Category Archives: Easy Dinner

Easy Dinners: Pasta at Dinnertime

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Linguini, vermicelli, spaghetti, penne, and tortellini: however you eat it, pasta is comforting, delicious, and extremely easy to make. That’s why pasta is the perfect base for any mom on the run who wants to whip up dinner with the boil of a pot. There are plenty of pasta recipes that make dinnertime a leisurely event. Simply turn on the burner, salt and boil some water, then check out these quick and easy dinners and tips to cooking up your favorite pasta dishes.

Great Pasta Dinner Ideas

  • Spaghetti with Sausage: Simply remove the casings of Italian sausage, break it up in a heated pan over medium heat, brown it with 1 diced onion onions first, then 1 sliced red bell peppers 3 minutes later, and 2 diced tomatoes 5 minutes later.  Drain the spaghetti and combine all the ingredients with a little grated Parmesan cheese.  You’ll have an easy, flavorful dish that will delight everyone from kiddos to serious foodies.
  • Pasta Primavera: This is one of those easy healthy dinners. Get a pound of any kind of pasta you like boiling in salted water.  In a heated sauté pan brown 1 diced onion, 1 sliced red or green bell pepper and season with salt and pepper.  After about 5 minutes or until they are tender add 1 or 2 quartered and sliced zucchinis and about a minute later toss in a 15 oz. can of stewed tomatoes with ½ tsp. of dried or fresh basil. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer while you get the pasta drained.  Combine ingredients and top with grated Parmesan cheese and serve!  To make this one of those easy chicken dinners, add chunks of chicken breast in the pan before the vegetables.
  • Easy Macaroni and Cheese: This is one of those easy dinners for kids, they’ll love this timeless, comfort food.  Boil 12 oz. or ¾ of a bag of elbow pasta in salted water, but this time only cook the pasta for half time since you’ll be baking it later.  Preheat oven to 400F.  In a big bowl whisk 1 c. sour cream, 2 Tbs. Dijon mustard and salt and pepper, add the pasta and coat.  Pour mixture into a baking dish and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and take ¼ c. of sour cream and 8 oz. of grated cheddar cheese and fold into the pasta mixture and bake for another 15-20 minutes.  Viola and now you have a creamy, cheesy delight that is sure to please all!  Alternative veggie to add would be broccoli florets and/or a chopped onion.

Easy Pasta Dinner Tips 

  1. Use plenty of water and make sure it’s come to a full, rolling boil before adding the pasta.
  2. Add salt and a touch of oil to the water, which will enhance the flavors of the pasta.
  3. Cover your pot to make the water boil faster and then again once you’ve added the spaghetti or pasta to make sure it comes back to a boil as quickly as possible.
  4. Many people rinse the gluey starches off of the pasta while draining the water. Don’t rinse! Your sauce will cling to the pasta much better if you don’t rinse off the starchy exterior.
  5. When cooking your pasta, think about how long it will take for you to eat it. If you’re eating it in a few days, over cook it slightly.
  6. When pasta sits in the refrigerator it gets a little harder, so over cook if it’s going straight into the fridge so that, when you do get to your dish, it will be soft and delightful.

Pasta cooks faster than rice and potatoes and with so many different kinds of pasta types and styles out there, you can enjoy quite a variety of quick and easy dinners.  Pasta dishes satisfy appetites, save well for leftovers and can provide you with more easy dinners than you could try to create in nearly an entire year.  The best part is that you don’t have to stick to the recipe, if you have extra or different protein and veggies, just add or substitute for you own special creation.

Easy Dinners for Kids: 5 Soups That Kids Will Love

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Kids tend to be fairly choosy about their soups, so in the winter months when we want to cook up an easy dinner we may be hesitant to bust out the crock pot and make a nice, warm dinner soup. Children’s hesitancy to slurp up soups is a shame considering that soups provide a great way to get our kids plenty of nutrients from ingredients like tomatoes, butternut squash, carrots, and onions. Healthy soups can incorporate a hearty dose of protein, good carbs, and healthy fats. Additionally, soup may inhibit the movement of neutrophils, the most common type of white blood cell that defends against infection and thereby helps reduce upper respiratory cold symptoms for those who have the cold, according to a study at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. While some kids may be picky with their soups, there are some soups that kids absolutely can’t resist. Try to make these easy dinners for kids that will please the whole family in winter months.

  • Alphabet soup: Buy some alphabet pasta and make alphabet soup when it’s chilly outside. You can also find star pasta to put stars in your soup, too. Garlic, low-sodium chicken broth, yellow onion, carrots, and a bay leaf are all it takes to make a healthier version of alphabet soup.
  • Tomato Basil Goldfish Cracker soup: Everyone loves Goldfish. In fact, they make a great cracker for your child’s soup. Cheddar cheese Goldfish taste great in a tomato basil soup.
  • Stone Soup: Stone soup is a soup based on the classic book, Marcia Brown’s “Stone Soup.” The book tells the story of three hungry soldiers who come into a village and trick peasants into sharing their food by making a soup out of seemingly nothing but stones. Of course, the soldiers know that you can turn whatever vegetables you have on hand into a hearty meal. To follow the story, boil a stone to clean it entirely. Then let your child plop a stone into the soup!
  • Hot Dog Soup: Skip the mustard, ketchup, and bun and instead serve your kids a fun, hot dog soup with lentils and carrot slices. Hot dogs perfectly compliment the lentils, which are a great source of fiber.
  • Smiley Soup: Use two Ritz crackers for eyes and make a smile in the soup with grated cheese, for a soup that will bring a smiley to everyone’s faces.

Soups can be a great easy dinner that even the kids will love. If you’re suffering through the chilly, winter months, just make a kid-friendly soup that will leave the whole family warm and filled with healthy nutrients.

 

Quick Easy Dinner Recipes That You, Your Family and Friends Will Love

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Some foods are just crowd pleasers, in spite of their simplicity. You could spend almost a hundred dollars on the perfect cut of smoked salmon for canapes, garnished divinely with crème fraiche, and your guests may not subsequently remark upon the dish. Often, people prefer a quick and easy dinner of simple, favorite elements and this can be far more memorable and much less expensive. The National Restaurant Association reported that, although the “culinary compass points mainly toward ethnic cuisines,” 66% of people just want a plain ol’ American dish, like a burger and fries. If you want to throw a dinner party that will keep people eating with delight all night long, your best bet is to stick to the classics and avoid “controversial” ingredients.

Easy Dinner Foods That Everyone Will Love

So what should we present at a dinner party that everyone will love? As the National Restaurant Association told us, the best way to go is with the classics. Try grilling up some juicy burgers and dressing them up with a homemade sauce, like horseradish or chili. You can never go wrong with a BBQ if you’re trying to impress your family and friends’ taste buds. Marinate your rack of baby back ribs in brown sugar, black pepper, onion powder, garlic, salt, and something spicy, like jalapenos and cayenne pepper. Chili, pizza, mac n’ cheese, and fried chicken are other classics that are bound to be a smash hit among family and friends. Keep in mind that certain ingredients also tend to be people-pleasers. Bread, garlic, butter, and cheese are all ingredients that people generally gravitate towards. The most successful ingredient of all? You guessed it: bacon. This food’s already incredible popularity has even increased by 26.5% since 2005, according to Mintel’s Menu Insights database. You can add bacon to basically anything and people will generally jump up and down with delight.

Foods to Avoid

If you want to make a recipe that everyone will love, try to avoid these ingredients in your cooking:

  • Cilantro: Famous cilantrophobe Julia Child once said that she would never order something with cilantro and that she would “pick it out if [she] saw it and throw it on the floor.” Turns out, these rather strong opinions about the green herb have scientific grounds. According to the New York Times, “Flavor chemists have found that cilantro aroma is created by a half-dozen or so substances, and most of these are modified fragments of fat molecules called aldehydes. The same or similar aldehydes are also found in soaps and lotions and the bug family of insects.” As a result, many people find that cilantro tastes like soap.
  • Beets: Whether it’s their moderate-to-loud flavor, unusual slipperiness or surprising sweetness, some people don’t quite know what to make of beets. We recommend leaving this food out of your dinner party.
  • Oysters: Some people are disgusted by the slimy texture of oysters, which is a shame considering that they’re an excellent source of iron and B12.
  • Blue cheese: Some folks just can’t get past blue cheese’s distinct odor, which some accuse of smelling like “stinky feet.”
  • Tofu: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, cooking teacher and author of The 30-Day Vegan Challenge, says people can be turned off by tofu’s occasionally slimy texture.
  • Cauliflower: Cauliflower acquires a sulfury taste when cooked too long, which has prompted many people to develop a fierce loathing for the vegetable.

So, blue cheese is out of the question, cilantro tastes like soap, tofu is too slimy and cauliflower is sulfurous! Knowing that the masses are disgusted by some foods, be careful when planning a menu for your dinner party. Whatever quick, easy recipe you decide on, avoid these ingredients (even if you love them).  To be sure to please – stick to the classics, like burgers, bacon, and pizza.

An Easy Dinner That the Whole Family Can Enjoy

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43% of American families eat together every day according to the Journal of American Medicine.  However, a CBS News Poll informs us that 33% of their viewers say the TV is always on during their dinner, with another 27% saying it’s on half the time, or sometimes.  Additionally, 5% of CBS’ viewers say that people at their family dinner table are texting, e-mailing or using their cell phones throughout the meal. CBS News analyzes the results, saying, “It used to be the family sat down a table with no distractions. Now, however, the television, e-mail, texting, and cell phones have started to invade our dinner tables.” Sadly, families are spending less time together chatting and catching up, and more time on their cell phones. Rather than lament this statistic, why not attempt to change it? Instead of mealtimes being an individual activity, get everyone in the family involved!  This way, everyone will contribute to entire dinner experience, rather than their cell phone bill. One way you can get the whole family involved at dinner time is to serve a dinner that everyone can personalize.

Personalized Plates: Quick Easy Dinner Recipes for Everyone in the Family

Select dishes that everyone can create or customize on their own. This will not only help you get everyone in the family involved, but it will also be beneficial to those who have picky eaters in their family. Picky eaters can design their own dinner, without having to fuss, pout, or leave the dinner table hungry. Here are just a few ideas for personalized dinners:

  • Taco night: All you have to do is put out cheese, lettuce, salsa, corn and flour tortillas, with chicken and steak meat, and have everyone make their own taco. This way, everyone in the family can assemble their own dish, exactly the way they like it.
  • Pizza: Divide the pizza up into territories and allow everyone to make their own portion. Sausage, mushroom, onion, eggplant, or even white pizza could all be present on one pie!
  • Panini: Provide an array of ingredients that work in a Panini. These could involve different types of cheeses, tomato, ham, turkey, bacon, pesto, spinach, or even leftover pasta sauce with meatballs. Everyone in the family can come up with their own grilled sandwich.
  • Frittata: Frittatas, like quiche, taste great with basically any ingredients. All you need is an egg base, then you can add spinach, cheese, mushrooms–whatever you want, you can make it your own!

Next time you notice a little texting at the dinner table, you can either try to make dinnertime a cellular-free zone, or simply plan a “personalized plate” night that will allow everyone to get involved. Hopefully, this will strengthen family ties and make for an engaging and fun meal.

Easy Dinner Ideas: Freezing Strategies

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We’re all guilty of food waste. In fact, Americans dump about 40% of their food in the trash, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Instead of throwing almost half of your food in the trash, why not use your freezer? Freezing your food can also help you cook up nearly completed dinners by simply thawing a plastic container. If you want some easy dinner ideas, take a peek at these tricks to freezing your food so that next time you have leftovers you can not only cut back on food waste, but also have next week’s dinner ready for action, just waiting in the fridge.

Easy Dinner Freezer Tips and Tricks

  • How do you store your pre-cooked meats or leftovers? Place your already cooked chicken breasts on a cookie sheet and popping them in the freezer. Once they’re frozen, simply put them in a Ziploc bag, and remove the excess air. The best way to freeze these items is to wrap them in aluminum foil first, then placing them in freezer bags. You’ll never have to deal with freezer burn again!  And this is a great way to cook ahead and make easy dinners later.
  • Berries and other small “squishable” items such as hors d’oeuvres, meatballs, cooked ravioli can be frozen similar to your already cooked chicken breasts. Just spread ‘em on a cookie sheet, then transfer them to a freezer bag. That way, your smaller items won’t clump together as they freeze. When you’re ready to use them, just defrost your raviolis, heat them up, and serve for the easiest dinner ever.
  • If you have a Sunday afternoon free, make some chicken stock, soup or sauce and freeze it up in Ziploc bags, then stack the bags horizontally. Any soup or sauce can be made ahead and stacked in your fridge, which saves space. Making stock ahead of time will give you the perfect base for a crock pot stew or soup, which can be assembled in minutes after you’ve defrosted your stock. Having tomato sauces frozen on hand will also allow you to make dinner in minutes. Thaw your sauce overnight, boil some spaghetti, serve warmed sauce over spaghetti for an easy dinner that won’t disappoint.
  • When using Ziploc bags, squeeze all of the air out from the bag. One trick? Suck the air out of a bag with a straw to make your bag completely airtight.  Alternatively, you can use a specialized vacuum sealer – these make storage a cinch!
  • If you want to freeze a complete meal, like a casserole, make sure to freeze them in small portions so that your main course is faster to thaw. If you freeze an entire meal for four in one big container, it will take ages to defrost!
  • Another tip for complete meals is instead of leaving your casserole dish in the freezer for a month, line the dish with foil, then put the meal in it. Wrap it, freeze until it solidifies, then lift out the foil and the contents inside. Your casserole will be ready, dish-free, until you’re ready to heat up another dinner time meal.
  • For a great, easy breakfast meal, freeze waffles and pancakes, then defrost them the night before you are planning on serving them. For optimal freezing, let your pancakes and waffles cool after making them. Then, layer them on wax paper and freeze in a Ziploc bag. Next time you’re in the mood for some waffles, just defrost, heat, and serve for an effortless breakfast to start out the day.   Some waffles will even go frozen into a toaster (if you have the large slot type).  You can have fresh Belgian Waffles in minutes!  No de-frosting required.

Knowing the ins and outs of freezing can help you bring full entrees with little to no effort. Just keep these easy dinner ideas in mind and you’ll be whipping up dinner by simply thawing and serving. A dinner that requires no effort? Now, that’s delicious.

Tips for Using Easy Dinner Recipes for Two

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In general, about a third of all American workers are chronically overworked, according to the Families and Work Institute in New York City, but even more horrifying is that about 45% of those with high-earning positions, like managers, are too tired to converse with their spouse or partner after a long day at the office, indicated a study done by Sylvia Ann Hewlett & Carolyn Buck Luce and published in the Harvard Business Review. Those of us who work hard at the office may be guilty of neglecting our significant other during busy work times. However, we would all agree that putting in time with your loved one is just as important as having a great career. Next time you feel like you haven’t spent enough time with your partner, surprise the special person in your life with a romantic dinner for two. Planning a romantic evening is easier than you would think! Just follow these tips for easy dinner recipes for two and you’ll have a wonderful meal put together in no time.

  • Plan ahead: A good rule of thumb for any cooking venture that you undertake is to do some meal planning ahead of time. After planning, check your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer to see what ingredients you might already have on hand.
  • Compromise:  You may be on a diet, while he loves anything that is battered, fried, and covered in fat. You may love a juicy steak while she prefers a rosemary salmon dish. If you and your significant other don’t exactly share the same tastes then it’s time to get creative to make a dinner that both of you will enjoy. If one of you is a picky eater, put the sauce on the side or cook separate servings of your meat with different spices (one cut for him, one for her). If one of the spouses prefers eating late and the other prefers early dinners, the early bird should have a filling snack (like an apple with peanut butter) to tide him/her over until dinnertime. Lastly, if one of the two like greasy food but the other is dieting, you can simply “fake” fried foods. For example, bake potato wedges or pan-sear your foods with a very small amount of oil.
  • Pick a recipe: Most recipes aren’t made for two. However, there are specially made recipes with just two servings that could help you avoid food waste if you’re not a huge fan of left overs. Keep in mind that when you’re only cooking for two, you have more flexibility and the ability to cook individual desserts or entrees, like mini apple pies, crème brulee, or chocolate lava cakes.
  • Make a Grocery List: This will be easier because you will know what ingredients you need to stock up on for your meals.
  • Create Ambiance: Set the mood by setting up the dining table with candles, a nice tablecloth and some fresh flowers. Purchase a bottle of wine to serve with the meal and make it a night to remember!
  • Think of your partner: When in doubt, think of what your partner would like. Hosting a dinner should be about your guest and if your partner is happy, we’re assuming you’ll be content, too.

With some prep and these tips, quick easy dinner recipes for two should be a breeze to cook and enjoy.  The special person in your life will surely appreciate the effort!

Tips for Cooking Quick Easy Recipes for Dinner

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Seven percent of Americans say they never cook and 30% say they only cook three times a week. One thing is certain: we don’t cook as much as we could. Why? Cooking is intimidating and time consuming! Learning how to cook, takes a bit of time and patience — two things that working moms and dads may not have a whole lot of. That’s why it’s important to pick quick easy recipes for dinner to practice cooking. Quick and easy recipes give you the perfect opportunity to practice the basics of cooking. Here are some quick easy recipes for dinner that can help you basic cooking techniques.

Blanching

If you’re cooking dinner several nights a week and you want to add some healthy side dishes to your dinner, you gotta learn how to blanch like a pro. Blanching is a tactic used to preserve color and texture of the vegetable or prepare veggies for freezing and it’s often said to be the healthiest way to cook vegetables because they don’t lose too many nutrients when blanched. It’s important to know how to blanch if you’re making healthy kitchen sides like broccoli salad. To blanch, make sure you cut your broccoli into uniform pieces so that they evenly cook. Add salt to a pan of boiling water and make sure that your using ample amounts of water (you may need a deep pot if you’re blanching a large number of veggies). After about 30 seconds, test for doneness and after about 1-2 minutes the blanching should be complete. Dunk your blanched veggies in ice water to stop cooking. To complete your broccoli salad, toss with crumbled bacon, onion, craisins, and a bit of cheddar cheese. Stir well so that cheese melts. Broccoli salad is a great green side and pairs well with grilled chicken for a complete easy dinner that only takes about 20 minutes to prepare. You can use the blanching technique for other salads, crudite, sushi, stir fries, spring rolls, or simply eat blanched veggies on their own, making for an easy side that’s ready in an instant.

Cooking Rice

Cooking rice may be a breeze, but few people know that cooking brown rice requires different techniques. Brown rice takes a little more water and time than regular rice. However, if you want to serve the healthier option of brown rice with some lemon shrimp, you have to learn how to cook this versatile side to perfection. To make brown rice, first measure out a cup and keep in mind that long-grain may need a little extra water. Rinse rice until water runs clear, add 2 1/4 cups of water, then bring the water to a simmer. Cover tightly and turn the heat to low until the rice has cooked for about 45 minutes. Make sure there’s no more water in the pot, and serve! All you have to do to make a complete meal is sauté some shrimp with lemon, butter, and garlic, then mix the sauté in with your brown rice. Now, that’s an easy dinner.

Sautéing

Sautéed mushrooms make great additions to your burger or frittata, but they’re especially handy if you want to make a creamy, wild mushroom sauce with browned mushrooms. However, you have to know how to sauté before you make this easy dish. Though mushrooms are easy to make after you have the technique down, many people end up boiling their mushrooms instead of sautéing them. Mushrooms aren’t supposed to be slimy. To make perfectly sautéed mushrooms, first get your pan hot and don’t be shy with the oil. You have to have heat to get your browning. Layer all of your mushrooms evenly on the pan and let them cook without provocation. When they look a bit brown on the cooking side, flip them over until the other side is completely brown. Most importantly, don’t salt until the end–it draws water out of the mushrooms. Just sauté minced garlic and onion (with your newly found sautéing techniques) and add mushroom stock, cream, and a bit of cheese to make an undeniably delicious wild mushroom sauce that can be served over pasta. This whole dish only takes about 30 minutes to make.

Next time you feel a little bit intimidated by the kitchen, just keep these key tips in mind to make dinners with sautéed mushrooms, brown rice, or blanched vegetables. You can use these techniques for countless ingredients, so feel free to show off your new culinary skills.

Quick and Easy Dinner Recipes: Fancy Grilled Cheese

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The grilled cheese: an undeniably simple yet scrumptious meal. The history of the grilled cheese is mysterious, however food historians generally agree that the modern grilled cheese was popularized in the 1920s, when sliced bread and American cheese became more affordable. Of course, the usual accompaniment was tomato soup, a healthy dose of vitamin C to temper the cheesy goodness. Now, the grilled cheese has been enjoyed by generations and, with some tomato soup, it makes for the easiest dinner out there. Here are some ways that you can jazz up the great American classic and create easy, yet delicious dinner recipes that your kids will look back on as a childhood favorite:

  • Instead of using your typical ingredients, like cheddar cheese and white bread, change it up with fresh mozzarella and sourdough bread. Make sure to include fresh cracked pepper. Yum!
  • Take that leftover ground beef and make a patty melt on rye bread. Include some yellow onions, caramelized on a hot skillet. Famous sommelier Ania Zawieja recommends pairing your patty melt with a fruity Belgian-style beer as a refreshment, for those that are of age. The children can enjoy their patty melts with some apple juice, instead.
  • Why close your grilled cheese? Opt for an open-faced grilled cheese with sharp, aged cheddar, red onion, and bacon. Just pop your open-faced sandwich in the oven at a high temperature and broil until the bacon starts to sizzle.
  • The Croque Madame is a French-style grilled cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top (because, let’s be honest, every dish is better with a fried egg to top it off). A runny yoke can add some much needed moisture to a grilled cheese. Include a thin slice of smoked ham.
  • The grilled cheese doesn’t have to be all savory. Put gruyere surchoix cheese on cinnamon bread with toasted almonds for a sweet twist on this classic dish. Those with a sweet tooth won’t even need dessert after eating a grilled cheese on a delicious cinnamon-raisin loaf.
  • For those who love Italian, try making a Caprese grilled cheese. Mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, tomatoes, olive oil, and a bit of balsamic vinegar are all it takes to make this fancy grilled cheese.

With all these grilled cheese ideas, you’ll have quick and easy dinner recipes that the kids and the rest of your family will enjoy. Just cook ‘em up in minutes and enjoy with a side of tomato soup for a wonderfully easy dinner.

Freezable Easy Dinner Recipes for Families That Won’t Disappoint

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Freezing as a means of preserving food has been around for thousands of years, dating back to Greek and Roman times, where people stored food with compressed snow in insulated cellars. Now, we can thank the ancient peoples who innovated and developed this tactic of food preservation for making dinnertime a little less hectic. Not only is freezing foods easy, but its the best way to preserve nutrients found in fruits and vegetables. “While canned vegetables tend to lose a lot of nutrients during the preservation process (notable exceptions include tomatoes and pumpkin), frozen vegetables may be even more healthful than some of the fresh produce sold in supermarkets,” says Gene Lester, Ph.D., a plant physiologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Center in Weslaco, Texas. Why? Lester explains, “Fruits and vegetables chosen for freezing tend to be processed at their peak ripeness, a time when—as a general rule—they are most nutrient-packed.” Food that’s quick to prepare, easy, and nutritious? That’s impressive.

Great Freezable Foods

Yes, you can buy frozen veggies in the store, throw them in a crock pot with a cut of meat and make magic happen for a quick and completely fail-proof dinner, but there are some foods that freeze better than others. Not all frozen foods are created equal! Here are some foods that can help you make easy dinner recipes that will delight the whole family.

Meats:

  • Steak: Steak freezes surprisingly well and can be chopped up and paired with a piece of ciabatta bread, cheese, and mushrooms for your family’s own take on the Philly cheesesteak. Mmm, that’s good.
  • Ground meat: If you’re making a taco salad or burgers, store your seasoned meat so you can enjoy a quick dinner weeks later. You can also brown your ground meat with celery, onions, and peppers to have the perfect base for any casserole or spaghetti sauce, ready to go.

Veggies and Herbs:

  • Broccoli Casserole: Preserve the nutrients in your broccoli by freezing up a make-ahead broccoli casserole. Just grill some chicken breast, defrost your broccoli casserole, and serve for a great meal.
  • Fresh garden pesto: All it takes is basil, parsley, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, garlic, salt and olive oil to make your own pesto, which goes perfectly on anything from pesto garlic bread to spaghetti. Freeze your pesto and thaw it for use when you need to prepare a last-minute dinner recipe. Combined with some pasta, this pesto will delight the whole family.

Prepared Meals:

  • Chicken pot pie: Invest in some individual-sized ramekins, line each with dough, then fill with a carrot, onion, fennel, chicken, and chicken filling, cooked in milk and broth. Simply bake crusts until golden brown, let cool, cover with plastic wrap and aluminum foil, then store them in your freezer for up to 3 months. These individual and ready-to-serve pot pies will taste and look great even after being frozen.
  • Beef Casserole: Casseroles are notoriously easy to freeze and serve, preserving their taste and depth even after a month in the fridge. You can even freeze separate dishes together to make a freezer casserole. For example, try freezing beans with rice, braised veggies, and braised meat. This could make for a quick and complete meal later on down the road.
  • Mushroom Bolognese: Porcini mushrooms, onions, garlic, tomatoes and whole-wheat spaghetti, topped off with some parmesan cheese makes a great make-ahead meal that only takes about an hour to prepare in full. Just defrost your bolognese and top with some parsley and additional parmesan for a great, make-ahead meal.

Easy dinner recipes don’t have to be snore-worthy or unsatisfying. Simply put your leftover casseroles, steak, and ground meat in the freezer to make the base for meals that are practically ready to go.

5 Delicious Easy Dinner Recipes for Family with 5 Ingredients

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We always see cookbooks with names like “Easy Recipes” or “Simple Cooking.” What makes a recipe easy, exactly? Is there a recipe for making an easy recipe? The truth is, it’s not only time but the amount of ingredients that go into a meal that makes the meal “easy” or “simple” to prepare and serve. Not only can you make a meal with a small amount of items in the pantry, but you don’t have to juggle scores of ingredients, either. At least that’s what Claire Robinson of the show “5 Ingredient Fix” says, explaining, “People get angry when they see 27 ingredients in a recipe and they’re trying to learn to cook,” the TV chef says. “I don’t have 27 ingredients in my kitchen right now and I’m a chef!” Instead of juggling huge numbers of ingredients, minimize the amount of ingredients you use in each meal to maximize your cooking time.

Scrumptious, Simple Dinners

You can easily make a delicious dinner for you and your family with five ingredients or less. Just take a glimpse at these six recipes:

  • Crock pot recipes: If you don’t have a crock pot, get one! This inexpensive cooking tool can save you tons of time and the energy it takes to hover over a stove, boil water, cut and trim, etc. Then, you can create simple crock pot dishes with less than 5 ingredients, like this 4 ingredient crockpot chicken recipe
  • Baked Herbed Salmon with Summer Squash: All it takes is a two pound salmon, sage leaves, cayenne pepper, and summer squash with a squeeze of lemon to make a refreshingly good easy baked herbed salmon dinner.
  •  Burgers: Burgers are satisfying and easy, especially if you like spending time out by the grill. All you need is lean ground beef, chipotle chile pepper, monterey jack cheese, hamburger buns, and salsa for an irresistible southern burger.
  •  Brisket sliders: Get a BBQ spice blend, ground coffee, brown sugar, black pepper, and dinner rolls and have a BBQ on a hot summer day. The bitterness of coffee mixed with the sweet brown sugar combines to make the perfect BBQ rub.
  •  Mac n’ Cheese: Everyone loves mac n’ cheese and all you need to make this dish is just five ingredients: macaroni, dijon mustard, onion, sour cream, cheese.  That’s one gourmet serving of easy mac n cheese.
  •  Sausage and Cheese Casserole: With a little bit of creativity, you can cook a great casserole with only five ingredients. Try a sausage and cheese casserole with ground pork sausage, cheddar cheese, white bread, eggs, and milk for an easy dinner recipe that the whole family will enjoy.

See? Whipping up delicious, easy dinner recipes for your family is a piece of cake and only takes about 5 ingredients. Next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, try and prepare dinner with 5 ingredients to minimize your stress in the kitchen.