I love easy recipes that don’t involve a lot of preparation or ingredients, especially when it comes to weeknight dinners. By the end of the day, I usually just want to throw something together, but I don’t want to eat veggie burgers and tuna sandwiches every single night of the week. I also don’t want to attempt some complicated recipe that involves me stressing out about instructions, running to the grocery store to buy missing ingredients, or waiting hours and hours to finally eat. I guess I want something in the middle.
With that said, here are six easy weeknight dinners that come together with minimal effort and always turn out well!
I’ve written about this recipe for Soy-Glazed Fish a number of times on CNC. It’s really the best. It’s so easy to make, takes very little time to cook, tastes delicious, and provides healthy protein and omega-3′s. Love it!
Sausage, Spinach, and Provolone Pizza
If you use a pre-made pizza crust for this meal, it comes together start to finish in no time at all. The recipe calls for nutritious spinach as well as satisfying ground sausage, so it’s an all-around great meal—and it tastes, oh, so delicious!
Pasta Salad with Tomatoes, Arugula and Feta
This was one of those recipes that you just throw together, but it turns out much better than expected. All you need to do is boil some whole wheat pasta, chop up a tomato, and mix all of the ingredients together. Easy peasy!
Dry Rub Steak with Avocado Salsa
This delicious meal was inspired by a recipe from Everyday Paleo. You’re suppose to let the steak sit for 30 minutes in the dry rub before you cook it, but I cut the time down to 10 minutes, and the steak still turned out amazingly. The avocado salsa was the highlight of the meal for me. I actually went back for a second serving of it all by itself.
This “lasagna” recipe is super quick and easy to make. It’d even be a fun recipe to make with kids! The recipe calls for refrigerated cheese ravioli (frozen works too), which allows you to skip the time-consuming process of boiling lasagna noodles and mixing the cheese filling. All you need to do is layer, bake, and serve!
And a new one to add to the list…
Roasted Chicken with Olives & Prunes
The prep time for this meal is so minimal. You put a whole chicken in a baking dish and sprinkle it with salt, mix the other ingredients together in a large bowl, and then pour it around the chicken. That’s it. The cook time took about an hour, but once the chicken was in the oven, I didn’t need to do anything until the timer went off. And, most importantly, it turned out so well. The flavors were outstanding!
Dinner
I added the roasted chicken, olives, and prunes to a big salad and used some of the “sauce” from the pan as dressing. So good!
After dinner, I enjoyed two Lindt truffles for dessert.
Nutty About Yogurt Contest
Remember that Maple Scone recipe that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago? Well, you can find the recipe here.
My scone recipe is also part of a contest hosted by Peanut Butter & Co. and Stonyfield Farm called “Nutty About Yogurt.” Five other bloggers and I were asked to submit a recipe using Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butter and Stonyfield organic yogurt. My creation was a Mighty Maple Yogurt Peanut Butter Scone, and I’d love for you to vote for it! Your vote enters you into a sweepstakes where 5 random winners will receive a prize pack containing products from both Peanut Butter & Co. and Stonyfield. If you’re one of the first 20,000 people to vote, you’ll also receive a $1.00-Off coupon from both companies!
Question of the Day
What’s your favorite easy weeknight dinner?
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Thanks for all the great weeknight recipes, Tina! It’s always nice to have a quick resource for dinner ideas, especially on those nights when I get home and have no idea what to make and a hungry husband sitting at the table, salivating for some food. The pizza and pasta salads sound so tasty and so easy to make. I’ll definitely be trying these very very soon!
I made a super easy Italian-style chicken dish last night! Def need to start buying more chicken breasts- they’re so easy to dress up and take minimal effort… Pair it with a rice or potato side dish and veggie, and dinner is served!
P.S. I have some tortellinis in my freezer that need to get eaten soon- your baked lasagna has got my mind thinking
I have yet to tackle roasting a whole chicken but think its about time I try!
Thanks for all these great ideas! I love having fish for a fast weeknight dinner, so I’ll definitely have to try out your recipe.
One of our faves is sausage and spinach over spaghetti squash. I actually made it last night! It’s from the Rachael Ray magazine, so it’s a 30 minute meal! And the leftovers are even better….
http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-search/budget-recipes/spaghetti-squash-with-sausage-and-greens
I love chipotle burgers! you can use any ground meat and all you need to make it taste fancy is some chiles in adobo! Throw some 90 second rice and sauteed frozen veggites together and you got yourself a meal! I actually just blogged about this quicky yesterday!!!!
Mmm that fish recipe is so good
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