5 Cheap & Easy Weeknight Dinner Ideas For Your Family

Chicken parm zucchini boats

This meal sounds super fancy but only has five ingredients.

1. While you're cooking the ground chicken on the stovetop, slice the zucchini longways and scoop out the middle.
2. Once your chicken is cooked through, add your favorite spaghetti sauce and stir.
3. Take this mixture and fill up all your zucchini. Once they're all full, sprinkle with some grated Parmesan cheese and top with mozzarella slices.
4. Cover with foil and pop it in the oven for 35 minutes.
5. Enjoy!

White corn tortilla tacos

This is one of the quickest and easiest weeknight dinner ideas for a family.

1. Brown the meat and add the taco seasoning of your choice. You can use a half packet if you are not into spicy food.
2. Cut up some onions to top the tacos off with.
3. Chop up some fresh cilantro and put that right into the meat.
4. Get your tortillas. We use the white corn tortilla tacos from Kroger. Fill them up with the meat, sprinkle with some cheese, add onion, and dinner is on the table.

BBQ chicken flatbread pizza

Another quick and easy idea for dinner tonight.

1. Cook and cut your chicken into cubes. You can prep this beforehand.
2. Lay out some flatbreads, add some barbecue sauce, some cheese, and pineapple (if you don’t mind that on pizza).
3. Add your chicken and pop it in the oven at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
4. Top it off with some chopped red onion and enjoy.

French dip sandwiches

This is one of our absolute favorite easy weeknight dinner ideas. French Dip Sandwiches are really easy to double or multiply for a large family or gathering. 

1. Throw the meat in the crock pot for 8 hours on low.
2. Once it is done, shred the meat with a fork or mixer.
3. Serve it on an onion roll or French baguette. You can use some of the juice to dip the sandwich in. 
4. Add mozzarella or provolone cheese and melt in the broiler on high for about two minutes.

Crock pot taco chili

 is one of our favorite cheap and easy recipes. The kidney and pinto beans are super cheap and you can make it your own by adding your favorite seasonings and toppings.

1. Brown your meat.
2. Throw it in the crock pot with your kidney beans and pinto beans, sauce, all your spices, and seasonings. Stir everything together and add a little water if it seems like it is too thick.
3. Set your crock pot to 4 hours on low and let it cook.

You could easily make a huge batch of this on Sunday and eat it all week.

Weeknight dinner ideas

So here are my five great ideas for simple and budget-friendly dinner meals for your entire family. Which one did you like the best? Give them a try and let me know how it goes in the comments!