Make Dinner Fast! Meal Plan with Easy Dinner Recipes Included
Are you looking to make dinner fast? I’ve got the method to make preparing meals much easier and quicker! Here’s the simple answer – make a meal plan and do some advance prep work for these easy dinner recipes!
Imagine this – you’ve had a long day at work. Now you’re faced with making dinner. You have your meals picked out for the week and everything you need to make them. You know you have easy dinner recipes picked out. But let me ask you this. Before you start cooking, do you picture the amount of time cooking dinner will take and trash the idea, opting for take out or dinner out instead? I’ve done it, many times!
But what if you could come home knowing that some of the advanced prep work was already completed? Doing some prep over the weekend was a game-changer for me! This has saved us from going out for dinner more times than I can easily count because I couldn’t face an extended kitchen session getting dinner ready!
Here are a few ideas for things you can do to make dinner fast after a long day at work!
Come Up with Your Meal Plan on the Weekend
If you’re off from work on the weekend, make it your goal to figure out your meal plan for the upcoming week. If you work weekends but are off a day or two during the week, shift the plan to accommodate your schedule. Remember the goal of having easy dinner recipes to prepare.
Focus on Sales Before You Shop
In my previous post Create a Grocery List Based on Sales When You Meal Plan, I talked about deciding what to make each week based on what was on sale. Before when weekly sale flyers came out in the Sunday newspaper, that was easy enough to do. But now, thanks to the Flipp website or app, it’s as easy if you have a computer, tablet, or cellphone. Take the time to review upcoming sales at your local grocery stores as you decide what you’ll make this week. The other thing to remember is your go-to stores for key ingredients you always seem to buy. For more information, read Grocery Shopping Advice Plus a Weekly Meal Plan. I have certain stores where I know I can always get good deals on certain items, like boneless chicken, beef chuck stew meat, ground beef, pork tenderloins, and shrimp.
So What’s for Dinner?
Now that you know what’s on sale and what you can get at a decent price, do you know what you’ll make for dinner each night? Search around and find easy dinner recipes, or follow the meal plans I’ve provided in the previous two articles or this one! Make up your grocery shopping list based on what you’re making. Accurately figure out how much of each item you need to purchase (for example, my meal plan this week uses 6 onions, 9 bell peppers, 8 cloves of garlic, 1 cup of celery, 5 pounds of boneless chicken, 1 1/4 lbs of ground beef, 1 pound of shrimp, etc). As you make your list, remember not to buy what you already have (unless you can store it or freeze it for later use if it’s a great deal).
Here’s My Meal Plan for the Week – Remember the Goal: Dinner Fast!
- Monday: Chicken Fajitas (make enough for 2 meals, stovetop, 35 minutes)
- Tuesday: Stuffed Pepper Soup (make enough for 2 meals, Instant Pot, 1 hour)
- Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas (leftovers)
- Thursday: Crockpot Chicken Creole (2 meals, crockpot, 30 minutes active prep/cooking)
- Friday: Stuffed Pepper Soup (leftovers)
- Saturday: Bayou Shrimp Pasta (1 meal, stovetop, 30 minutes)
- Sunday: Crockpot Chicken Creole (leftovers)
Shop (Hopefully Once) for the Week
Do your shopping for the week. Make sure to get everything you need! To make life easier, focus on only grocery shopping once a week. Eliminate the, “oops, I forgot to get something,” events!
Prep Now to Make Dinner Fast Later!
Now let’s talk about how to make dinner fast on the nights after a long day at work! The key is to prep in advance. I’ll explain what I do:
- Peppers: Many of my recipes use either diced peppers (Stuffed Pepper Soup, Chicken Creole) or strips of peppers (Chicken Fajitas). I keep two gallon-sized bags in my freezer – one with diced/chopped peppers and one with pepper strips. I quickly thaw what I need in a colander under running water. They freeze just fine!
- Onions, Celery: I do the same thing with onions and celery.
- Garlic: I’ve stopped buying fresh garlic because it always goes bad before I use it. Instead, I buy Spice World Minced Garlic. Many grocery stores carry it or a similar brand.
- Boneless Chicken Strips: I used to buy chicken tenderloins for Chicken Fajitas and other recipes, but then I realized it was much more expensive! When I come home with my large packages of boneless chicken, I separate it into what I’ll need for each meal I’ll be making. This week’s 5 pounds of boneless chicken goes into two separate bags: two pounds (as-is) for Chicken Creole and three pounds cut into strips for Chicken Fajitas. Depending on the item dates, I may freeze this and unthaw it when needed.
Summary
To make dinner fast, make a meal plan, find easy dinner recipes, and do as much prep work as possible before you even think about cooking! It’s possible, and it works!
Check out this post if you’re interested in saving money on your grocery bills. I’ve also shared tips for saving on rising grocery prices in 2025 and beyond. Vintage Kitchen Items are really popular among people looking to save money while buying quality kitchenware.
