7 Weekday Dinner Ideas | Quick & Easy Dinner with Less Than 10 Ingredients

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7 weekday dinner ideas with less than 10 ingredients

As a busy mom, I’m constantly looking for quick recipes that I can use for dinner, so that I can have more quality time with my toddler rather than slaving in the kitchen for hours. So I thought I would share with you 7 quick and easy weekday dinner ideas that my family loves and that we have quite often.

I’ve also made all of these meal ideas cards so that you can pin them on Pinterest if you’d like to save them for future reference. And you can check out this space for more food goodies and recipes.

I’ve also made a video if you’d like to see how I cook these weekday dinner ideas.

Broccoli Mac and Cheese

Ingredients used: macaroni, broccoli, onion, butter, Philadelphia cream cheese, mozzarella, seasoning (salt, pepper, parsley)

How I make it: You cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packaging. Saute onion and broccoli with butter in a pan. Add a big spoon of cream cheese and a bit of water from the boiling pasta to make the sauce thinner. Cook for a bit and add the seasoning. Add mozzarella at the end to make the sauce creamier. Pour the pasta on top and mix well with the sauce.

The Best Pasta Bake

Ingredients used: penne pasta, (red) onion, 2 carrots, 2 garlic cloves, 6 sausages, tomato paste, mozzarella, olive oil, seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder)

How I make it: Cook penne pasta in water and salt. Chop up largely the onion, carrots, garlic and sausages and put them all in a food processor quickly. Cook mixture in a pan with olive oil for a few minutes. Add tomato paste and seasoning to the pan. Spread olive oil in a baking tray. Add the layers: pasta, then the sauce and then mozzarella cheese on top. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

Easy Chili with Rice

Ingredients used: brown rice, red onion, garlic, ground meat, red kidney beans, tomato sauce, olive oil, seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder), mozzarella (optional)

How I make it: Cook rice with water and salt. Chop up the red onion and mince garlic. Saute these in olive oil in a pan, then add ground meat. Once the meat is cooked, add the red kidney beans, tomato sauce and seasoning, then simmer for a bit longer. Serve the chili together with the cooked rice.

Quick Chicken Pizza

Ingredients used: pizza dough and tomato sauce kit from Lidl, spinach, mushrooms, chicken, parmesan, mozzarella

How I make it: Lay out the dough in a tray. Spread tomato sauce evenly. Add your topping of choice. I chopped up some mushrooms and cooked some chicken separately before adding them on top of the pizza. I also added spinach and two types of cheese of top (parmesan and mozzarella). Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

baked eggplant with a side of rice dinner ideas

Stuffed Eggplant with Rice

Ingredients used: eggplant, spinach, onion, tomatoes, red pepper, turkey breast, mozzarella, seasoning (salt, pepper), rice

How I make it: Cook rice separately. Cut eggplant in half and scoop most of the inside out (save that for the stuffing). Chop up onion, tomatoes, red pepper, spinach, turkey and mix them with the seasoning in a bowl. Place your eggplant halves in a tray and fill them with the stuffing. Add mozzarella cheese on top and cook in the oven for about 20-30 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

Fish and Chips with Peas & Garlic Sauce

Ingredients used: fish fingers, potatoes, peas, olive oil, seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, parsley). For garlic sauce: 2-3 garlic cloves, greek yogurt, seasoning (salt, pepper, parsley)

How I make it: Cook fish fingers for about 15 minutes in the oven (I get the frozen ones because they are much faster for those crazy busy nights). Cut up potatoes into wedges and season them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and parsley. Add olive oil and mix them up well to make sure they’re all nicely coated. Cook these for about 30 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius. For the garlic sauce, I mince the garlic, add the seasoning and then the greek yogurt. Super simple and delicious!

baked salmon with sweet potato and broccoli dinner

Baked Salmon, Sweet Potato and Broccoli (with Garlic Sauce)

Ingredients used: salmon, sweet potato, broccoli, olive oil, seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, oregano). For garlic sauce: 2-3 garlic cloves, greek yogurt, seasoning (salt, pepper, parsley)

How I make it: For this meal I make two pans. One is the sweet potato fries, which I chop up, season well (with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, oregano), sprinkle olive oil and mix together. The second pan is for the salmon and broccoli, which I season more simply with just salt, pepper and garlic powder. I put both pans together in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes. I serve these with the garlic sauce from the previous dinner idea.

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THAT’S IT! These are my 7 quick weekday dinner ideas. If you want more details on how to make these, there’s a video below on how I cook all of these.

Don’t forget to PIN this for future reference!