Easy Dinners

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A long time ago I was part of an email chain that was sharing your favorite easy dinner recipe in five ingredients or less. It was one of those things that once you sent yours you were supposed to get a whole bunch in return…well I clearly did something wrong because that didn’t work for me haha. I am not shocked. You shouldn’t be either. However, I loved the idea! At this point in my life knowing I can count on one hand the ingredients to throw dinner on the table is amazing. A life -saver even. It comes in handy when making grocery store lists too. I love to try new recipes, and I love to cook. But, I often forget key ingredients for my recipes because sometimes they have so many or I thought I had something I had already when I did not. Is this just me?!

So five is simple! Five I can handle. Five I can remember. Hopefully.

This also comes in handy when I am thinking about whether or not I need to go to the store. I can think about what meals I have on hand because I usually have a few things I can picture.

3 Easy Dinners

Spaghetti

One meal I like to know that I have on hand is spaghetti and meatballs. This is an easy one for us because we all like the frozen meatballs, and I am not opposed to jarred sauce either, but tend to buy canned tomato sauce and add my own seasonings. So, I just need to make sure I have the sauce, the pasta, and the meatballs. Our grocery store has meatballs with pretty clean ingredients, but I do always like to check. Sometimes I am surprised by what or how many ingredients are put in simple things. Are you a big ingredient checker? So, once we have the meal, I add it to the store list for the next trip. Sometimes we add garlic bread (not healthy) and sometimes we add steamed broccoli (healthy). We also almost always have fresh fruit. My kids do love fruit! But regardless it is a meal, and everyone will eat it. And, that’s a miracle!

Healthy Pasta Options

We have played around with a few different pasta types. A lot of times we eat just regular spaghetti because it is yummy. Actually, my kids aren’t crazy about pasta like typical picky eater kiddos, but I love it! Italian is my favorite for sure. But, we do serve it to them. We try to get our whole grains in every day, and depending on my mood I think whole grain spaghetti is my favorite healthier pasta option.

You can also make zoodles using a gadget like this, or you can pay and just pick it up at your grocery store already zoodled these days! We used to make these more often, and would sometimes mix half zucchini and half regular pasta. Our little gadget eventually broke though, maybe we are (or were) healthier than I thought!

We have also tried red lentil pasta to try to sneak in a little extra protein, about 5 more grams. Chickpea pasta is another option that gets you the extra protein as well. We liked both of these, and the kids did pretty well with them too. They have not been something that “stuck” for us though.

Orange Chicken

Another simple meal to have on hand that can also be ready in about 15 minutes is orange chicken, rice, and broccoli. I love this because I buy the steamable bags and then they all nest on top of each other in the freezer nicely as a meal together! You could buy whatever veggie your kids will actually eat. Mine do pretty well with raw veggies, but broccoli is about the only cooked vegetable they will eat. Of course you can make your own rice and save a lot of money, but these bags are so handy and fast. Like you can forget about dinner and then have it on the table in under twenty minutes fast. I do usually buy the brown rice for more whole grains, but they make plain white and lots of other varieties too. So easy. We also split the chicken and only put sauce on it for the adults, the kids just eat it plain. Oh well, at least the sauce isn’t the healthy part (but, it’s so yummy!).

Biscuits and Gravy

This next meal might be my favorite. This also is not one to count as healthy, it is pure comfort. Biscuits and gravy! I have tried a few homemade biscuit recipes, and I just don’t love them. Maybe I am doing something wrong, or maybe I just actually like the canned kind better? I don’t know! It definitely makes it easier, too. All you need to have on hand are two cans of biscuits, one pound of breakfast sausage, flour, and milk.

I like this recipe because I do not have to remember anything besides 1/3 cup flour and 3 cups milk (give or take on either one). And I can actually remember that because of the threes, ha. First you brown the breakfast sausage in a large pan. While I am doing this I usually pop the biscuits in the oven. Then you sprinkle the flour all over and season with salt and pepper to your liking. We like a lot of pepper. Combine those ingredients and then pour in the milk. Continue to stir over low/medium heat until desired consistency.

Are you a canned biscuit fan? Or do you have a homemade recipe you love?

Key to Easy Dinner

All of these meals will keep for a while which is great. I think the one thing that can go bad the fastest are the biscuits, and they are easy to just pop in the oven for breakfast one morning if you need to just eat them up quickly. It is nice to have these on hand for quick complete meals. We don’t eat these meals every week, but I do tend to always have them on hand. It is just nice to know they are there, ha! Like I said I just remember to add them to my store list once we eat it. Oh, and for meals to truly be an easy dinner that does mean they have to be crowd-pleasers. For us, these work!

So there are three meal ideas to easily add to your next grocery list! Do you have a go to meal with few ingredients? Planning and prepping an easy dinner has been very helpful this last year. I do love to try new recipes, too. This is one for lasagna soup I have made recently that we (adults) both loved. It also has ingredients you could keep on hand to whip up on a cold day and is very forgiving as we have made it multiple times now and of course…I can’t remember all the ingredients!

Breakfast makes for an Easy Dinner too!

Another easy go to for us…breakfast for dinner. Always pleases everyone. Have you tried oatmeal in the instant pot yet? Have to keep it easy! I guess one of my suggestions (biscuits and gravy) already is breakfast, but to us it is dinner!

I am actually about to make biscuits and gravy, ha! It was sounding so good as I was working on this post. I had other plans, but it is cold out, and I have it on hand 😉 so why not!?

What are you cooking!? I would love to hear your ideas for an easy dinner!