It’s 4 p.m. on a Thursday and everyone’s home for the night, and the dreaded question comes. “What’s for dinner?”
For me, as a working mom, my day was busy with meetings, and dinner was the furthest thing from my mind. Everyone is hungry and looking for an answer. I’m scrolling my phone, standing in the pantry, asking everyone what they want, and they either say I don’t know, or “That? I don’t want that.”
I have that feeling of ugh, another thing I have to worry about. It’s clear that we have all had long days, but I did too. At this point, I just want to come home and relax; not having to think about one more thing.
In these moments, sometimes I wish that someone else could take this task on for the night. The nights I don’t have the energy to figure it out, I leave everyone to fend for themselves. By the time we’re supposed to be sitting down together with our hodge-podge of dinner options, I feel bad about it. Instead of it being the calming end to our days where we can wind down and talk about what happened; everyone’s a little crabby instead.
What Does “Easy Dinner” Actually Mean?
The nights where I’m too tired to think about dinner, I know what’s going to happen the minute that I walk through the door. I wish that I would’ve found time to plan it earlier in the day. But, there wasn’t an extra minute. Like they say, the best predictor of the future is the past and in that moment I remember why it’s better to plan for my husband and kids, rather than scramble to respond to their demands.
And the best thing for me to do? Have an easy dinner as a back up, ready to go when one of these nights inevitable hits. I have learned over the years that when I go grocery shopping, I need to add a few things to the cart.
So, what exactly is an “easy” dinner? To me, easy means five ingredients or less. Most often, they are meals that don’t require more than one pan.
For these easy dinners, I keep a few staples on hand:
- Rice
- Pasta
- Tortillas (these freeze well!)
- Breadcrumbs
- Canned tuna
- Beans and lentils
- Olive oil and balsamic vinegar
- Beef, chicken, or vegetable broth
- Canned or frozen fruit and veggies
If You Only Have 5 Minutes: My Favorite Easy Dinner Ideas
Take a look at your pantry, fridge, and freezer first. Sometimes, this gives me enough inspiration to throw something together really fast (or someone in my family will throw out an idea for something they’d like to have, too).
Depending on what you have on hand, here are a few easy dinner ideas that you can make pretty fast:
- Sandwich or wrap: ham, turkey, or the classic peanut butter and jelly
- Breakfast for dinner: eggs, pancakes, even bacon or sausage if you have it
- Quesadilla: tortilla with the cheese you have on hand
- Pasta with butter and parmesan, or if you have some sauce in a jar; add it on top
- Charcuterie-style plate with crackers, cheese, deli meat, and fruit
- Naan bread with some pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and whatever other ingredients you have can turn into a pizza in ten minutes
Where I Look First
If I’m going through the pantry and know that I have enough staples to make somewhat of a recipe (rather than a sandwich or a wrap), there are a few recipe blogs that I love to get my some fresh easy dinner ideas when I feel like I’m in a pinch.
- Mel’s Kitchen Cafe. This has been my go-to for years. Mel has over a thousand recipes, and she tests and tweaks every one before she publishes it. In all the recipes I’ve tried, she’s never let me down. She has a way of making me feel like a great cook in my own kitchen, and has fueled my love of cooking instead of making it feel like a chore. Her bowl recipes or 20-minute or less meals are where I look most often.
- Clean Food Crush. Whether you eat clean, Clean Food Crush has some great recipes for the entire family. I like to use this blog because the recipes are easy, the ingredients are simple, and it’s all whole foods. Like Mel’s, the food is flavorful, and it’s made everyone at my table happy. The sheet pan dinners are the ones I look to most.
- Minimalist Baker. Whole ingredients, simple recipes. This is a newer find for me, but it’s part of my regular search now. Don’t be fooled by the name; there is a whole bunch of recipes in here for any type of meal.
Once You Know Where to Look, You Need Somewhere to Put It
This is what happens after I find something good on Mel’s Kitchen Cafe or Clean Food Crush. I copy the URL, or I take a picture of the recipe if it’s from a cookbook or a magazine, and upload it straight into Weekly Table. Within seconds it’s sitting in my digital recipe box, ready to drop into next week’s plan, or pull up in cook mode while I’m standing at the stove.
If you want a head start, grab our free guide to the 10 essential recipes we can’t live without. It’s a fast way to put a few wins in your recipe box before you even open one of the sites above… and some of the recipes are really easy. Like, so easy it’ll feel like you didn’t even make dinner because it goes so fast.
If you want help with the searching itself, we’ve written about how to make that part easier. And if what you really want is a meal planning system that doesn’t ask you to think about what you’re going to make for dinner at 4 p.m. every day, that’s here too.
