Easy weeknight meals
Easy weeknight meals
I know a lot of you reading this are either a new mom or soon to be mom, so maybe you don’t have this struggle like some of us moms that have older kids…. But one of the biggest struggles for me as a mom is deciding what’s for dinner every night! I remember years ago, we just had a few meals that we would alternate between… tacos, spaghetti and a few other easy (boring) meals. As we’ve tried to be better about eating healthy, I’ve also tried to find new things to cook so we don’t get tired of eating the same things over and over… Plus, it makes it more fun for me to try cooking new things! The main requirement I look for in a recipe is that it’s somewhat easy and quick since many days my kids’ schedules are pretty busy.
We eat gluten free in our house since one of my boys has a wheat allergy (and I discovered I feel SO much better not eating gluten, so I don’t eat it anymore either). All of these meals are either naturally gluten free or can easily be made gluten free by substituting gluten free pasta or bread, etc.
Here’s a list of my family’s favorite weeknight meals. I hope this may give you some inspiration if you’re trying to decide “What’s for dinner??”. If you have any family favorites, I would love to hear them!
- Easy Chicken Fajitas
- Easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole (see below)
- Shredded BBQ Chicken Sandwich (see below)
- Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Quesadilla Explosion Salad (Chili’s knockoff- see below)
- Fish Tacos (see below)
- Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich (substitute with gluten free sub rolls if GF)
- Patty Melt
- Chicken Noodle Soup (sub gluten free noodles or zucchini noodles)
- Potato Soup
- Shrimp Tacos
- Chicken Pot Pie
- Shepherd’s Pie
- Air Fryer Chicken Wings
- Air Fryer Baked Potato
- Brisket nachos (see below)
I don’t really have recipes for these since they’re super easy, so here are the basic steps I follow:
–Easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole:
Ingredients: Corn torillas, Jar of salsa verde enchilada sauce (I use Trader Joe’s), shredded cheese, chicken breasts
Cook chicken in the instant pot using these directions to cook and shred the chicken. Once the chicken is shredded, add some salt, pepper and garlic powder. Layer in a casserole dish: sauce, tortillas, chicken, sauce, tortillas, more sauce and then cheese. Bake in the oven at 350 until the cheese is melted. We like to eat this with spanish rice, chips and guacamole.
-Shredded BBQ Chicken Sandwich:
Ingredients: Chicken, BBQ sauce, Hamburger buns
Cook chicken in the instant pot using these directions to cook and shred the chicken. Once chicken is shredded, add some salt, pepper, garlic powder and BBQ sauce. Serve on hamburger buns. We like to eat this with sweet potato fries and a pickle. 🙂
-Quesadilla Explosion Salad:
Ingredients: Salad, Pico de gallo, can of black beans, torilla strips (I like these from Target), Chicken, shredded cheese
Season Chicken- I like to use Trader Joe’s Chile Lime Seasoning, salt and pepper. Cook chicken in the air fryer using this recipe. Once chicken is done, slice into thin slices.
For the salad- drain and rinse black beans, then combine with pico de gallo. Add to salad, along with tortilla strips and shredded cheese. Homemade dressing really makes a salad so I use the recipe below for a Citrus Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing:
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp mustard
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
–Fish Tacos:
I try to find creative ways to get my boys to eat salmon since it’s so good for you, so I use salmon to make fish tacos. I cook the salmon in the oven and use Trader Joe’s chile lime seasoning with a few other spices, but you could also use this recipe. I buy the premade mango pico de gallo from HEB to use as a topping and also make some guacamole and spanish rice to go with it.
-Shrimp Tacos:
I don’t really follow a recipe for this one either, but I cook this similar to this sheet pan recipe. I like to use Argentinan shrimp from Trader Joes because they’re so good and they’re already clean!
-Chicken Pot Pie: I use this recipe, but I use a premade gluten free pie crust. I also saw this recipe online, which I haven’t tried yet, but it looks really good and looks like it would be a little easier so I will probably try this next time!
-Brisket Nachos:
I cheat a little on this one, since I pick up the brisket from a local BBQ place. 🙂
Ingredients: Chopped Brisket, BBQ sauce, queso, chips. Any other toppings you want to use, such as sour cream, pico, guacamole etc.
Mix the BBQ sauce with the chopped brisket. Then layer the brisket and queso on chips. Add any other toppings you want to add!
What are your family’s favorite weeknight meals? Contact me through my blog or e-mail brittanyavenuephotography@gmail.com if you’d like to share!
