Easy Dinner Cooking Recipes

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Getting dinner on the table isn’t always easy—busy lives and last-minute changes in plans can make you grab the phone for pizza delivery or head out for takeout. But don’t fear: Look here for ways to make it simple to eat at home. It doesn’t matter if everyone is eating at different times, if you need to make dinner ahead or if there’s no time to cook—you’ll find plenty of great solutions to fit your needs. So now you can feel good about serving your family a home-cooked meal while using up what you have on hand—that’s a winner, winner, great dinner!

Use these tips to help the dinner dash go more smoothly:

• Meals can be whipped up quickly when you keep packaged goods like pasta and sauce, rice, soup and sauce mixes, broth, dried fruits and nuts on hand.

• Favorite condiments can become secret ingredients to quick meals. Use ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, salsa, barbecue sauce or salad dressings as sauce for pasta or rice, or to season meat before cooking. Try mixing a few together to create your own sauce.

• Meats such as ground beef or turkey, pork chops, chicken breasts and shrimp are great to keep in the freezer for quick meals. Leftover cooked meats from the freezer are easy to reheat and add to pasta or rice dishes, burrito bowls, quesadillas or taco salads. Also look for frozen and refrigerated cooked chicken and meatballs and other convenience products to have on hand for the craziest of nights.

• Frozen fruits and veggies make it easy to have them on hand without going bad (like fresh produce does) or to use when the fresh options aren’t in season.

• Shop often for fresh fruits and veggies to have available for meals and snacks. Bagged salads, refrigerated potatoes and precut veggies make it a hop, skip and jump to having dinner on the table.

• Dairy products like eggs, cheeses and sour cream in your fridge are great starts for simple dinners. Loaded omelets, quesadillas or grilled cheese make delicious, fast dinners.

Use Up What You’ve Got

Your fridge and freezer might look bare . . . but take another look. Dinner might be just a few combinations of ingredients away.

• Combine ingredients. If you don’t have enough of one ingredient, look for things you can combine. Pastas can be combined and cooked together. Start cooking the types that take the longest to cook, then add the shorter-cooking ones later so they all get done at the same time. Not enough chicken for a meal? Add some shrimp from the freezer or a can of black beans from the pantry.

• Get creative. Look for ingredients that could be used to make any of these standbys: stuffed baked potatoes, stir-fries, quesadillas, rice bowls, pasta dishes, pizzas or omelets. Keep in mind that not everyone’s dinner has to be the same. Customize them to each person’s tastes and what you have on hand.

• Do a fridge sweep. Before you go to the store again, do a sweep of what you already have and make soup. (Did you know that that is how restaurants get their “soup of the day”?) See Chicken “Fridge Sweep” Chowder for inspiration.

Go-To Dinners

On those nights when you just can’t come up with what to put on the table, look to these last-minute ideas to solve the dinner dilemma.

Everyone’s Eating at Different Times

Have the food ready to reheat as needed.

Steakhouse Sloppy Joes, see recipe

Creamy coleslaw

Chips

Colorful Ham Salad Sandwiches, see recipe

Clusters of grapes

Carrot sticks

Make-Ahead Meals

Make it ahead so dinner is ready when you are!

BBQ Beef Biscuit Stacks, see recipe

Green beans

Oven-Roasted Pulled Pork, see recipe

Tortillas

Sliced bell peppers

Rice

No Time to Cook

Have super-quick meals ready in 20 minutes.

Asian Beef Noodle Bowls, see recipe

Apple or pear slices

Chicken with Pan-Roasted Cauliflower and Orzo, see recipe

Green salad