Isn’t it so hard to please the whole family? My gosh, it can be really complicated to find a meal where everyone’s going to sit down at the same time and enjoy the same foods.
But when you find meals that everyone loves, it’s like the perfect evening. Everyone’s sitting around, talking, visiting about their day, and there are going to be fewer dishes to clean as well.
1) Smash Burgers
Yes, this is a favorite. Who doesn’t love cheeseburgers? What’s great about these burgers is that you can literally cater them to whatever you want. It’s such a fun thing for the family. You make the meat patty, smashing it down, of course, to make it a smash burger.
Then you’re going to have the buns there, toasted or untoasted, and you can lay out all of your toppings. Lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, ketchup, avocado, bacon, grilled onions, whatever you want. And don’t forget pickles.
Everyone can kind of make this their own. If you have a table where you can set all the ingredients in the middle, that’s really fun, allowing everyone to choose what they want. You can compare and rate your burger and how good you think it is, and try it differently next time.
2) Spaghetti and Meatballs
Of course, this is a weekly classic in our home. This is great because you’re going to have the carb and the protein. The only thing that’s going to be missing is some sort of vegetable, unless you count the tomato sauce as the vegetable, which it kind of is.
You could also put some sort of veggies in the spaghetti sauce if you’d like, or you can serve them on the side, like a side salad. We oftentimes will serve this with some garlic bread. If you like to dip it in your remaining spaghetti sauce, that sounds really yummy.
3) Simple Baked Salmon
Yes, get the cookie sheet out, put that parchment paper down, put the salmon down, and you can do whatever you’d like on top of this salmon. My favorite is putting pesto sauce right on top. You could also look up a number of different recipes, like a honey garlic, or you could just do lemon and pepper to keep it simple.
Then you could add some veggies right there on the cookie sheet. Some asparagus spears with avocado oil, salt, and pepper, and you could do some halved small potatoes as well. That’s a complete meal and not many dishes to wash.
4) Taco Night
Yes, of course, taco night is our favorite. A lot of times we will serve it on flour tortillas. We like the raw ones where you cook them fresh because they’re gonna have fewer ingredients, but you could use a corn tortilla, a hard tortilla, or you could even turn this into a taco salad. There are so many options here.
Basically, you’re just gonna cook your meat right over the stove. It could be ground turkey, beef, or chicken. Sometimes for a shortcut, I’ll use canned chicken because it’s already cooked, and all you’ve got to do is drain it, pour it right onto the stove, put some taco seasoning in there, and I have chicken tacos ready to go.
Then set out all your ingredients for the whole family and make a little taco bar out of it with some avocados, sour cream, cilantro, diced onions, salsa, tomatoes, and guacamole, whatever you like on your tacos. So good. You could serve this with some refried beans on the side to get a little bit more fiber. If you don’t have a lot of veggies in your taco, like lettuce and tomato, you could serve some veggies on the side as well, like some carrot sticks, something simple.
5) Homemade Pizza Night
We love homemade pizza night. You can get a pizza crust from your local grocery store. If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, their fresh crust is amazing. They have two different flavors, and it comes in the refrigerated section.
Get a cookie sheet, put some flour on the back of it, and put that fresh dough down. Roll it out, then put it onto an oiled cookie sheet and lay it down, spreading out the dough. Then take some pizza sauce and let the kids add whatever toppings they want. Mozzarella cheese, zucchini, mushrooms, pepperoni, ham, pineapple.
Usually we’ll get two of these pizzas and do half and half of each one, so we get a bunch of different styles of pizza, and then you can bake them in the oven. This is really fun to involve the family, and everyone gets to taste their own pizza, and not a lot of dishes because it’s just right there on the cookie sheet.
6) Baja Fish Tacos
Delish. With fish tacos, you could do grilled, or you could do fried in a beer batter if you’d like. Grilled would be a little bit healthier of an option. You could put this with some corn tortillas and make some sort of seasoning on top, like a creamy sour cream based sauce, or it could be yogurt based for a little healthy twist, like a plain yogurt, and you could add some lime to that.
You could add some cilantro, some coleslaw, some avocados or guacamole, some tomatoes, and onions. Such a fun meal, and everyone can kind of make their own taco.
7) Baked Ziti
Delicious. You could put any protein of your choice on top of your baked ziti. It could be beef, or ground turkey if you’re going for a lower calorie option. You could even do some chicken parmigiana if you’re trying to get fancy, or an eggplant parmigiana.
Do that with your baked ziti, and you could do some sort of red pasta sauce, whatever one you like, like a marinara. Put some Parmesan cheese on top and just bake it all together in a casserole dish. It’d be so delicious.
8) Meatball Subs
So delicious. We always have meatballs in our house, so you can grab those straight out of the freezer, or you can get the fresh ones from the store, it doesn’t matter. Cook them, get them into the marinara sauce, get plenty of cheese on hand, and whatever bun you like.
You could do a hot dog bun, or some of the fancier buns they have in the store, whatever you like. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Put the meatballs in there with the marinara sauce and some cheese on top, and then serve that with some sort of veggies on the side or a salad. Such a fun spin on meatball night.
9) Shrimp Creole
So yum, and it feels like you’re doing something fancy. You’re going to serve this over rice, and it’s actually a pretty quick meal. The shrimp feels fancy, it’s not something you get to eat all the time, and you can just get the frozen shrimp from the grocery store.
I like to get the ones that are already deveined and shelled, a little bit easier. You can even find ones that are already cooked, so that’s going to really come together nicely. Serve that with some sort of veggies or a side salad. I’m imagining some green beans with this one.
10) Philly Cheesesteaks
This is such a delicious meal. You can serve it right there in a bun, I’m thinking a long hot dog style bun, and you’re going to put the Philly cheesesteak right inside with, of course, the cheese on top. I like mushrooms in mine, and some people also add some green bell peppers or onions in there. So delicious.
If you don’t want the veggies inside, you can put them on the side, or have some sort of sweet potato fries. If you kind of want a veggie but you also want it to be like a carb, you could do that. I’d probably still do some sort of non-starchy vegetable on the side just to even it out. That’s my preference.
11) Fettuccine Carbonara
You could get some fresh fettuccine noodles at the grocery store, those are the ones in the refrigerator section, or you can get the dried. Boil these and serve with some carbonara. It’s going to be delicious.
I’m imagining some sort of delicious meat and mushrooms right there on top of the bed of fettuccine pasta, and definitely some fresh Parmesan cheese right on top. I would combine some veggies with this as well. Some mushrooms or broccoli would go really well, or broccolini would go really well with this one.
12) Homemade Hamburger Helper
I grew up having hamburger helper probably once a week. This is just so nostalgic to me. It’s so easy, and I don’t know if my mom did it because it was easy or because she knew it was a crowd-pleaser in our house.
You basically have ground beef, some pasta, and some sort of delicious creamy sauce, and you cook it all together in one skillet. It’s fast and cheap and nostalgic, and you’re only going to have that one pan to clean.
Of course, I would add some veggies in there too. I don’t think my mom ever did, so no judgment if you don’t, but I would serve with some veggies on the side, or you could try to mix the veggies in so they get a bunch of that yummy sauce on top as well.
13) Beef and Broccoli
I love this meal because you’re going to get the good protein from the beef and then the colorful and healthy benefits from the broccoli.
Then I would serve this over a bed of rice. You could do brown rice for a little extra fiber, or some white rice, and you could cook that right there in the rice cooker to make your life super easy.
14) Pesto Pasta
Delicious. I love the pesto from Costco. They have a giant one, and it tastes so good. You could pour that right on top of any shape of pasta you have. Bow tie, wheel pasta, spaghetti, linguine, penne, whatever sort of pasta you have on hand.
Then you can throw in whatever you want. We like to throw in some mozzarella. If you don’t have fancy mozzarella, don’t worry about it, I’ll take a string cheese and just chop that up and throw it inside. Add some sun-dried tomato, like the jarred one you find in the produce section. I’ll also bake some asparagus, chop it up, and throw that inside as well.
So now you have the pesto pasta with asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, and some mozzarella cheese all inside. You could even put some olives in there, that sounds really good. And you can throw in some chicken if you have some on hand, or get some rotisserie chicken if you want some extra protein. Or you can serve it with salmon. That would be delicious.
15) Baked Potato Bar
This is such a fun meal for the family because everyone can just add whatever they want. All you have to do is bake these potatoes. I would fork them a few times before you stick them in, put a little avocado oil, which is a high heat oil, and bake them. Bring them out once they’re nice and soft and feel like they’ve cooked through, then slice down the center to open it up.
Now you can have a number of different ingredients set out for everyone to put whatever they want on top. You could put broccoli, sour cream, bacon bits, cheese, whatever you like. If you have someone that just wants to keep it classic, you could do butter on top. I even like some nutritional yeast because it adds a little bit of a cheesy sort of flavor, and that would be really good as well.
You could serve this with the rest of your meal. Maybe you’re having something else like some salmon, chicken, or barbecued chicken breast, whatever you feel like would be a really good combo.
16) Tuna Noodle Casserole
This is a really fun meal, and it’s going to really bring you back if you had this when you were growing up. It’s really delicious because it’s cheesy and creamy, and you could put something crunchy on top to have a fun mixture of textures in there.
Chances are you probably have spaghetti right in your cupboard, and of course tuna is something that’s great to have on hand since it’s canned. You can throw this all together and make a meal out of it. This is one of those, I have nothing to make tonight, what are the ingredients I have in the cupboard, and it’s something most people can throw together.
17) Glazed Pork Chops
This does not have to feel hard. You can throw this in your slow cooker, or into the oven. This is going to be a family friendly meal that you can combine with any sort of carb. You could do some mashed potatoes, quinoa, couscous, or pasta, and then even a side salad if you’d like.
They say apples go well with pork, so you could do some diced apples on top of that salad, or some apple slices. Who says you have to have vegetables with dinner? You could do fruit with dinner, that’s fine too. Or you could do some sort of asparagus, broccoli, or Brussels sprouts on the side. This is going to be a delicious meal. Feels like you’re at a restaurant, but it’s homemade.
18) Taco Salad
Who doesn’t love tacos? And you could throw it on a salad if you’d like. You could have a bed of whatever sort of lettuce you like. I prefer spinach because it’s nice and green, but you could do romaine. Then do some taco seasoned beef, crumble it up and cook it right in a pan on the stove with some taco seasoning. You could also do ground turkey if you’d like.
Then let everyone make their own taco salad. I like to crush up some tortilla chips in there, that’s the taco part of it, right? Then you have the meat, lettuce, some olives, sour cream, some guacamole, or just some cubed avocado. You could throw in some corn, some beans like black beans, kidney beans, or refried beans, and some shredded cheese. Anything you like in your taco, you could throw it in, whatever you’ve got. Everyone can make this their own, as fancy or as plain as they want.
19) Beef Enchiladas
Delicious. This is like a fancy meal, but it’s so fun. It doesn’t have to feel fancy, but it’s like you’re out at your favorite Mexican restaurant.
You can roll up your tortillas, and you could use beef or whatever meat you like. Roll it up, put a little cheese in there, and serve with some cheese melted on top. Add some refried beans or some corn on the side, and maybe a side salad or non-starchy vegetable. Get some sour cream on top of that enchilada. Delish.
20) Loaded Sheet-Pan Nachos
One of those nights where you don’t have a lot going on, no plans for dinner, maybe you have late sports practice and you’re trying to throw something together. Pull out that cookie sheet, put those tortilla chips down, and layer it up with whatever you like. You could put some shredded chicken on top, maybe leftover from the night before, or some shredded beef or ground turkey. Then add some sort of beans, like black beans or kidney beans, and bake it all together.
When it comes out, you could put your fresh toppings, like some guacamole or avocado, tomatoes or salsa, sour cream, cilantro, diced onions, and plenty of cheese melted on top. Then you’re just gonna pull that apart for some delicious nachos.
21) Pigs in a Blanket
This is like our sports watching go-to meal, whether it’s the Super Bowl or the FIFA World Cup. This is our entertaining, or we-have-leftovers-from-entertaining, meal. All you have to get is these cans of crescent rolls. Once you pop open that can, they’re little triangles, and we like to section those off because the triangles are too large.
Take the little piggies, which are the mini sausages, they come in different flavors, all beef or all pork. Rip off a section of the crescent roll and wrap it around your little piggy, then put that on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake according to the package. Make sure they’re browned on both sides, you might want to flip them over halfway through the baking.
When they come out nicely browned, and the crescent roll is cooked and puffy all around the little piggy, you can dip them in ketchup or mustard. This is a fun little hors d’oeuvre or dinner, it could be either one, and it’s a little grab-and-go sort of snack.
22) Breakfast Burrito Bowls
Who says that breakfast can only be eaten in the morning? You can also have it at night. Do some sort of breakfast bowl all together, so you’ve got your eggs and your potatoes, and you could throw some beans in there, some cheese, some salsa, put it all in there and make a meal of it.
You could even do some sort of bacon or chicken apple sausage to make this a delicious meal. I, of course, would have some sort of fruit or something on the side to get some fiber and some fresh ingredients. This is so fun. You could eat breakfast any time of the day.
23) Baked Chicken Drumsticks
Baked chicken drumsticks are so easy. You can just flavor them with whatever you like, some barbecue sauce. If you have your favorite brand, just douse it right on top, toss it in a bowl, and put it right there on the cookie sheet.
Then just figure out what you’re going to have on the side. You can have sweet potato fries, a side salad, any sort of veggies, or some carrots and ranch, and make it a complete meal.
24) Egg Roll in a Bowl
You can use ground pork or turkey for this meal, and some sort of cabbage. What’s fun about this is it has a delicious gingery sauce, just like egg rolls, and it actually doesn’t take a lot of work. You can throw this together in about 15 minutes.
If you want to lean into that Asian theme, you could serve it with some rice, brown or white, and you could do some sort of veggie with this as well, something like a bok choy would be really fun.
25) Breakfast for Dinner
Who says you have to only eat breakfast in the morning, right? You can have it for dinner. Have some sort of pancakes, french toast, or scrambled eggs, and you could do linguisa, chicken apple sausage, or bacon. We like to call this an upside down day. Delish.
26) Stuffed Shells
Also known as manicotti. There’s the manicotti tubes, and then there are the shells as well, so you can stuff them with some delicious cheese, like a ricotta. You could add some meat in there if you’d like, but you don’t have to.
Then use some sort of sauce on top, like a pasta sauce or marinara, and bake this in a casserole dish until it’s all nice and cooked and bubbly. You could serve it with some ground meat on top or on the side, and then I would just combine it with some sort of veggies, like some broccolini on the side.
27) Chili Mac
Delicious mac and cheese, but with chili on top. Why not? It’s delicious, and it’s going to give you a little bit more protein there, and it’s still a classic with the mac and cheese. Kids love it, adults love it.
Then just find some veggie that you can put in. Sometimes, if you make chili from home, I like to put some mushrooms and carrots in my chili. If it’s a canned chili, that makes it even easier, and then you can have some sort of easy veggie on the side, like carrot sticks, steamed broccoli, or steamed green beans.
28) Pan-Seared Fish with Rice
Choose the fish of your liking. I tend to stick with salmon, but it doesn’t have to be. It could be any fish that you like, and you can sear it right there on the stove. You could cook the rice in the rice cooker if you want it to be easy, or cook it right there on the stove as well.
You could do a white flaky fish that would be delicious, like a cod, or you could do mahi, whatever your favorite fish would be for this recipe. Serve it with rice and some lemon and some veggies, like some carrots, the long fancy ones you find at restaurants if you really want this to be fancy. Or you could serve it with some quinoa, couscous, broccoli, or green beans, any veggie to complete this meal.
29) Loaded Quesadillas
Yes, we love loaded quesadillas. You can put whatever you like in these. Sometimes we’ll make this when we have leftover taco meat from another meal, or some leftover rotisserie chicken. Take a tortilla, I like the raw tortillas that you just warm up on top of a pan to cook them, then layer up with some sort of cheese. You could use the Mexican shredded cheese if you want to make your life easy, and it gives some really good flavoring.
Then put the meat of your choice down and let everyone add whatever they want to their quesadilla. You could have some guacamole on the side, or sour cream and salsa. You could even put other things in your quesadilla, like if you want to make it a fajita quesadilla, you could put some grilled bell peppers in there. And always some cilantro for me. Yes, please.
30) Corn Dog Night
What is childhood without corndogs? You can absolutely make these from home, I’m sure, but the freezer version is really fast as well. You can find them in all pork or turkey, different types of corndogs. Then you could dip it in whatever you like, ketchup, mustard, whatever you have on hand. Add some fruit and veggies on the side, and you have a quick balanced meal. I have corndogs in my freezer right now.
