Meet Your New Favorite Weeknight Dinners
These solid recipes hit every note: They're speedy, don't include any "where-am-I-going-to-find-that?" ingredients and taste great.
By Lynn Andriani
The Ovenless Casserole
We like to think of this as a kind of American take on fried rice. You make it in a skillet on the stovetop, which makes it perfect for nights when you don't feel like turning on the oven (or waiting for it to preheat). The star ingredients: shredded rotisserie chicken, bacon and cheddar.
Get the recipe: Cheesy Chicken and Rice Skillet Dinner with Bacon
The Fastest Way to Make a Monday Night Feel Like a Friday Night
Sometimes, you just can't wait five days to bust out a dinner like chili over nachos. And why should you? This turkey chili recipe is fast, delicious and adaptable: Serve it in bowls with the usual toppings, spoon it over tortilla chips, melt cheese on top and let everyone dig in.
Get the recipe: Turkey Chili
Oprah's Go-To Pasta Dish
Lots of fresh herbs are what make this 20-minute spaghetti special. Oprah uses basil, lemon thyme and oregano, though you could also use parsley, mint and regular thyme. Tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, Parmesan and lemon zest, it's a no-brainer dish you'll come back to again and again.
Get the recipe: Oprah's Lemon Zest Pasta
Meatballs, the Easy Way
Frying meatballs and then cleaning up a messy, oil-splattered stove isn't something most of us like to do on a harried weeknight, but this recipe calls for baking the golf-ball-size rounds in a 450 degrees oven for 14 minutes, which makes cleanup about a zillion times easier. And although this version calls for ground chicken, you can also use beef or pork.
Get the recipe: Chicken Meatballs
Homemade Pizza in 20 Minutes
When you don't have time to make dough or crank your oven up to 450 degrees, try this creative recipe, which uses store-bought dough and doesn't require an hour of preheating. You start cooking the pizza in a pan on the stovetop, flip it when one side is crisp, top with tomato sauce and cheese, and then finish it under the broiler.
Get the recipe: Pan-Fried Pizza
The 4-Ingredient Skillet Pork Chops
This simple recipe uses a cup of cola to create a flavorful sauce for pork chops that comes together in minutes. (You can also use Dr Pepper, which will lend the dish a spiced note.) Either way, the soda will help ensure the chops, which are easy to overcook, stay juicy.
Get the recipe: Coca-Cola Pork Chops
Next: (Almost) homemade dinners you can make in the microwave
Published 11/25/2013
