Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Dinner! Why do they need it every night? For many of you, this is such a busy time of year. It’s not the time for gourmet meals. It’s the time for simplicity. I think most women I talk to are just exhausted by decision making. They can google recipes, but they just need the ideas.

Here I have a list of 20 plus meals that can get you through the holidays when you are just at home for normal dinners. This can save you having to use the drive thru and you can have many of these things on the table more quickly than you can order Door Dash.

Some of these things are not that healthy, but again, I think they might be better than fast food.

You will riff off of these ideas and remember things your family likes, I think. Open your phone memo and type what you like or get out your pad and pen.

Also, try to think of one meat but used two ways.

I have more energy in the morning so I sometimes will brown the ground beef or do some element of the dinner. I literally will set a timer on my phone to start dinner some days. Some late afternoons I am in a bad mood because I have to execute the dinner plan. I try to turn on a podcast or talk on the phone to make it more enjoyable on those days I just don’t feel like it.

Philly cheesesteaks our friends made us

American tacos – hard shells, lettuce, tomato, cheese, Taco Bell taco sauce, add rice as a side if you want

Spaghetti – make the meat at the same time you make the taco meat, add to a jar of Prego Chunky Garden or your favorite jarred sauce, use the good ol’ green powdered parmesan, and serve with Texas Toast

Fish sticks or filets, Kraft mac and cheese, can of peas

That moment when your tomato soup matches your pumpkin tee.

BLTs, frozen french fries, fruit – If you aren’t making your bacon in the oven on a sheet pan, start now.

Breakfast for dinner – can even make extra bacon and use for BLT night – pancakes, fruit, scrambled eggs

Rotisserie chicken, ready-made mashed potatoes or 90 second packet rice, green beans

Chicken Caesar wraps with the leftover chicken – buy a bag of Caesar salad mix. Frozen fries or frozen tater tots on the side. This was Kristin’s idea I stole this summer!

Salmon, baby potatoes, broccoli – can put this all on one sheet pan

Taco salad (can even freeze the taco meat from taco night) – iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, Taco Bell mild sauce, crushed up original Doritos

Quiche or crustless quiche and side salad

Baked cod or tilapia (use cajun spice), frozen broccoli, baby potatoes

Burger bowls

Hot dogs, baked beans, bagged salad

Sheet pan turkey sausage or kielbasa, onions, green peppers

Hot subs, chips, fruit

Grilled cheese, everyone’s soup of choice (get some fun ones with characters?)

Fake Thanksgiving (Pre-Gaming)- Stove Top stuffing, Ready-made mashed potatoes, can of green beans (we like Allen’s Italian green beans), and some slices of thick cut turkey from the deli counter – did you know you can do that? Add Sister Schubert’s or Texas Roadhouse rolls, too – if you want more carbs!

Loaded baked potatoes – you can make a bar and offer chili, chicken, shredded cheese, broccoli – great way to use up leftovers. Can make the baked potatoes in your crock pot!

Sandwich bar

Pasta bar – just boil two shapes of noodles and call it a bar?

Ready-made bbq, buns, beans or another side

I think my favorite thing in my kitchen right now is my sheet pan – I have three big ones and one small one. I love roasting vegetables on it and I daresay it might be the easiest cooking method. You chop and toss with some olive or avocado oil and use some seasonings and then forget about it. You’re done. You can chop the veg in the morning if that works best for you.

Tom said something to me early in our marriage. I was making complicated recipes (for me at the time) and he said I didn’t need to work that hard and he is fine with “meat and two veg”. Isn’t that simple? I think about that often when I don’t feel inspired.

Sound off in the comments on your easiest go to meals. What do you always have on hand that you can make? What are your strategies for dinner when life gets hectic?

Amy

27 thoughts on “Dinner Queue”

  1. I always try to keep frozen burger patties in my freezer and I also usually have frozen buns somewhere in there, too. In a pinch, we´ĺl have burgers for dinner. I also keep frozen potatoes of some kind in the freezer as well. I keep regular potatoes and during a day where I have more time, I´ll make a side with real potatoes not frozen. But in a pinch, frozen will do. Your suggestions are all good ones!

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  2. I make a huge salad at the beginning of the week (and then again mid-week) so we always have salad which works as a side dish for just about any meal. Then I make sure to keep a good stock of pasta and sauce for a quick spaghetti night, or burgers & turkey burgers with buns and potatoes for a quick and easy meal (I microwave the potatoes to start to get them soft, then dice them up and pan fry them so they get crispy and toss in some seasonings).

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  3. So many great ideas! A couple of years ago, I finally realized it’s ok to not know what I want to make all week…& it’s ok to do two Kroger pick ups or one pickup/one delivery to get through the week. Sometimes on Saturday, I don’t know what we will need to dinner on Thursday. I did a pick up Sunday but having taco stuff delivered tomorrow. Tomato soup/grilled cheese and breakfast are two easy meals I go to in the fall and winter.

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    1. Yes! I think this also reduces food waste. I go to the store at least two times a week. I’m getting smaller orders. You only have to spend $35 to get free pick up and we all know how easy that is to do these days!

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  4. I think it’s always better to eat at home and have a few go to’s for quick and easy dinners. We always have a Costco lasagna and frozen salmon. The lasagna cooks for an hour in the oven but in a pinch it can be made in the microwave; I don’t eat it but my husband loves it. Some nights I like making the salmon because I can defrost it in cold water quickly and cook it in the air fryer for 10 minutes. Easy peasy!

    xo,

    Kellyann

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  5. I am so with you on that dinner prep hour. I like to use my crock pot because I can make dinner early in the day and not have to worry about it at a time of day when I’m not my best. I can always throw together pasta. Rao’s is my favorite sauce if I’m using a jar. If I make my own I freeze half so always have that. Same with homemade soup, I freeze half. I buy Costco frozen pizza and always have that in my freezer. When nobody wants to cook we’ll do eggs, an omelette, or a fried egg sandwich. For me the key is planning ahead. If I know what I’m making most of the stress is gone. I am flexible and can rearrange, but a general plan for the week helps me tremendously.

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    1. I would prefer Rao’s but Tom is a Prego Chunky Garden purist. Tom is laid back in many ways but very particular in many ways and Prego is one of them! I love breakfast for dinner, personally. Same. I almost always have a plan.

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  6. I have eased up on what I consider a proper dinner. I grew up where dinner was a meat, a vegetable & a “starch” (potatoes, noodles or rice). I am making extra taco meat to freeze, too. I also make salsa shredded chicken in the crockpot, Makes delicious shredded chicken for multiple uses all week! I love your potato bar idea – we have started doing this, too – with chili, taco meat, or shredded buffalo chicken.

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    1. Such a good point to make! I realized I could just have two things on a plate instead of three! I think the crockpot does some of its best work with shredded Mexican chicken. I can fake a rotisserie chicken taste pretty well if I leave the Mexican spices out. The giant baker potatoes were on really good sale at the store yesterday. Such a good dinner in my opinion.

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  7. These are all great ideas! My favorite thing to make right now is soup; I eat on it all week long. On other nights when I’m in a pinch, I’ll do smoked sausage, potatoes of some sort, and cut up veggies with ranch dressing. I also keep things in my freezer that are easy to throw in the air fryer on the nights when I don’t want to cook: taquitos, chicken of some sort, etc. If I eat a bigger lunch, I’m okay with a smaller dinner (sandwiches, or something like that).

    Thanks for the inspo!

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    1. I love soup! I have all the stuff to make a white chicken chili and I was going to have that today or tomorrow. Today is rainy so it’s a perfect soup day. I also realized I should have cans of soup on hand. I agree – sometimes smaller dinners work just fine.

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  8. I’m one of those weirdos who enjoys cooking. For me, it’s a time to get creative. I put on music, sometimes pour a glass of wine and get started. I do weekly menus and like looking for new recipes to try although I will put my own spin on them. My favorite easy meal would be smash burgers and homemade fries. I usually will do this on a Friday. Have a good week everybody!

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    1. I am like that sometimes! It’s usually not at dinner time! Lol! I think it’s about perspective and those things really can change your perspective on the act of cooking. Great ideas! That is a great Friday night meal!

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  9. Love this post. I think that all of us have an issue at times of what to cook for dinner. My problem is fixing a lunch for some one that works. She is very picky and gets tired of stuff very easy. A lot of these menus I feel that I can use for lunch. Thank you and everyone that commented, it was a great help.

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  11. Ahh! I get it! We’re having a busy week and the last thing I want to think about is cooking!
    Great ideas, these are a lot of our go to meals when things get hectic. This week we are mostly eating out of the freezer when we are home.

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  12. So many great – and easy – ideas! It’s been 585 days that I’ve been cooking dinners that are typically gluten and dairy free due to my husband’s dietary needs. (He was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition that totally messed with his digestive system and these changes have made all the difference.) I cook a lot of protein and veggie meals and I often miss cooking with cheese, milk and flour… so, when I can cook for others or visit our daughter’s family (and hubby doesn’t join me), I’m all over it! Your list is a great “go to” for so many!

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  13. I find I rely less on convenience, obviously, when I’m not working. The most important thing to me is to meal-plan so I have all of the ingredients in advance. I used to make a lot more variety I think, but if we won’t eat it, it doesn’t matter.

    I will say, I was completely humbled by my 2nd child. The first one eats anything I put in front of him. She throws an all-out tantrum on the floor if we make her try something and then will wail that it “tastes so bad!” 🙂
    Last night we had curry and rice and naan and she really put me in my place. I was the same way as a kid so I know exactly where she gets it lol.

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  14. These are all such good suggestions. And I agree with Tom that we tend to make things more complicated than they need to be. 🙂

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