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Our recipe planner turns even a simple Tuesday night dinner into something special.
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“What are we eating?” Is there another question you hear (or ask) every day that causes just as much anxiety? Whether it’s a meal for multiple generations in the family, the football team after practice, or a dinner for one or two people, it takes some work to get to the answer. You’ll have to search your refrigerator to find out what leftovers are lurking behind the mustard; search your cupboards for rice, pasta or grains to form the base of the meal; and figure out how to bring it all together in a way that suits the tastes of each person at the table. It’s a task that seems impossible, yet we do it night after night.
But you deserve better than that combination of stressful and boring. At Food & Wine we believe that every meal deserves to be full of flavor – and that every chef deserves a break. That means relying on easy dinners that come together in minutes, not creating a mess, and relying on canned and canned pantry ingredients you have on hand. Use this collection of easy weeknight dinners as a guide and even Tuesday night dinner can be something special.
We count on the pantry to whip up pasta dinners you’ll never forget. Those jars of capers and olives, cans of tomatoes and chickpeas, and cans of anchovies and sardines are flavorful powerhouses when mixed with noodles, a chunk of Parmesan cheese, and a bit of pepper.
One of the rules of a successful weeknight dinner is not to create a sink full of dirty pots and pans that will be cleaned up later. This is when we need dinners to be prepared all at once, and curries, pastas and skillets simmering together in one pan.
Some nights, the most important thing about dinner is getting it on the table before we give up and eat cheese and crackers. This is the time when an easy meal, ready to eat in 30 minutes, is essential for our stomach and our peace of mind after a day full of long meetings and maddening commutes.
Vegetarian options make it easy to skip a trip to the store and prepare hearty, satisfying meals that call on frozen and fresh vegetables and pantry ingredients to do the heavy lifting.
Weekday dinners don’t have to be fancy or ambitious. But recipes like these can make them not only better than a quick sandwich or bowl of pasta with butter; they also offer a chance to be with the people you cook for and care about. You can take a moment together to connect, share stories about your day, or talk about anything other than what happened earlier, and maybe even plan something fun for the weekend. In the rush of everyday life, those little moments are the most important.