When faced with a busy week, it’s easy to forget about cooking a meal for yourself. Weeknight meals are important to keep your spirit up and your health in check.
The best way to keep the stress of work at bay is by enjoying a warm meal at home. Take a few minutes out of your day and fix yourself and your family a nice dinner home treat.
8 Weeknight Meals for Families
With the rise of work-life balance and the demands of the modern lifestyle, many people are turning to home cooking. With many more families living in one household, these 8 meals are perfect for everyone:
- Boiled Shrimp with Ginger and Napa Cabbage – Boiled shrimp with ginger and Napa cabbage is a perfect springtime dish. It goes well with rice or some steamed vegetables. The ginger, Napa cabbage, and scallions are all in the same pot for cooking the dish together.
To make this dish, you will need to chop up your ingredients before combining them in a pot of boiling water. You can also add other ingredients such as green onions or garlic if you would like to add more flavor to your dish!
- Vietnamese Chicken Soup with Lemongrass, Lotus Root, and Cilantro – Break up the boredom of a weeknight meal with this Vietnamese Chicken Soup recipe. It’s easy to make, healthy, and satisfying for all of your taste buds.
When you are tired and want to prepare your family dinner in a short amount of time, try this soup. It is full of flavor from lemongrass, cilantro, and lime juice. It also offers a nice warming sensation from the ginger and garlic.
- White Bean Quinoa Risotto with Roasted Carrots and Brussels Sprouts – This recipe is a great alternative to traditional risotto. It has more wholesome ingredients and is more filling than the classic dish.
Risotto is a great dish to serve on cold winter nights, which makes it perfect for the end of your workday.
Roasted Brussels sprouts are an excellent addition to this dish as they provide nutrients and vitamins that are not found in white quinoa.
- Pan-Seared Halibut Steaks with Creamy Butternut Squash Purée – The pan-seared halibut steak is made with a mixture of herbs, lemon, capers, and olive oil. The creamy butternut squash purée is made with roasted butternut squash, ginger, sage, and thyme.
Halibut is a popular fish for weeknight dinners because it cooks quickly and can serve as a main course, an entrée, or an appetizer. It’s also a good choice because it requires no special shopping trips or prep time.
This recipe is great because it showcases the main ingredients of the dish all in one dish. It also allows you to prepare the sauce while you wait for the fish to finish cooking. You can serve this with rice or mashed potatoes.
- Hunan Shrimp with Noodles – Nothing beats the taste of our fav hunan shrimp recipe, especially when the delectable dish is served with noodles. The former combines succulent shrimp, stir-fried with an aromatic blend of Hunan-inspired spices and a fiery sauce.
The dish is often enhanced with a colorful array of crisp vegetables, such as bell peppers and onions, adding both flavor and texture. The tender shrimp and vibrant vegetables are often served atop a bed of perfectly cooked noodles, soaking up the bold flavors of the sauce. This enticing fusion of flavors and textures makes this combination appealing to both seafood and noodle lovers.
- Italian Sausage and Spinach – Sausage and spinach is a quick and easy weeknight meal. The flavors of the two go well together, regardless of what you are cooking for dinner. This meal can also be made sustainable by using vegan sausage instead of regular sausage and gluten-free Familia Suarez sauces or creams. Depending on what kind of sauce you use, the dish can either be made with spaghetti or thicker pasta.
It’s an easy recipe to prepare, especially if you are short on time during the week.
This dish may not be as Italian as some other recipes, but it’s still very delicious and flavorful.
- Steak and Potato Hash – Steak and Potato Hash is a simple, satisfying meal that can be cooked in under 20 minutes. This recipe is perfect for those nights when you don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen.
The best part about this dish is its ease-of-prepare. You just need to brown the meat and add potatoes and vegetables to the pan before stirring in some fresh herbs at the end of cooking time.
Steak and Potato Hash can be served as a main course or as an appetizer with some butter or sour cream on top.
- Chicken with Zucchini Noodles – This chicken with zucchini noodles recipe is simple, quick, and healthy. The dish is perfect for your weeknight meal because it only takes 20 minutes to make.
This meal is very versatile because it also works as a sauce for pasta and beef. Peas can also be added to the zucchini noodles for more color in the dish.
Zucchini noodles have many benefits over regular pasta noodles in terms of guilt-free eating since they are low in calories and high in fiber content.
