Dinner Ideas - Quick and Easy Dinner Recipes

So, what’s for dinner tonight? Is it going to be a sandwich quickly thrown together, or something zapped in the microwave and chewed through without even tasting a bite? It must be so, for this is the typical scenario in most homes. Let’s face it, with the hectic pace with which we live these days, it leaves little time for eating the family dinners that were such an integral part of life in the past. So much so, that cooking and sharing dinner together as a family is becoming a lost art. Which is a pity. For, getting together as a family can be a great way to bond together, and to slow down and savor food, as it ought to be. In fact, according to studies, it has been found that families that get together and communicate with each other have children that are better balanced, have better social skills, perform better academically, have better self esteem, and remain substance free. And what can be a better time to communicate than dinnertime?

As for the conversation, knowing how hard it can be sometimes to get preteens and above to talk about themselves or anything going on in their lives, the best thing is to keep it natural. You could set the ball rolling by talking about the latest baseball game, or some movie, or perhaps about a celebrity making news… Something usually will click, sooner or later. The point is to not make it seem forced.

So, although it may be hard to do it every day of the week, why not try getting the family together for dinners at least a few times in the week? Here are a few quick and easy dinner recipes to get you started on planning the menu:

Lemon and Mustard Chicken

2 Chicken breasts, boneless
2 tbsp. Mustard (any of your favorite)
1/3 cup of Cooking Wine
1/3 cup of Olive Oil
1 tsp. Thyme leaves, dried

Combine the wine, mustard, olive oil, and thyme in a shallow dish. Put the chicken into this mix, and coat well by turning the chicken. Cover the dish and refrigerate for 1-2 hours, in order to marinate the chicken. Remove from the refrigerator and drain the chicken, reserving the marinade. Heat a skillet on medium heat. Cook the chicken in it until tender, basting it with the marinade, about five minutes on each side.

Stir-Fried Beef With Broccoli

1 lb. Sirloin Steak, frozen slightly and cut into thin strips
2 cups of Broccoli Florets, fresh
1 Red Bell Pepper, sliced into strips
1 Green Bell Pepper, sliced into strips
2 tbsp. Oil
2 tbsp. Cooking Wine
1 Clove of Garlic, minced
Rice, cooked and hot

For the Sauce:
½ cup of Beef Broth
2 tbsp. Cooking Wine
1 tbsp. Soy Sauce
1 tbsp. Cornstarch
1 tsp. Sugar

Combine all the ingredients of the sauce in a small bowl, mix them well, and set aside. Heat 1 tbsp. of oil in a wok, and stir-fry the broccoli, red pepper and green pepper for about a minute. Add two tablespoons of cooking wine, cover and cook for 1-2 minutes. Remove from the wok. Then heat the remaining oil, and add the meat and garlic. Stir-fry until the meat gets brown. Then, add the sauce to the meat, and cook for 2-3 minutes or until it thickens, stirring often. Then add the vegetables and cook until they are hot. Serve this over the hot rice.

Meat Loaf With Piquant Tomato Sauce

1 lb. Ground Beef
1 Egg
¼ Bread Crumbs, dried
¼ cup of Chopped Onion
1 can Stewed Tomatoes (16 oz.)
1 can Tomato Sauce (8 oz.)
¼ cup of Rice Vinegar, seasoned
1 tbsp. Brown Sugar
½ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. Pepper

Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. Chop the stewed tomatoes coarsely. In a small saucepan, combine the rice vinegar, tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes and brown sugar. Take a large bowl and crumble the beef in it, then add half cup of the tomato mixture, breadcrumbs, egg, onion, salt and pepper, and mix them all together. Take an 8 by 8 baking dish and shape the meat mixture into a loaf in it. Bake for 45-50 minutes. In the meantime, heat the remaining tomato mixture, allowing it to simmer, until it thickens. During the last 10 minutes of the baking, spread ¼ cup of the thickened tomato sauce over the meat. Serve the rest of the sauce with the meat loaf, sliced.

Quick And Easy Spaghetti

1 lb. Ground Beef
12 oz. Spaghetti
1 Onion, chopped fine
1 ½ tbsp. Tomato Paste
1/3 cup Oil
¼ tsp. Turmeric
½ tsp. Salt
2/3 cup Water

Heat the oil in a skillet, add the chopped onions, and stir-fry until translucent. Then, add the ground beef, and cook until it gets brown. Put in the turmeric and salt, and stir. Dilute the tomato paste with the 2/3 cup of water and pour it on the beef mixture. Cook for half an hour over medium heat.

Cook the spaghetti in a large bowl of salted, boiling water according to the directions given on the package. Drain it well.

Combine the spaghetti and beef in a large bowl. Cover and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes.