20 Quick & Easy Dinner Ideas {Real Food, Fast}

Need some no-fuss, no-stress dinner ideas? These 20 family-friendly meals take just 30 minutes to make…or less! Add these to your weeknight meal rotation.

For our final post in the “Real Food, Fast” mini series, I’m giving some ideas for simple, quick and easy dinners. I hope you’ve found this series helpful! Now you have some good, quick and easy recipes to add to your meal planning repertoire!

“Real Food, Fast” Series Re-cap

• On Monday, I reviewed Leigh Ann of Intentional by Grace’s eBook, 20-Minute Meals: Giving Weary Chefs Grace While Keeping Families Healthy. This book includes lots of techniques for simplifying meal planning. I love that it includes 28 recipes for dinners that only take 20 minutes each!
• On Tuesday, we gave ideas for some quick and easy breakfasts–from those that take barely any time at all, to breakfasts you can cook the day/night before and feed your family on all week , to crock pot breakfasts that cook while you sleep, to breakfasts that are ready in about 15-20 minutes from start-to-finish!
• On Wednesday, we looked at quick and easy lunches–my least-planned out meal. I confessed that many of my lunches are just very, simple, throw-together snack plates, like my friend Creative Christian Mama also talked about. We also talked about eating leftovers for lunch and listed some 10-minute lunch ideas.

Now let’s move on to that one meal that you want to always be prepared for–dinner. If you ever look at the clock at 5, and think: “Oh, man! I need to start dinner, and I have NO idea what to cook!” then this post is absolutely for you!

Having a list of super simple, quick and easy dinners that only take 20-30 minutes to make from start to finish is helpful for any homemaker! Your afternoon and evening will be much less stressful!

My 20-to-30-Minute Meals Collection

• Stir-Fry Over Rice: Hands down, this is my most favorite, easiest, quickest meal. I make it with either chicken or shrimp and either fresh or frozen veggies (fresh is my favorite, of course!). If I have pre-chopped veggies and pre-cooked shrimp, this meal is incredibly fast to whip up. (Note: You’ll want to have some pre-cooked rice on hand to make this the fastest meal ever!)
• Pasta with Spinach & Mushrooms: My second favorite easy-peasy meal only requires a few ingredients: chicken or shrimp, some type of pasta, spinach, mushrooms, garlic and cheese. After boiling the pasta, I cook everything else on the skillet. I love feeding my family healthy greens…and this is such an easy way to do it!
• Breakfast for Supper: Eggs and bacon, anyone? This is my go-to end-of-the-month meal. Not only is it fast, but it’s affordable! (Beth’s breakfast cookbook has some GREAT recipes!)
• Simple Sugar Snap Pea Pasta Salad: With the use of pre-cooked shrimp, this is another one-dish meal that takes very, very little time to prepare.
• Taco/Chicken Salads: If I already have pre-chopped veggies, these meals only take as long as it takes to cook the meat! Top the salads with the meat, and you’re good to go!
• Mayo-Free Tuna Salad: I make a version of this with salmon, and it’s typically a lunch for me and the girls since my husband doesn’t care much for fish. But, really…it’s a wonderful, quick dinner that’s full of yummy omega-3s!
• Southwestern Chicken Chili Mac: Another pasta-skillet dish, this one includes white beans and shredded chicken!
• Recycled Quick Lunch Ideas: Many of my 10-minute lunches from yesterday’s post–like quesadillas or sliced-bread pizzas–also make their way to our dinner table when I’m running low on time!
• Meals from 20-Minute Meals: If it’s late, and I have no plan, I turn to this book and whip up one of her recipes–particularly the honey-orange or lemon-rosemary chicken!

Other Dinners to Try

• Cheeseburger Tortilla Skillet: Elsie’s version of homemade “Hamburger Helper” is quick, easy, and much, much healthier than the additive-laden store-bought stuff!
• Pasta with Chickpeas and Garlic Sauce: I pinned this one a while back but haven’t tried it yet. I love chickpeas and pasta…and this dish looks like it only takes about 30 minutes to make!
• Creamy Lemon Pasta with Chicken: Another Pinterest find, this one looks to combine my love for cheese and chicken!
• Easy Summer Chicken Spaghetti: This recipe from Ramblings of a Christian Mom looks really simple–and delicious!
• Sweet Chili Lime Turkey Burgers: I love how this recipe from Inspired Housewife includes one of my favorite fats–avocados!
• Chicken Enchiladas & Salad in 30 Minutes Flat: Natalie’s recent quick meal on Keeper of the Home looks super easy–and feeds her family of 11!
• Leigh Ann’s 20-Minute Meals Series: The author of 20-Minute Meals recently ran a series with 5 of the recipes from the book! I’m excited to try her Chicken-Caesar Wrap, Shrimp Scampi, Pork Diane, Simple Spaghetti, and Pan-Seared Curried Cod.

Resources:

• Plan to Eat: This online meal planning service lets you save recipes, drag and drop them onto your meal planning calendar, and generates a shopping list for you with all of the ingredients! You can sign up for a FREE 30-day trial here!
• List PlanIt: I won a membership to this online organizational resource and have been using their pre-made lists to aid in my meal planning.
• Plan It, Don’t Panic: Stephanie’s book gives you all you need to get your meal planning in order.
• The Breakfast Revolution: Beth’s gorgeous cookbook contains 40 recipes for real food, gluten-free breakfast dishes!
• 20 Minute Meals: Giving Weary Chefs Grace While Keeping Families Healthy: While Leigh Ann’s book only gives dinner recipes (28 meals that only take 20 minutes!), she includes lots of great tips for making any meal of the day less stressful.

What are your quick and easy dinner ideas?