10 Actually Easy Dinners
I have a few dishes in regular rotation that I lean on in moments of desperation or when life gets too busy. Meals that feel like a relief: “wow, we’re fed, and that was so easy.” My criteria for inclusion here is simply: would I want to make this and clean it up by myself after I get home from work? If no, I didn’t include it. (Mostly, this means the list has a lot of soups and stews.)
Coconut Sweet Potato Lentil Soup with Rice
This soup is such a great choice for a night when you want a bowl of something warm, but also healthy and nourishing. Sweet potatoes! Ginger! Curry powder! What’s not to love? I’ll admit that I tend to throw frozen spinach into just about everything (sneaky greens are my favorite greens), but it works so well here.
Chicken Enchilada Soup
After a few rounds of tweaking, I’ve arrived at this: my ideal enchilada-ish soup. It’s cozy, deeply flavored, full of pantry staples, and ready well under an hour (yes, even with prep work). Bonus: it’s even better the next day.
Miso Ramen
I wanted a miso soup that felt like a whole meal. I also didn’t want to work very hard. We always keep ramen in our pantry in case of extreme laziness - we’ve been known to dump some peas and carrots into the ramen pot and pretend that counts as eating our vegetables. So… miso ramen?
Curried Chicken and Barley Soup
I love chicken noodle soup, but it doesn’t really satisfy as a meal. This take swaps the noodles for pearled barley, which is high in fiber and has a slightly chewy texture that makes it a great sub for noodles. The recipe is packed with good-for-you aromatics like garlic, ginger, and turmeric. The carrots and celery turn the recipe into a little bit of a cuisine mashup, but I think it really works.
How I Meal Plan
We’ve all been there: busy days, no motivation, and you’re trying to figure out how to turn a fridge full of half-bad food into a half-decent meal. I’ve cracked the code. For me, all it took was Pinterest, a binder, and a custom shopping list. Let’s talk!
My Dad’s Chili
Fun fact: a few years ago, this chili won me second place at an office chili cook-off. There were more than twenty entries… it’s that good!
Every region and family has their own favorite chili, and this is mine: a thick consistency, a little sweet, heavy on the meat and beans.
Corn and Shrimp Chowder
The beauty of this recipe is in its simplicity. There is something magical about a pile of chopped vegetables and broth turning into something so delicious with just a few seasonings and some half and half.
Chicken and Dumplings
I love (and am comforted by) chicken and dumplings so much that this is the dinner I made the night I took the practicum of my NCIDQ exam. After months of studying and hours of testing, all I wanted was to reward myself with a bowl of this deliciousness.