100+ Best Meal Ideas for Dinner
Recipes for Week Night Dinners
I wouldn’t necessarily call what I do meal planning. It’s more of what else can I make with this ham, roast, chicken etc. I am always looking for easy dinner ideas, quick recipes for dinner and how I can stretch our budget. Here are the best meal ideas I’ve made for our family, to yours.
The goal is to take one meal and find ways to turn it into many meals, sometimes sandwiches down to soup. I have put in links where I have actually made the easy dinner idea. We also have a kid friendly list of food ideas as well as recipes for Summer.
For the most part, 90% of these recipes are family recipes. I don’t want to spend the day in the kitchen cooking, it needs to be an easy recipe to follow and with normal ingredients that most people have in their kitchen (though our spice options have grown to most of them).
We have open pot meal and sheet pan meal recipes as well. The categories are by meat type and there is a vegetable and filler section. Fillers are things that help you stretch your food farther.
We also have on how to shop and save on food for a year to stretch your budget.
Best Meal Ideas for Dinner Tonight
Easy Dinner Recipes
Beans
5 layer taco dip, (refried beans)
Beans and Rice
Beans and rice with taco seasoning
Fancy Beans (JAR of Northern Navy beans drained, 1/2 cup salsa and chicken broth. Sprinkle cheese and sour cream on top. Very low in fat but filling)
Green Bean Casserole (cream of mushrooms soup and French onions in and on top on green beans)
Another Ham & Bean Soup
Nachos – (cheese, chili/taco meat, sour cream, black beans, refried beans, served on tortilla chips)
One Pot Ham & Bean Soup
Tortillias (add bean, cheese, sour cream)
Veggie Bean soup (beans, ham, chicken stock, salt/pepper, celery, carrot) add pasta
Easy Meal Planning for Dinner
Ground Beef
Bow Tie Lasagna (Bow tie noodles, Sour Cream, spaghetti sauce, Italian seasoning, Beef and Shredded cheese)
Barbecue Short Ribs
Cheeseburgers
Cheddar Cheeseburgers
Cheeseburger soup
Chili (crock pot)
Enchiladas
Ground Beef w/Cream of mushroom soup and a little milk (over potatoes or bake it with cheese at 350, serve once cheese is melted)
Ground Bologna
Lasagna Italian Meatball Lasagna
Mongolian Beef, slow cooked
Stuffed Cheeseburgers
Taco soup
Beef Roast
Beef over potatoes (chopped beef served over mashed potatoes)
Beef Pot pie (chopped beef, veggies on hand, pie crust, corn starch, beef stock)
BBQ Beef sandwiches (chopped beef, bbq sauce)
Cabbage rolls, stuffed
Chuck Roast Chili
Corned Beef & Cabbage, Instant Pot
Corned Beef & Cabbage, Slow Cooked
Crockpot Pot Roast w/potatoes/carrots/other veggies with beef stock
Fajitas
German Pot Roast
Prime Rib – while expensive, bought on sale, you can make a lot with left overs.
Stir fry
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Breakfast Recipes
Apple French Toast Casserole
Bacon and Egg Hashbrown Casserole
Buttermilk Pancakes
Cherry Scones
Pumpkin Waffles
Tater Tot Casserole
Poultry Chicken Dinner Ideas
Start with a Rotisserie Chicken
BBQ Chicken sandwiches (chopped chicken w/bottle of bbq)
Ala King, Chicken Ala King (chicken pot pie without crust or carrots served over potatoes)
Cherry Barbecue Chicken
Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo
Creamy Chicken Alfredo
Easy Chicken Alfredo
Campfire Chicken meals
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Chili, Chicken Chili (chopped chicken, navy beans, McCormick’s chicken chili)
Chicken pot pie (chopped chicken, veggies on hand, pie crust, corn starch, chicken stock)
Chicken & creamy mushrooms
Chicken Kebabs
Chicken Salad Pita Pockets
Grilled Smothered Chicken
Creamy Tuscan Chicken Thighs
Fried chicken
Hawaiian Chicken
Lemon garlic chicken
Lemon Spiced Smoked Chicken
Sheet pan chicken dinner
soup, Chicken Soup (chicken stock, veggies on hand, chopped chicken with noodles or without)
Smothered Chicken Breasts
Sweet & Sour Chicken
Turkey Casserole
Turkey Breast with Stuffing (slow cooked)
Eggs
3 Layer Omlet
Bread and egg casserole
Cheesy eggs
Egg in hole
Egg salad sandwiches
English Muffin breakfast sandwich
Frittata
5 minute hard boiled eggs
Ham & Egg Croissant
Sausage and egg casserole
Scrambled eggs
Fillers
Adding the following into dishes will help stretch them further (where appropriate)
Buttermilk Biscuits
Crackers (in meatloaf)
Roasted Garlic Cloves
Pasta (added to most beef and chicken dishes will stretch them)
Baked Cheese and Ravioli
Baked Mac and Cheese
Meatless Lasagna
Noodles (added to most dishes and making a gravy are a hit)
Veggies (will stretch dishes and are healthy)
Fish
Salmon – Place in foil, sprinkle with lemon pepper and cook in the oven until light pink & flakey.
Tuna Casserole
Ham
Bourbon Glazed Ham
Broccoli, ham and cheese soup
Brown Sugar Ham with Pineapple
Cabbage soup with ham
Crock pot Bean Soup (beans, ham, chicken stock, veggies (if you desire) salt/pepper)
Cubed – soup, egg omelets, salads
Fried sliced ham (breakfast)
Ham Potato Frittata
scrambled eggs with ham & cheese
Ham and potato soup (slow cooker)
Ham salad
Omelettes with ham and veggies
Omelettes with ham and cheese
Orange Rum Glazed Ham
pizza with ham and other toppings
Potato Soup (slow cooker)
Potato and ham chowder
Sliced ham – sandwiches
Split pea soup with ham
Sweet Potato Casserole
Pork
Watch for pork loin to go on sale. You can have it cut into slices at the store or at home and make them into pork chops (cheaper than buying pork chops and without the bone!)
Apple Cider Pork Loin
Bacon Egg & Cheese Sandwich
BBQ Pork Ribs (crock pot)
Ham Bone Ham and Bean Soup
Pork Chops (Preheat oven to 400. cut up some potatoes, place pork chops in the pan, place sliced potatoes on top, Velveeta cheese chunks, Cream of mushroom soup and milk as needed to coat bottom of pan. Bake until potatoes are done. YUM… cook ½ hour)
Pork Chops – throw them in the crock pot with diced up apples and some cinnamon and a little sugar. Throw in a couple spoonful’s of apple sauce as well with a little water.
Pork chops with BBQ sauce in crock pot.
Pork chops with Teriyaki sauce in crock pot.
lo mein, Pork lo mein. dip in vidalia onion sauce and then panko crumbs and bake.
Pork fried rice – minced pork with rice.
chops, Pork chops – serve with brown gravy and rice
Pork Chops with cream of mushroom
Pork chops -Add layer of pork chops, ranch packet and pork chops. Sprinkle ranch packet on them. Add a can of cream of chicken soup in with them. Couple hours on high until cooked.
Pork chops Sauteed, add cream of mushroom with can of water and simmer until cooked. Serve over rice or noodles or alone.
Instant Pot Pulled Pork
Sausage Patties
Potatoes
Amish hash browns
Au Gratin Potatoes
Baked Potatoes
Corned beef hash
Cheesy fried potatoes
Cheesy potatoes (chicken stock, potatoes chopped, chopped bacon, corn starch, cheese)
French fries
Fried potatoes
Garlic mashed potatoes
Hashbrown Casserole (cream of chicken soup, hash browns, cheddar cheese, minced onion, salt & pepper)
One Pot Potato Soup
Potato pancakes (from mashed potatoes)
Potato Soup (slow cooker)
Potato wedges
Roasted red potatoes
Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
Shepherds pie
Smoked Baked Potatoes
Meal Planning – Use Veggies
Add into Soup/Casseroles (stretches dishes farther and healthy)
Beans – drained great for kids to eat (just like Cheerios)
Cabbage Stew
Canned veggies, last longer
Carrots – Boil/steam, chopped into soups, inexpensive
Celery , chopped, serve with peanut butter, raisins
Eat Raw
Frozen Veggies easy to add in as needed
Grilled Corn on the Cob
Roasted/Grilled on the oven
Smoked corn on the cob
Steamed cauliflower or broccoli served with cream of cheese soup
What are you favorite cheap recipes?
What a great list of ideas! Thanks so much for the roundup, I’m getting hungry just reading this post!
Amber Johnson
You are welcome. I hope you enjoy!