Need some quick and easy dinner ideas that are also easy on your pocketbook? As you well know, I’m all about keeping it simple — especially when it comes to cooking and meals.
Here are three meals we had recently that everyone in our family enjoyed:
1) Barbecued Chicken
This recipe sounds fancier than it is… It’s literally your favorite barbecue sauce dumped on chicken and baked in the oven or crockpot. (I know, I know, my recipes are so crazy complicated! :))
I chopped mine up and sprinkled it on lettuce with feta cheese, cranberries, and sliced almonds. The rest of the family had theirs over rice or noodles (we had some leftover rice and leftover noodles from earlier this week) + veggies.
2) French Toast
Jesse was out of town, so we had a very simple spread of French Toast, Hard-boiled eggs, and oranges.
We were actually going to just have leftovers, but Silas offered to make French Toast and Kathrynne had made hard-boiled eggs earlier, so I pulled out some oranges and we called it dinner. (And to keep it real, I got them situated with dinner and then went to hide out in our room for a few minutes because Mom needed 5 minutes of quiet!)
3. Turkey Sausage & Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Sauteed Onions & Peppers
This was a dinner that Jesse made. This, why it’s Paleo and something that required multiple bowls, pans, and steps. 😉
(He and I could not be more different when it comes to how we approach cooking — and so many other things in life! But over the years, we’re learning to more and more to appreciate and embrace these differences — instead of feeing frustrated and fighting over them!)
What are some of YOUR favorite quick, easy, & frugal recipes?
I dump frozen meatballs, frozen ravioli and sauce in crockpot high for three hours. Sometimes I add cheese. Kids love it. For a weekly lunch I make 6 ham and cheese sandwiches with added pineapple chunks. I place them in a 9 x 13 pan and bake approx 8-10 min at 350. Served with baby carrots and ranch. Another kid fav.
Thanks for sharing! Sounds great! -Meg, MSM Team
I make sausage & potatoes that you mentioned on here a while ago. Sausage is usually about $2 per package and I always have potatoes on hand. I make it for dinner and serve with a salad then I heat the leftovers for breakfast the next day with eggs. I also cook a large package of chicken in the crockpot with taco seasoning or salsa. I shred it and use it all week for quesadillas, tacos and salads and if there is any left after 4 days, I freeze it to make chicken tortilla soup another night. I get lots of meals with just a few pounds of chicken.
Yum!
my go to is spaghetti&meatballs(frozen), green beans(frozen), garlic toast.
i can get on the table in 15minutes.
Grilled cheese: I melt butter and mix in garlic and paramsen powedered cheese. I just recently discovered sliced cheese from the deli is the same price or cheaper than packaged. It is very good. Sometimes I make pizza grilled cheese and add pizza sauce and pepperoni to it.
Garlic bread pizza is quick and easy too. My kids have had fun with it.
Crystal we do the chicken in the crock pot too only my favorite is buffalo ranch chicken. Ranch seasoning packet and then after it cooks I add the sauce. I use the sweet version of the buffalo sauce. I think it says sweet chili.
That sausage meal looks so yummy! I might have to rethink my meal plan for tonight.
One of my toddlers favourites is a quick guacamole of lemon, avo, tomatoe, dumped on rice noodles with soy sauce, salt and pepper
That salad looks wonderful! My favorite quick and easy meal is “Pepperbellies”. Canned chili heated and poured over corn chips in a bowl. 🙂
Oh yum! I love that meal idea!
I must have learned that meal of putting BBQ sauce over chicken in the crockpot from you! 🙂 I love the ways you incorporate into a full meal. Salad or over rice or noodles served with veggies. Yummy!
I’ve started assigning a theme to each night to make dinner easier. Wednesday are now Waffle Wednesdays. We had gluten free waffles (made ahead and frozen – husband is allergic to gluten), scrambled eggs, and turkey bacon.
I love this! What a great idea!
I do the same thing! Souper/Sandwich Sunday, Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, Tour of the World Thursday, Finish It Up Friday and Seafood Saturday. It makes my meal planning easier or pulling together a dinner on an I forgot night. I don’t have to come up with a meal, I can just pull it based on the day of the week.
We always do something easy on a church night so today i dumped a bag of BBQ ranch chicken from the freezer into the crockpot, cooked up a couple of veggies to go with it and voila… dinner 🙂
We are in a season where it’s tough to get everyone to sit down at once but I still want to make sure there is decent (and real) food available. Earlier this week I shared how I cook a bunch of chicken on Sunday nights and how we have a variety of options for leftovers. Saves a bunch of time and money (no takeout!)
http://www.wonderwomanimnot.com/2016/02/leftover-chicken-recipes.html#more-3120
Wow that salad you put on you chicken sounds delicious!
Tortilla pizzas: Totillas, sauce, cheese and toppings. Bake at 425 for 8-10 min. Everyone gets their own pizza, and even littles can help make them!
A breakfast hash with scrambled eggs, chopped or spiralized sweet potato noodles and whatever meat I might have on hand mixed in.
I love breakfast for dinner!