True Story: When Mike and I first got married, we were dual income with no kids. Every night before sleep, we would pour all of our money onto our bed and just roll around in it while we laughed about our riches.
Ahem. What I mean is we would plan out elaborate meals that involved nightly trips to Whole Paycheck. We would come back and cook a late dinner that involved many steps and lots of fancy cheeses.
You might even say we enjoyed cooking.
Now with kids, I’m like, nope. nope nope nope. Now, I’m always on the hunt for the fastest, easiest, cheapest meals that I can slap together and pass off as nutritious. And here are five of my faves:
© zoeytoja / Dollar Photo Club
-1-
Tin Foil Chicken
Place raw chicken and sliced veggies on a large piece of tin foil. Drizzle with oil and season to taste. Make a packet for each person. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes.
-2-
Sausage and Peppers
In one big skillet, sauté onions and peppers in oil. Add in pre-cooked sausage. Heat through. Serve with buns if you wanna.
-3-
Baked Italian Subs
I’ll link to this recipe, but the gist is that you assemble Italian subs, add a special pepper mix you can buy in the store, make sure butter is involved and bake.
-4-
Tuna Pomodoro
Boil egg noodles. Drain. Add 3 cans of drained tuna, 3 cans of undrained diced tomatoes, heavy drizzle of evoo, salt and pepper to taste. Top with fresh basil and parmesan.
-5-
Bean Burritos
We eat meatless on Fridays, so these bean burritos are perfect. They come together in about 10 minutes and just need to bake until heated through. My kids could practically make them if I ever decided to let them make that big of a mess.
What is your go-to weeknight recipe that takes less than 20 minutes to make?
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These are great ideas! Every so often, when I don’t feel like making a big meal, we have breakfast burritos for dinner. I make a huge batch of scrambled eggs and some bacon, then set out the tortillas, cheese and salsa buffet style. The kids make theirs how they like it, easy clean up and everybody’s happy, hah!
We used to make those Tin Foil Chicken pockets back on camping trips during my Girl Scout days. I’ve only made them at home once, but I think we might do it more often!
As for our 20-minute meals, right now it’s just freezer meals that we already made. Or mac ‘n cheese from a box (womp womp).
Do crockpot meals count? Ha. Obviously it takes a few hours to cook, but prep is like 2 minutes (literally) for 2 of our faves:
-Pour salsa over boneless chicken, cook 3 hours on high or 6 hours on low – shred and serve on tortillas with cheese
-Pour BBQ sauce over boneless chicken, cook 3 hours on high or 6 hours on low, shred and serve on bread/buns or eat by itself with something else (I often do mac-n-cheese, no shame)
Hubby works a lot of evenings so easy meals is how we survive sometimes!
Yes- I agree! Really great ideas. The chicken packets might just make it into our regular rotation this summer. Have you ever done brussel sprouts packets- on the grill or in the oven? That’s on my to-try list.
These look wonderful! Thanks for the ideas!
Oh yes… i love simple easy weeknight recipes!
for the tin foil chicken – do you make a tent/wrap the foil around the chicken? it sounds so easy and delish. I am doing that this week!
Sarah
Thank you so much for posting these! I love them all. Interestingly, I made that Baked Sub yesterday without even knowing I was doing that. Easy peasy. The foil packets are also genius, I just learned to do this while on a camping trip.
We like breakfast for dinner Another favorite is rice and spinach “quiche”–minute brown rice, one package chopped spinach defrosted, onion powder, garlic salt, grated Parmesan cheese (just a little), six eggs. layer in baking pan in that order, bake until firm in center. Always a ht even with my boy who doesn’t eat leafy greens.
Grilled cheese with ham and avocado!
This is such a great post! Time-saving indeed!
Thank you, Jenna!:)
This all recopies are really easy to cook and cheap. Thank you so much for sharing innovative ideas of cooking.