Like many of you, I love searching the internet for weeknight dinner ideas. The dreaded "what's for dinner tonight" question can hit the moment we open our eyes, right? And if you have kids, they are definitely going to ask you that as soon as they get home from school. If I haven't figured out our dinner plan by then, I'm most likely going to grab a box of pancake mix and call it a day.
Sometimes I do meal plan on Sundays and that makes a world of a difference for my week. But let's be real- I also kind of dread meal planning. Deciding what to eat in advance can feel like such a CHORE. I'm sure I'm not alone in this, so here are five meals that I've made recently that you can throw together fairly quickly on a weeknight. I've made each of these meals more than once in the last month. Hopefully one of them will be a guaranteed crowd pleaser in your home.
This baked ravioli from How Sweet Eats latest cookbook, Everyday Dinners, is SO good. It is an indulgent meal- not going to lie, but it is a meal that comes together SO fast. A bag of cheese ravioli, spinach, jarred pasta sauce, mozzarella (or burrata cheese) make up the components of this meal and I typically have all of those items on hand at all times. If you want to feel better about it, grab a bagged salad mix to serve alongside!
I love that you don't have to boil the pasta beforehand- it goes into the oven frozen. I've made this probably 3 times already and I've added ground italian sausage to it but I also like it as is, without any protein, which is how her recipe is originally written. I honestly could eat this once a week if I didn't care about the calories.
See that one enchilada there without any cheese or sauce? That's for my son. :) Keep it plain please, mom. I've made many, many enchilada recipes and I love them all, but that's because I could eat Mexican food every day for the rest of my life and die happy.
For a weeknight, I like to reach for my Joanna Gaines cookbook, Magnolia Table, and make her Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas. I do customize her recipe to whatever I have on hand. On the night I took this photo I had a jar of salsa verde to use up, so I used that to pour over the enchiladas. I like her version better though. She mixes up a tub of sour cream, a can of cream of chicken soup, and green enchilada sauce. I also love how quick it is to throw together. Buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it up to use in the filling.
This is another recipe from How Sweet Eats, Crispy Orange Chicken. I just love her. I've read her blog for years and she is so creative in the kitchen. It's also from her cookbook, Everyday Dinners, so I don't have a link for the recipe as it's not on her blog. This was really good- bite sized oven baked crispy chicken with a homemade orange sauce.
Pot roast! I don't make pot roast often since I don't gravitate towards meals with red meat (unless I'm at a steakhouse, then I'm getting a steak). Sometimes the mood strikes and on this particular Sunday I had everything for it. I also love using my dutch oven and love that this recipe using ONE pot. One pot meals are amazing! I don't use my dutch oven enough and would like to use it more, so if you have any recipes for it please send them my way!
A friend sent me a screenshot of this recipe from the book The Weekday Vegetarians. It's a white bean bake with tomatoes, cheese, oregano, and a panko topping. It's another one pot, or one pan meal, since I made it using my cast iron skillet. This was very easy and delicious!
I hope one of these meals will make it to your table this week. Tell me what you've made recently, I'd love to hear!
Posts
