3 Healthy 5-Ingredient Meals That Are Easy to Make

Jaime Bacon
by Jaime Bacon

Easy 5-ingredient meals can help make meal planning go smoothly. You don't need a lot of ingredients or time to put a great meal together. You'll save money because you won't be tempted to order take-out food when making dinner isn't a huge chore.

I have three meal ideas with only five ingredients each, so if you're looking for cheap and easy meal ideas, you've come to the right place.


So many people are like me and tend to get overwhelmed by a long ingredient list. I have seen so many recipes that look good, but then I go over to the recipe, and it's got a list of 10 to 15 ingredients. Even though a lot of those might be spices, I look at them, and my brain

just says, no, we're not going to make this.


I realized that my brain believes that five-ingredient recipes are perfect. They are still healthy, they're full of good ingredients, and they're pretty cheap. The three meals I have for you are really simple to make. They are much less overwhelming than recipes with a long list of ingredients.


I'll be making beef enchiladas, which are delicious and can freeze easily. I'm also showing you five-ingredient Banana Oat Pancakes, which are like a one-pot, one-blender recipe. You put everything in the blender, and it's done. Lastly, I'm showing you a super easy sweet potato chili.

Beef enchiladas ingredients

Beef enchiladas

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 16-ounce jar bean and corn salsa
  • 10-ounce can red enchilada sauce, divided
  • 10 soft taco-sized tortillas
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided


Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

Browning the meat

Begin by cooking the meat in a skillet, breaking it up as it cooks to get it fully browned. 


I took it out of the freezer earlier in the day, so it's still a little frozen. There isn't a lot of grease because it was 93% lean. 


After it was fully cooked, I added about a half cup of enchilada sauce and an entire bottle of black bean and corn salsa. 

Mixing shreeded cheese

Then I added one cup of shredded cheese and mixed all of that together.


That completes the mixture for the enchiladas. I put between one-third and one-half cup of the mixture in each tortilla. 

Making beef enchiladas

I rolled them up, leaving the ends open, and placed them in a 9 x 13 casserole dish. 


I recommend greasing the casserole dish first or putting some enchilada sauce on the bottom to avoid having the enchiladas stick to the bottom of the dish. 


I was hoping to get eight enchiladas from this recipe, but I actually made enough for ten. I poured the enchilada sauce on top. I probably should have bought more than one can for it. 


I added one cup of shredded cheddar sprinkled evenly across the top of the enchiladas. 

Beef enchilada casserole

I baked it at 375 for 20 minutes until the cheese was nice and bubbly. 


You can have one or two of these enchiladas as a serving and serve them with rice, chips, salsa, or a salad. You can even double this recipe and freeze it for later, which makes it a fantastic meal prep recipe. 


Banana pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups milk
  • 3 bananas, ripe
  • 4 cups rolled oats
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder


Instructions

Next up, we have banana pancakes. I love these because I used 

a blender to mix everything together. I recommend putting all the wet ingredients in first, and I recommend doing the eggs first because I got some eggshells in there, and it's hard to see with the milk. 


I added the eggs, milk, and then banana to the blender and blended until smooth. 

Making banana pancakes with oats

Then I poured in all of the oats. 


I use oats instead of flour. 

How to make banana pancakes

After adding the oats, I put in the baking powder and pulsed it for about a minute or so until it looked just like the pancake batter. 


Next, I greased an electric griddle. 

Cooking banana pancakes

Cook the pancakes for a minute on each side, and then the tops will become bubbly before you flip it the first time. 

Banana pancakes

Serve your banana pancakes with sliced fruit, maple syrup, or even a protein of choice. 

Ingredients for sweet potato chili

Sweet Potato Chili 

Ingredients:

  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, washed
  • 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 3 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 cup jarred salsa
  • Chili seasoning (optional)


Instructions

Lastly, we have sweet potato chili. This is an easy vegetarian meal and easy for the weeknights as well. 


The first thing I did was chop my onions. You can also buy a bag of frozen diced onions, which can help you save a little bit of time. 

Cooking onions

I added the onions to the pot and started to cook them. 


You can add olive oil to the pot to sauté them. 

Chopping up sweet potatoes

Next, I chopped up the sweet potatoes. 


I slice them into circles and then dice them into smaller pieces. I don't peel them because I like the fiber from the skin. I made sure to chop them into small pieces so they all cooked evenly. I added those to the pot as well as the vegetable broth. 

Mixing in black beans

I also added a can of drained and rinsed black beans and one cup of salsa. 


I brought that to a boil. I also added a packet of chili seasoning, which is optional, and made it with more than five ingredients. Feel free to use whatever you have at home as well. 

Sweet potato chili

I let it boil and then simmered it for about 20 minutes. 


This serves four people. Optional toppings could include sour cream, cheese, and avocado. 


This is what the chili looks like when it's done; it's delicious. 


5-ingredient meals

Out of the three recipes, my favorite was the enchiladas. It's only 

five ingredients, but you can always add whatever else you want. There's no rule that says you have to stick with five ingredients, but five ingredients do the trick for the basic recipe.


Leave a comment below to vote for your favorite one of these 5-ingredient recipes.

Comments
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2 of 9 comments
  • Tracey Tracey on Jul 03, 2023

    These are great recipes for in a rut. Personally only one of these are for me and oh my gosh a big Thank You for the banana pancakes they are delicious!!!! I’ve tried many but there was too many ingredients ~ these pancakes are it! Thank you 😊

  • Barb Donals Barb Donals on Feb 20, 2024

    Love these recipes! I will definitely be making these soon for my family! Thank you for sharing them. 😊

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