This year, skip the expensive food delivery at dinnertime and make one of our 16 Easy Dinner Recipes to Make During Busy Back to School Season!
While my own daughter is an adult now, and it's been almost a decade since I did the back to school rush, my heart is with you all! One of the hardest parts about the first few weeks of back to school is finding the time and energy to make dinner!
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16 Easy Dinner Recipes to Make During Busy Back to School Season
Between the filling out of school forms, rushing to the store for last minute school supplies, and coordinating schedules for drop off, pick up, after school activities - who has the time to make a difficult dinner?
Chicken and Brussel Sprouts Casserole
This Chicken and Brussel Sprouts Casserole Recipe is an easy casserole dish made with a creamy sauce and a little kick of veggies!
This comfort food is an easy dinner recipe made in a cast iron skillet that is perfect for a busy weeknight! Our one pot meal is packed full of fresh brussels sprouts, chicken breasts, and a creamy cheese sauce, it is sure to please the whole family!
Get the recipe here!
Slow Cooker Garlic Lime Chicken with Rice
This Slow Cooker Garlic Lime Chicken with Rice Recipe is perfect for those days when I am having friends or a date over for dinner and I really don’t feel like spending a ton of time preparing for a meal.
This Crockpot Chicken and Rice Recipe is perfect for when I just want a hearty, filling comfort food dinner and don't want to spend all day in the kitchen!
Get the recipe here!
Ham Cheese and Rice Skillet Recipe
This Ham Cheese and Rice Skillet Recipe is really good. There is just something so ridiculously easy about cooking with rice and broth over the stove!
While this recipe is more a side dish, if you want to double the rice the rice and broth, this Ham Cheese and Rice Skillet Recipe will serve more as a meal. As-is, this is more like a side dish for a family of 4.
Get the recipe here!
Broccoli Ham Casserole Recipe
If you have the fries in my freezer, some frozen or fresh broccoli and ham, you are all set! Yes, it really is that good! This Broccoli Ham Casserole Recipe is super versatile and can be easily made with whatever you have in your freezer and kitchen cabinets.
As we all begin to fill out all of those back to school forms and forget to grab groceries, and dig back into the back of our freezers and the very top kitchen cabinet...well - now is the time to get creative!
Get the recipe here!
Easy 4 Ingredient Sloppy Joes
This Easy 4 Ingredient Sloppy Joes Recipe is so easy to make! Our simple sloppy joe recipe tastes just like the old-fashioned sloppy joes recipe with ketchup that your grandma made back in the 80's.
We are all about a dinner idea that is simple to make and quick to throw together for your family! If you are big on nostalgia, this recipe will remind you of sloppy joes day in the school cafeteria.
Get the recipe here!
Slow Cooker Pork Roast with Apples and Potatoes
This Slow Cooker Pork Roast with Apples and Potatoes Recipe is so perfect for making for Sunday dinner!
The roasted pork comes out so tender and juicy, while the flavors of the veggies and apples mix and combine to create the most palate-pleasing dinner you could possibly imagine.
Get the recipe here!
As I have mentioned in many of my slow cooker, pressure cooker and air fryer recipe posts, I absolutely LOVE my Ninja Foodi Pro! The Ninja FD401 Foodi 12-in-1 Deluxe XL 8 qt. Pressure Cooker & Air Fryer that Steams, Slow Cooks, Sears, Sautés, Dehydrates & More, with 5 qt. Crisper Basket, Deluxe Reversible Rack & Recipe Book can be found for under $180 on Amazon now! It has so many functions: programmable cooking functions to Pressure Cook, Air Fry/Air Crisp, Steam, Slow Cook, Yogurt, Sear/Sauté, Bake/Roast, Broil, Dehydrate, Sous Vide & Keep Warm.
I also highly recommend using Air Fryer Disposable Parchment Paper Cooking Paper for Air Fryers if you want to skip a messy clean up! Get it here on Amazon!
Cheeto Chicken Fingers Recipe
Are you looking for a fun new way to serve up dinner? How about this super fun - and super easy to make - Cheeto ChickenFingers Recipe?
I guarantee that the Cheetos lovers in your family will absolutely flip for this tasty little spin on homemade chicken fingers. I mean who wouldn't love crispy little Cheeto Chicken Fingers?!
Get the recipe here!
Air Fryer Garlic Parmesan Chicken Wings
I love chicken wings...so of course I love this Air Fryer Garlic Parmesan Chicken Wings recipe! Wing Wednesday is a social activity in my circle of friends; that is how much we all love our chicken wings!
However, making easy chicken wing recipes at HOME is not only super cheap, but you can make them any time you want with these easy air fryer parmesan garlic wings! This is a really tasty garlic parmesan flavor recipe, but you can customize this recipe by adding other spices.
Get the recipe here!
Sausage Tortellini Skillet Dinner
This Sausage Tortellini Skillet Recipe is a tasty and hearty skillet meal, and the perfect one pot meal for your busy weeknight dinner!
There is just something about pasta that is so filling, so inviting - it's the ultimate comfort food! Pasta dishes are some of the easiest and quickest to prepare as well, and used to be a weekly staple in our home!
Get the recipe here!
Grilled Chicken Parmesan Sandwiches
This Grilled Chicken Parmesan Sandwiches Recipe is the best of both worlds! It is a delicious Italian food AND a sandwich, so that it is easily enjoyed! These tasty little sandwiches are really good, with a lot of flavor and they are actually pretty easy to whip together.
This is also a great option for those who are trying to avoid fried foods, or trying to stick to a low carb diet. Just skip the bread and use lettuce wraps, and add the basil pesto directly to the chicken breast.
Get the recipe here!
Quick and Easy Chicken Fajitas in the Air Fryer
This Quick and Easy Chicken Fajitas Air Fryer Recipe is one of those recipes that you will find yourself making again and again!
Not only does this recipe taste like something you would order at your favorite Tex-Mex restaurant, but it's super fast and super easy, too. The air fryer does all the work. You just sit back and wait.
Get the recipe here!
The Easiest Recipe for Shepherd's Pie
This is The Easiest Recipe for Shepherd's Pie and it is perfect for those nights when you want an old fashioned comfort food dinner but don't feel like spending a lot of time standing over a hot stove preparing dinner.
The ground beef had a lot of flavor and I think would be fine to use those flavors for ground lamb or even ground turkey if you wanted a little healthier version of Shepherd's Pie. You can even sprinkle cheddar cheese on the top of the creamy mashed potatoes before putting this dish into the oven, and it will turn out nice and crispy!
Get the recipe here!
Thai Chicken Flatbread Pizza
This Thai Chicken Flatbread Pizza is a super filling and healthy flatbread pizza recipe filled with chicken, peppers and Thai flavors!
One of the best things about this Thai Pizza Recipe is that we are skipping the homemade pizza dough and using a store bought flatbread as our pizza crust! If you have ever had a California pizza kitchen Thai chicken pizza, you will find that they use something similar to a flatbread as well.
Get the Recipe here!
Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken
This Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe is so good and tasty, and of course it is super easy to whip together, too.
You can cut back on time with a bottle of sweet & sour sauce and frozen veggies. I love cooking during the week with my Ninja Foodi, it helps keep my house cool and it also frees up my valuable time during the afternoons and evenings.
Get the recipe here!
One Pot Pizzaiolo Pasta
This delicious recipe for Pizzaiolo Pasta is really good and I love that you can make it in just one pot! We are all about making easy recipes that allow us to feed our families something delicious WITHOUT a ton of prep work OR clean up afterwards!
Our pizzaiola pasta is just so easy to make, as everything get thrown into one pot, and the clean up is a bare minimum...I mean, it just could not get any easier than this pizzaiola recipe!
Get the recipe here!
Instant Pot Lo Mein
Our recipe for Instant Pot Lo Mein is one of the quickest, easiest Chinese pressure cooker recipes that you are going to find! If you have never tried a stir fry instant pot dinner before, you are going to love this One Pot Lo Mein recipe.
If you loved the recipe for our Easy Pork Stir Fry that we shared a few years ago, then this recipe for stir fry in the instant pot will be right up your alley!
It is full of really tender pork, vibrant veggies, and perfectly cooked noodles that all come together in a whirlwind of deliciousness.
Get the recipe here!
Are you looking for dessert recipes?
Are you looking for even more deliciously easy recipes? Check out our Easy Dinner Recipes and our Dessert Recipes for more ideas!
Easy Dinner Recipes
- Chicken Tater Tot Casserole
- 12 Favorite Dishes for Thanksgiving
- Cozy Up With These Fall Meals
- Zucchini Boats with Ground Beef
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