I have added many recipes over time and some are things I would make occasionally because they taste good, but perhaps the dish was more work (like the enchiladas for example), so not something to make often. I decided to make this list of recipes that I use a LOT. These are the ones that everyone loves, are very easy to make, and I probably have the ingredients on hand (I try to always make sure I do have the ingredients in my pantry). I can make these almost every day as standard fare, then add in a different dish once or twice a week to add variety and to keep experimenting. Often when I am busy, did not plan well, did not go shopping for something special.. these are the dishes I go to.
If you are new to this, this is a quick list of dishes to try and see if they work for you. These are the ones I recommend you try because they are easy and they taste awesome.
- Pasta Alfredo
- Skillet Pizza
- Southern Fried Chicken
- Gardein Sweet and Sour Pork
- Kelly’s BLT Burritos
- American Goulash
- Sundried Tomato Avocado Pesto Pasta
- Fish Tacos and Fish Burritos
- Chipotle Tacos
- Spaghetti Carbonara
- Chicken Sandwiches
- BLTs
- Mexican Couscous
- 3 Bean Pumpkin Chili
- Katsudon
- Hamburgers
- Turmeric Mushroom Curry over rice
- Spaghetti
- Pizza Muffins
- Lasagna
- Stroganof
- General Tso’s Tofu
- Roasted red pepper and chick pea curry
- Meat Loaf
With the above dishes, you can make a half month’s worth of dinners (with some leftovers) and rather inexpensively also for most of the dinners (normally under $10 for the entire meal). Most can be made in under an hour and many less than 30 minutes. It takes more time to drive out to fast food. Invest the time into your health!
Then experiment with more dishes..from here and elsewhere. Tailor them to your likes and needs. Omit oil if you want. Remove gluten. Whatever. Eventually you will have your own list of dinners where you can cook a vegan meal every day for a month and not repeat. But trust me, some of these you just want to eat every week. I know this for a fact! 🙂
By the way… I highly recommend using an online calendar like Google Calendars for meal planning.
It makes it far easier to sprinkle in the “go to” dishes and then add the more ambitious meals. Often something will look interesting… I add to the calendar for a couple weeks away. See how I stack up a number of recipes on one day. Then I can drag and drop them to other days. If I never get around to making a dish, or did not have the ingredients, I can move it to the next month. Then as stuff becomes ripe, I can move the recipe to that day.
Makes it easier to not have two Mexican or two Asian dishes in a row. I try to mix it up. Pasta one day, Mexican the next, a rice based Asian next… then some sort of sandwich dish…etc.
It also allows me to quickly see that the left overs were from a specific date. Sometimes I am surprised that the food has been in the frig for 3-4 weeks.
Other awesome and easy dishes to add to the mix: