Today I’m sharing five of our favorite easy weeknight dinners! We make these meals all the time and love them! To follow along with my cooking, be sure to follow me on Instagram and check out my #BlairBlogsCooks hashtag.
1 | Fajita/taco bowls
This meal is so easy it’s crazy. We make these all the time and eat off of the leftovers for several days!
Recipe
Main Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef (you could sub any other kind of meat/meat substitute)
- Fajita or taco seasoning
- Jasmine rice (you could sub white rice or brown rice)
- Fajita veggies–peppers and onions (we use a green pepper, a red pepper, and two red onions)
Brown ground beef. Add seasoning. Cook rice according to instructions. Sauté fajita veggies. Layer rice, meat, and veggies in a bowl. Then, add whatever toppings you like!
Optional Toppings
- Cheese
- Sour cream
- Limes
- Shredded lettuce
- Black beans
- Cilantro
- Avocado
- Tomatoes
That’s it! So easy and delicious.
Leftover ideas
- Scrambled eggs with fajita veggies
- Breakfast burritos
- Burritos
- Fajitas
- Tacos
- Salad with leftover toppings
2 | Chili with cornbread
This meal is filling, healthy, and easy!
Chili recipe
Cornbread recipe
- Boxed cornbread mix (whichever one you like!)
- 1 TBSP butter
- Squeeze of honey
After baking, melt butter and honey and brush on top of cornbread while it’s still warm. Delicious! (You can also make cornbread muffins and freeze the leftovers.)
3 | Arugula watermelon salad
This is easily our favorite summer meal. We eat it constantly!
Ingredients
- Arugula
- Cubed watermelon
- Cubed chicken (we usually buy a rotisserie chicken and cut it up)
- Feta cheese
- Olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste
Throw it all in a bowl and enjoy! We eat this salad at least once a week. It is absolutely delicious in every way! And healthy too!
4 | Baked potato and soup
Ingredients
- Potatoes
- Potato toppings (butter, cheese, sour cream, chives, bacon, etc.)
- Soup (canned or homemade–here’s our favorite homemade tomato soup recipe!)
Bake potatoes (here’s the exact method we use). Prepare soup. Enjoy!
Variations
Here are a couple of variations of this meal that we also eat often.
- Grilled cheese and tomato soup
- BLTs and soup
- Paninis and soup
5 | Grilled chicken with fruit and veg
Ingredients
- Chicken breasts
- Chicken marinade (whatever sounds good)
- Fruit
- Veggies
It doesn’t get easier than this! Throw your chicken in the marinade in the morning and grill it before dinner. While it’s cooking, cut up some fruit and steam some veggies. Easy, healthy, filling!
I store all of my recipes and meal plan online using Plan To Eat. I’ve been using it for two years and absolutely love it! (I’ve written about Plan To Eat here if you’d like more information.)
// What’s your favorite easy weeknight dinner?
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We do a TON of quesadillas in our house…sounds so lame and elementary, but we toast them in the cast iron, through in whatever meat we have leftover (LOVE using leftover fajitas in them), and pair it with chips and salsa (our favorite snack & side). So quick, easy, and a way to use leftovers!
A
That potato looks delicious! We really tend to get into ruts when it comes to weeknight meals. One of my faves that we haven’t had in awhile is southern style hash browns with onions and peppers-sautéd with bacon pieces and then add eggs and maybe some cheese on top. 🙂 We call it breakfast skillet. 🙂
Blair, I love these ideas! As a soon-to-be newlywed (who doesn’t have a magical touch in the kitchen, unfortunately), I can’t wait to try them!
Hi Blair, I just came over from your You Tube channel and I watched your video of Upcoming Disney Trips and I thought perfect timing when I had just come back from Disney Aulani. By the way, great video on your upcoming trip and sharing your spirit age with us. I know you love Disney and I have also watched your Disney trip videos so I am so obsessed with Disney related videos. Anyways, I took a 7 days, 6nights trip to the island of Oahu in the city of Ko Olina where Aulani Disney Spa and Resort is located. Yes, the resort is very couple oriented as well as very family oriented. The resort has general areas where children and parents or adults can mingle with the water park and pools and they are amazing areas to be in the general public. However, Aulani has reserved pools and hot tubs for people over 18 years and older and for couples like to enjoy a more romantic side. I went in September after the Labor Day weekend because the low peak starts and the prices drop then. Let me tell you this resort is not your typical water park, it is a paradise water park. It is clean, friendly, intimate and romantic. My husband I went to celebrate our 25 years anniversary and we decided to spend our length of our vacation at the resort and it was worth it. Although you can always take a shuttle that takes you to shopping in the city of Wai’kiki or the biggest shopping mall in O ahu. They drop you off and pick you up. Check their schedules for 4 hours or 8 hours on some days. Their front desk have tons of information of tours and excursions and they are so friendly to talk to. I was impress with the location and their beach is designed to be the safest of beach in the entire island. It is picture perfect scene of a beach. Their beach is the jewel of the resort. The prices are high at the restaurants but you can go to their plaza/ small mall across the resort where everybody enjoys pizza, ice cream, Japanese food, mexican food, or sandwiches. There is a ABC stores that acts like a 7 eleven but better because they have areas for coffee and pastries, prepared hot plates, acai bowls, fruit salads and everything you can think about the ABC store was my favorite. We did reserved some days for breakfasts and dinners at more premium restaurants in the resort which were worth spending extra dollars for dinning. There is one restaurant call the Makahiki where you can eat with the Disney characters, Mickey, Minnie, MoAna, LiLo and Stitch, Goofy, Donald duck, and some others like MoAna and Big Maui. I prefer not to have breakfast with these characters because they can get annoying if you have not had your coffee yet. But they are great for dinners at this restuarant. So, now let me tell you how we paid for this resort. I research their web site but until you have made your first payment it got better and better with direct Aulani website and on the phone too. We wanted to reserved a spot for the third week of September however because of accounting purposes that can’t lock a price right way they start you at the price for the current season. They ask for a minimum payment of $300 or $400 to start your reservation. At this time, they say check our website for promotion prices for the low prices and they will lock in that price and you can pay in increments until it is pay off a month before you come over. We kept checking every 2 weeks and we got a great deal for 7 days. The price dropped very low and we got a package for a room, transportation to and fro airport, and $150 resort credit. Keep checking weekly if you can and get their lowest price. When we arrived at the resort and they asked if we were celebrating anything, we said yes and then there were surprises all the way through our 7 days. They even upgraded our rooms of a deluxe room. September is the best time, the weather, the crowd, and the attention because of less people. I could go on with this trip but If you have any questions, please email me at [email protected] and I will gladly to answer any questions. I go by Pinkso 50 on You Tube but my name is Evelyn Rojas. I loved it so much I decided to start making plans for next year. Sorry for this long comment. Love you girl.
Oh my goodness Evelyn, THANK YOU so much for all of the information! We will HAVE to make a trip to Aulani soon. It sounds absolutely gorgeous and perfect for this beach and Disney-loving family! 🙂 Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to share about your experience. I laughed out loud when you said the characters are annoying if you haven’t had coffee yet!!! We feel the same way! Haha! Thanks again! XOXO