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The image of the person cooking everything from scratch is inspiring, but it’s not necessarily realistic for most of us. If you have the time and capacity to do that, great! But if not, it’s OK to use some workaround to make it less stressful to make dinner. Here are 10 dinner shortcuts that I frequently use to save time as well as buying expensive ingredients that I won’t use very often!
10 Dinner Shortcuts to Make Cooking Easier
Swedish Meatballs
You can use frozen meatballs and jarred or gravy mix packets to make a recipe like this one. Just follow the directions on the packet instead of making the sauce and continue the recipe from there. Additionally, frozen meatballs often go on sale!
Chicken Parmesan
Use frozen, breaded chicken cutlets and jarred marinara to make a recipe like this. Use pre-shrededed mozzarella and serve over pasta!
Chicken Pot Pie
This recipe calls for refrigerated pie crusts and canned soup already, and you can make it even easier by using pre-cooked chicken (like from a rotisserie chicken).
Chicken Alfredo
You don’t even need a recipe for this! Use a rotisserie chicken and jarred alfredo sauce and serve with pasta.
Shepherd’s Pie
Use frozen or refrigerated mashed potatoes, frozen mixed vegetables, and jarred gravy to make a very easy shepherd’s pie! Frozen or refrigerated mashed potatoes.
Lasagna
Use no boil noodles and jarred sauce to make this easy lasagna recipe.
Chicken and Dumplings
This recipe uses pre-cooked chicken, frozen vegetables and refrigated biscuit dough to cut down on a lot of extra work.
Pizza
No recipe needed for this, either! Use refrigerated pizza dough, jarred sauce, pre-shredded cheese and whatever other toppings you want for a very easy dinner that is as good as anything you could order out.
Beef Stroganoff
Use frozen meatballs and a stroganoff mix packet for a very easy beef stroganoff. Serve with whatever pasta you have!
Chicken Enchiladas
There are lots of ways to make chicken enchiladas, and many of the ingredients have shortcuts. Use pre-cooked meat, jarred sauce, pre-shredded cheese, and cans of other things like corn or black beans. They’re still going to be mostly homemade and delicious!
Do you know of any other dinner shortcuts? Let us know in the comments!
