Easy family dinner

sonilac

This is my kids favorite dinner recipe on weekdays: Chorizos & Potatoes Tray Bake.
I have an easy chicken recipe too that I rotate quite often. I would love to see your easy family meals.
By the way I bake the potatoes in the recipe above even without chorizos, any protein of choice will do. My preference is having them with chicken but my kids love chorizos.

missysippy930

Our favorite easy one is smoked turkey sausage tray bake with veggies. You can really adapt it to any protein and veggies you like. I cut everything into similar size pieces. Put in a gallon size zip lock bag. Drizzle about a tbsp canola oil over with spices /herbs of your choice. Seal bag mix everything well in bag. Put on a rimmed parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 35-40 minutes. Stirring once midway through.

sonilac

@missysippy930 that sounds delicious, i make something similar with chicken and veggies and bake it for about 30 minutes or so. Sounds delicious. Now i have to try it with turkey sausage. My kids would definitely love it because it looks fun.

acpgee

My easy family dinner is spatchcock chicken with roast potatoes and roast veg when the weather is cooler.

Cut down one side of the backbown of the chicken, season both meat and skin side with salt, and lay it flat, skin side up in a large roasting pan, pressing down on the breast to flatten the bird. Put peeled potatoes cut into 2 cubic inch chunks in salted water and boil 2 minutes and drain. Shake with some fat (ie goose fat, butter, or olive oil) in the dry cooking vessel to roughen up the edges for extra crispy potatoes. Scatter the potatoes in the same tin with the chicken. Toss veg in olive oil (chunks of broccoli or cauliflower or carrots, halved button mushrooms or brussel sprouts, whole green beans, okra or asparagus all work well) and season. Roast different vegetables in separate dishes on the rack beneath the chicken. Roast at 200C or 400F for about 30 minutes for the chicken and potatoes. Chicken is done when when it reaches 74C or 165F internally. If you don't have a meat thermometer, juices pricked in the joint between thigh and drumstick should run clear. Let the chicken rest 5 minutes before carving. This allows internal temperature to even out and meat juices to distribute evenly so you lose less moisture while carving.

You might need to pull out various veg earlier as it gets done. My household doesn't mind getting roast veg at room temperature. Give the veg a shake or stir every 10 minutes for even roasting. If the potatoes are still hard when the chicken is done pop into a glass or ceramic serving dish and zap them in the microwave for a minute or two while the chicken rests.

Spatchcocking dramatically reduces roasting time for a whole chicken, making this doable for a weeknight. It also ensures that legs and breasts are done at the same time because a conventional oven is hotter on the perimeter (where the legs are) than in the centre (where the breasts are). To save time on a weeknight, you can prep everything the night before and pop all the roasting tins in the fridge, keeping in mind the cooking time will run a little longer if chicken, parboiled potatoes and veggies are all fridge cold when you put them in the oven.

nossmf

When you say "easy" I'm thinking done in no time, minimum effort. For that, I present "tunamato"...

Prepare a box of mac 'n cheese
Once cheese is mixed in, add 1-2 cans of tuna, a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of peas. Stir thoroughly and serve

Very colorful, all the food groups represented, most kids love mac, serving for 6 for under $10 with a total prep time of about 10 minutes, reheats very nicely if you want to make a big pot and save in the fridge for later. (For those with kids who hate peas, like me, you can't even taste them. Seriously.) You can also customize it by using different flavors of canned tomatoes, or corn instead of peas, etc.

gallicinvasion

Omelettes, grilled cheese, quesadillas, tuna salad sandwich, can of soup with crackers, chicken sausage on a bun, frozen veggie burgers. The easiest and most satisfying meals are leftovers you just have to reheat.

acpgee

I am also a fan of batch cooking occasionally on the weekend of meals that freeze well so that you can just defrost during the week. Take a favourite freezable recipe, quadruple it and freeze in single serving portions for the family. Increasing batch size is mostly not an incremental amount of work especially if you use the food processor for chopping veg. The recipes that contain both meat and veg are easiest so you only need to boil or microwave a starch to go with your freezer meal. My go to recipes are

boeuf bourguignon (contains onions and mushrooms)
coq au vin (contains onion and mushrooms)
Marcella Hazan's bolognaise sauce for pasta (contains carrots, onion, celery, tomato)
vegetable lasagna made with cottage cheese instead of bechamel
dak dori tang (Korean chicken and carrot stew)

Most braised dishes like stews and curries will freeze well. If you need to add more veg throw in a handful of frozen spinach pellets or frozen peas while you warm up your meal.