Easy weeknight recipes needed

Meal plan.

Prep your veggies/sides the night before so you don’t have to wash and chop when you get home. Makes it much easier to quickly assemble and light the fire.

Make things that can be repurposed for lunch or dinner the next night (chicken, steak or pork loin). Season it with something basic so it can be used for tacos, Mediterranean style wraps...anything. Save the fancy stuff for Saturday/Sunday.

Low Carb Mexican Lasagna
12 Corn Tortillas
Frozen Corn
Ground Turkey with Taco Seasoning (1.5lbs and 1.5 packets use low sodium if possible)
1 large can refried beans
Hatch Red Chili Enchilada Sauce

Spray a cassarole dish with non stick spray. Lay in 4 corn tortillas, then refried beans and then turkey, sprinkle corn across the ground turkey. Repeat until the top layer which is just tortillas. Pour the Hatch across the top. Cover with foil and bake for 64 minutes at 350. Uncover and sprinkle cheese and put it back in the oven for 5 minutes. Serve it with sour cream and hot sauce as needed.

Since you were okay with shawarma marinating overnight, look to recipes for carne asada. Flank or similar steak only grills for 5 minutes a side after an overnight swim in lime juice, chili powder, jalapeno, beer, garlic, and soy sauce.
Also good is ground beef, crumbled and fried and added to mexican rice. The rice takes the longest, but usually no more than an hour and a half including prep.

One of my favorite go-to's during the week doesn't involve the grill, but you could.

As soon as you walk in the door take a few chicken breasts, put them in a ziplock baggie with some tandori marinade (we have been using this, it's great!!), and into the sous vide for ~2hrs at 155*F. When you're ready to eat, take it out of the bag, chop it up, put it on top of the rice. You could sear it on the grill first I'm sure, but I just haven't done that yet.

Jasmine rice cooked in the Instant Pot (1:1 water to rice ratio, hit the 'rice' button and walk away). After it's cooked we add a little salt and a lot of roasted sesame seeds.

Make some sort of veggies for a side. Steamed, roasted, grilled, whatever.

It's a good flavorful reasonably healthy dinner that's mostly hands-off, and it gives you time to do other stuff while the chicken cooks. We have a 1yr old at home, so for us that means feeding her, playing for a while, then getting her to bed, then we get to eat.

Also - homemade pizza is a great weeknight meal, but it takes some planning. I mix up my dough a night or two ahead of time.

Dough recipe (for two dough balls):
266g of flour
186g of water
8g of salt
1/4tsp yeast

Mix 100degree water with salt and yeast, stir to dissolve.
Add the flour, mix just long enough to incorporate the flour so you have a shaggy ball of dough. Cover and let it rest for half an hour to one hour.
Kneed dough for about 2 mins until it starts to form a nice smooth consistency. Shape into a ball, cover and rest for 2hrs.
Divide in half, shape each half into a ball, put them each in an oiled bowl. Cover and let rest ~half an hour.
Put them in the fridge overnight or two or three.

When you want to make the pies, get the dough out of the fridge and let the bowls rest at room temp for at least an hour before shaping into pies.

Shape, top with whatever you like, cook in a well-preheated (at least an hour) oven at 550*F. Use a steel if you've got one. They take about ~6-8mins or so to cook.

This one is a go to of mine, and the green sauce will change your life (I don't make it too spicy though)


https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/07/peruvian-style-grilled-chicken-sandwiches-recipe.html

Long Answer:
Avoid the drive through for multiple reasons. Economics-ingredients-fun factor. Get an air fryer and an instant pot. Beans with leftover meats and fresh veggies pretty solid.

Spare ribs 6$
Beef ribs 6$
Wingettes 8$
Charcoal starter cube & Seasoning 4$?
Water tea coffee beer whiskey at home. No sugar/fake sugar drinks

Throw in some beautiful colored veggies and eat all week for about the cost of one trip at DT for 3-4.

I understand the lure of Whataburger and Popeyes. Make it a treat not a habit.

Short Answer: I don’t do recipes

My go to quick cook is Lawry's marinades on chicken, steak, or pork chops. I put the meat in the marinade before I leave for work. When I get home, I just fire up the kettle and put the meat on. And since I'm single, I have leftovers for lunches. My preferred marinades are the sesame ginger, the teriyaki, and the cajun.

https://pin.it/wi2ifuxshfu42h

This was a good one for us using the air fryer

TexArlina BBQ said:

https://pin.it/wi2ifuxshfu42h

This was a good one for us using the air fryer

Click to expand...

We didnt use asparagus, kroger was out of a lot of produce when I went shopping. Thin sliced jalepeno, yellow/red bells, and onion.

One of my favorites is beer brats. I brown some Johnsonville's on the grill until they have some nice grill marks. Then I put them in a disposable foil pan with green and red bell peppers, onion, and a cheap beer. Cover with foil and simmer on the grill indirect for 30mins or so.

Marinade some chicken overnight in jerk marinade. Make some jamaican style rice and beans, grill your chicken, chowdown. I also like mini-meatloafs, stuffed with cheese, or not, smoked 280 to 300 and sauced with 15 minutes to go. Serve that with roasted potatoes and veggies.

Edit: you could turn either of these into kabobs to speed up time

Here's some go-to favorites of ours that won't take too much time to prep or cook:


Armenian Style Grilled Rack of Lamb Chops:


https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=262975


Wings with Chicken Rub #2:


https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=263808


Spicy Crispy Sriracha Wings:



https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=256320


(You don't have to deep fry them at the end if you don't want or aren't able, just cook them on the grill till they're fully cooked)

Western Bacon Cheeseburger:


https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=250754


(You can substitute frozen rings if you don't have time to deep fry them)

So, how many are you cooking for???

A crowd or just yourself?

I moved away from home for about a year because of work commitments and totally changed the way I cooked because I was just cooking for me.

Moved away from more complicated multi dish offerings for the family and just decided everything I did had to be in one pan... or two if it it was a salad. It's amazing the variety of healthy stuff you can throw together like that but it's more about technique of what on hand than following actual recipes.

Let me know.

I just made this recipe for lunch today, out of this month's Rachael Ray Magazine. Disclosure: I'm retired so I have all the time in the world to mess around in the kitchen or out on the grills. :grin:

If you're not opposed to cooking indoors, this is an easy, less than half hour prep with one pan. I recently purchased a Le Creuset Braiser CI pan and this recipe was a "challenge" from the Mrs since it was a one pan ordeal. Pretty easy challenge.

Shrimp Pasta Piccata

Cliff Notes Edition:

Heat up butter/EVOO, toss in shrimp til cooked.

Remove shrimp, add in minced garlic. Deviation from recipe: add in sliced chicken sausage. Remove when browned.

Add white wine and 4 cups chicken stock plus lemon zest, lemon juice and seasonings of your choice. Recipe includes capers which I had but didn't use. Bring to boil.

Here was the one pan part: Toss in pasta. Let it cook in the broth. Nice! No need to break out the pasta pot.

When done, add the shrimp (and sausage) back to the pan, allow to reheat. Garnish with parsley, etc. Sprinkle with Parmesan.

That was it. And it was quite good! And it only used one pan.

My Le Creuset will NOT be used out on the grill, I have Lodge pans for that.

This had to be one of the quickest but looks oh so complicated lunches I've prepared.

And I swear Google knows everything I do these days even though this was out of a magazine I was holding in my hand. A Google article for One Pot Chicken Thighs in Rice and Tomatoes popped up in my news feed this evening. Guess what's on the dinner menu for tomorrow?

So I don't always use the grill.

-lunchman