Looking for a few simple meals to get you through the holidays? These are a few of my family’s favorite dinner recipes and they are super easy to make. I have made these dishes over and over and they truly are family favorites along with the many more recipes listed in my Family Favorites Recipe Index.
1. Slow Cooker Beef Stew ~ doesn’t get any easier than this. Just throw your ingredients into the slow cooker in the morning and you’re ready to go. No browning your meat ahead of time because who really has time for such shinanigans!?
2. Pizza Quesadillas ~ yum and just so super easy to slap together. Add a bagged caesar salad and voila dinner is served.
3. Pepperoni Pizza Pie ~ speaking of pizza, this is a slightly different take on it and it’s a nice change. I use light evaporated milk and light cheese to reduce the fat count. You could also use turkey pepperoni to lighten it up even more if you want.
4. Applesauce Pancakes ~ breakfast for dinner is an excellent quick and simple meal. Feel free to use whole wheat flour in this one as well. I also bulk the meal up for my meat loving husband by cooking up a side of turkey sausage to go with them 🙂
5. Cheesy Ham and Pasta Bake ~what’s not to love about anything smothered in cheese? (I use whole wheat pasta and light cheese). Love this dish!
6. Fuss-Free Ravioli and Cheese Bake ~this one really is a cinch because you don’t have to cook the ravioli first, my kind of meal!
7. Italian Sausage and Potato Roast ~chop everything up, throw it onto your cookie sheet, add a few more ingredients and into the oven it goes. Play a game of Uno with the kids while you wait.
8. Skillet Tacos ~ in case you haven’t noticed I’m a huge fan of one pot meals…no fuss, no muss. I use black beans and it’s awesome!
9. Slow Cooker Honey Glazed Ham ~ another great one in the slow cooker that is so good. My kids really enjoy this one. PS: Diet soda works fine.
10. Slow Cooker 40 Clove Garlic Chicken ~ yep 40 cloves of garlic! It’s dynamite, you’ve got to try it. It’s great for company too!
11. Do-Ahead Ravioli Lasagna ~ pictured above. I used fresh ravioli instead of frozen and on the last layer added some sauteed mushrooms (yum!) with a little bit of water to accommodate for the fresh over frozen ravioli. I also used turkey sausage instead of the Italian pork called for. It was super delicious!!
I hope you find these dinner recipes help save you some time in the kitchen so you can focus on the million other things you’ve got going on during this time of the year 🙂 Meal times don’t need to be stressful!
Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
Linda Stoll says
Oh… these are all looking so good! Maybe I won’t even do Chinese take-out tonight!
Here’s some last minute baking ideas and a pretty punch recipe at LOTS OF COOKIES … AND SPARKLING PUNCH
http://creeksideministries.blogspot.com/2011/12/lots-of-cookies-and-sparkling-punch.html
SnoWhite @ Finding Joy in My Kitchen says
Thanks for sharing our ham & cheese pasta bake… I know how much your family enjoys it! I’m off to check out some of your other family favorites!
Angie@Echoes of Laughter says
oH! i LOVE these recipes! I needed some inspiration…thank you so much! I hope everyone is feeling better! For the gingerbread softies, I used shortening because I wanted to stick to the orgininal recipe for the first try! I used pure lard….nothing hydrogenated! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas…with not TOO many ‘moron’ moments! Ha! Angie xo