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If you read my last post on the mental load of meal planning, you already know my stance: dinner doesn’t need to be super fancy or take a long time to be yummy. Also repetition isn’t a bad thing. We are a huge leftovers family.

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So here’s a list of some of our faves.

A few notes before we dive in:

• I sub plain Greek yogurt or cottage cheese instead of sour cream in basically everything. More protein, no weird ingredients, and we always have those two things on hand vs. sour cream. Saving money one little swap at a time.
• “Recipe” is generous for some of these. Several are just an assembly of food. Wing it baby!
• There are a lot of repeats of the same ingredients—more on why at the bottom.

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Tacos

The undefeated champion of weeknight dinners in our house. Seasoned ground beef (venison, actually, is what we use), lettuce, tomatoes, refried beans, shredded cheese, and sautéed bell peppers and onions. My husband eats them as is with flour tortillas while I usually go for a big salad with salsa and Greek yogurt dolloped on top.

Grilled Chicken and Veggies

The most basic dinner on earth and I will defend it forever. Chicken breasts marinated with whatever random seasoning my husband chooses, then grilled. Whatever vegetables sound good that week—sometimes frozen mixed veggies, sometimes broccoli or Brussels sprouts roasted in the oven. We’ll usually add a starch too, like sweet or russet potatoes or rice. Done in about 30 minutes and not a thousand ingredients.

Homemade Cheez-Its (for Our Son)

Okay, technically this is a snack, but our son would eat these as a meal if I let him. I use this Good Food Stories recipe and make a double batch because they disappear quickly. I freeze most of them and take a handful out in the morning when I want him to have some that day. One little edit: I also add nutritional yeast to the dough!

Breakfast for Dinner

Scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, fruit, sometimes a sweet potato hash if we’re feeling fancy. Nobody complains. Eggs are one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet and they’re done in five minutes. This is the dinner we make when we’re not super hungry or can’t think of anything else, because it’s easy and fills us up without much effort.

Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken

We loveeee so many of the recipes from Lillie Eats and Tells. (We even have two of her cookbooks.) This is one of our favorites because you can literally throw the chicken in frozen, and there are variations for how we like eating it. My husband likes it on rice. I prefer it on lettuce for a salad, or on top of a toasted Joseph’s lavash. The only edits we make: whipped cream cheese, no parsley, and this clean-ingredient ranch seasoning we love.

Burgers

We met working at In-N-Out Burger, so it’s not that much of a surprise that we’re both obsesseddd with burgers. We either keep it simple with ground venison, salt, and pepper, or sometimes we add garlic powder, onion powder, liquid smoke, and Worcestershire sauce. Grill them and eat with whatever sides sound good—usually a veggie and a potato of some kind. It doesn’t have to be complicated to be yummy.

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Other Recipes We Love (& Great to Bring to Potlucks)

• Italian Pasta Salad
• Avocado Corn Tomato Salad
• Roasted Broccoli and Carrots
• Veggie Soup (we add shredded chicken, and leave out the kidney beans and green beans)
• Healthier Chicken Salad
• White Chicken Chili

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A Few Things to Notice About This List

There are a lot of repeats of the same ingredients. Ground venison shows up a lot. So does chicken. That’s mainly because the guys in my family hunt, so we stock the freezer with venison, and chicken is on sale often.

Most of these take under 30 minutes or get dumped into the Instant Pot. If a meal requires more than that on a weeknight, it usually doesn’t make the rotation. I save complicated cooking for weekends, if at all—or when we’re hosting a holiday or special gathering (think smoked brisket or braised lamb).

I hope these spark some ideas, and also normalize how draining it can be to constantly think about cooking allll the time.

Share in the comments any of your favorite meal ideas or recipes! I’d love to see what you’re cooking at home.