatballs, but I make the meatballs and the sauce over the weekend and freeze them. I currently have 57 meatballs and 3.5 cups of sauce in my freezer.

[Deleted]

Oh yeah quesadillas are a staple here too.

[mbcdefg]

If you want some ready-to-go products to make things faster, here's what I like to keep on hand:

Seeds of Change quinoa/brown rice mix takes 90 seconds in the microwave. I've seen individual packs at Shop Rite, and Costco sells 6-packs. 

Frozen steamer vegetable bags take about 6 minutes in the microwave. I look for them at Shop Rite and stock up when they're 99 cents a bag for store-brand, Birds Eye, or Pictsweet. I always buy Brussels sprouts and they have some good potato, stir fry, and rice mixes as well. I also always have a bag of mixed vegetables on hand for pot pies, fried rice, or shepherd's pie, which are great ways to use up leftover bits of meat. 

I've recently started buying this jarred curry sauce. I brown up some diced chicken in a pan, then I add fresh or frozen vegetables, and then I pour the jar of sauce over it and simmer for a couple minutes. Then I serve it over rice (get microwave rice for the days when you don't feel like babysitting a pot of rice). I bought some similar jarred sauces at Trader Joe's last weekend that I'm eager to try. 

The gnocchi alla sorrentina from Trader Joe's is really good. (They changed the packaging recently but the taste is the same.) Throw it in a pan and let the sauce/cheese melt, and that's it. I like to add some fresh baby spinach leaves and let them wilt before serving. You could also add diced bacon, chicken, or shrimp if you wish. I usually make two bags at a time for me and MH - that's enough for a hearty dinner serving each, plus my lunch for work the next day. 

The small ciabatta rolls from TJ's are a nice complement to the gnocchi - I like to have those, or the big bag of small dinner rolls from Costco, in the freezer - I just zap them in the microwave for a few seconds and add them to the plate. 

Batch cooking - make bolognese sauce, chili, tomato sauce, vodka sauce, meatballs in sauce, etc., on a weekend, and then portion it out and freeze it. Then just take it out when you want it, heat it in a pan or the microwave, and put it on top of cooked pasta or gnocchi or whatever you like. 

I *love* the Costco rotisserie chicken. We eat it with mashed potatoes and a vegetable the first night, then the next night it's pot pie or quesadillas or tacos. And there's usually enough left for a third meal or work lunches. Or I just freeze the little bits of meat, and then it's in the freezer if I want to make something quick. 

This pizza dough recipe makes enough for two pizzas. I make the dough, and pizza sauce, whenever I have downtime and then I freeze it in Ziplock bags. As long as I remember to thaw the dough and sauce in time, it's a quick dinner. Pizza is a great way to use up leftover bits of meat or vegetables that aren't enough for another full meal. We use the grill in the summer when it's too hot to turn on the over. (I don't have a kitchen scale or a pizza stone, and I use regular AP flour rather than bread flour, and it always turns out fine.)

Of all the things I make, the one thing my husband specifically requests is taco cups. Open a can of biscuits, flatten out each biscuit and place it in a greased muffin tin cup, and add your cooked and seasoned ground meat or beans inside the biscuit cup. Put it in the oven according to the biscuit directions. Add some shredded cheese in the last couple minutes of cooking time. Top with sour cream and diced tomatoes or whatever else you like. I serve it with Spanish rice (from a packet in a saucepan, or a microwave pouch when I'm really tired) and creamy black beans (get a pot with a lid - I use my Le Creuset - brown up some diced onion and garlic, add a can of black beans, add a small can of tomato sauce and then fill the can with water and dump that in too, and then add salt and pepper to taste and a palm-full of dried cilantro - stir, cover, and simmer on low for about 20 minutes until most of the liquid has reduced - stir a few times throughout to make sure the beans don't burn to the bottom of the pot). 

[Deleted]

I totally forgot I posted this!  Thanks so much for all of these tips.  I'm definitely going to add some of these quick ideas to my rotation.  Cooking is exhausting to me lately.  

[janetplanet20]

I cut up some chicken and sauté it until it's cooked halfway, then I add a jar of Trader Joes Thai green curry sauce and continue cooking. I serve it over brown rice with a veggie side. Lately I've been making broccoli tossed with coconut oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, cooked in the toaster oven. Super easy, doesn't heat up the house, minimal mess, tasty and healthy!

[notsopicky]

Do you have a grill? I do pork tenderloin on the grill (it never works out well in the oven). Literally slap it on there, turn it after 10 minutes, pull it off after another 10 minutes, let it rest.

I also make faro salad--boil the faro, then do some kind of green veg/mushroom stir fry (I do pea pods, green onion, cremini mushrooms, greens sometimes), and when the faro is done, throw it in the pan to mix it all together with some soy glaze (Kikkoman, sp?).

Yummy.