There are nights when I know exactly what I want for dinner, and then there are the other nights. The ones where you open the refrigerator, look around, close it, and somehow expect a better answer five minutes later.

That is really where Dinner Done Easy came from.

I wanted a collection of recipes for those nights when you need dinner to be good, but you do not want it to turn into a project. These are the kinds of recipes I actually like to keep around: familiar ingredients, easy shortcuts, casseroles, Crock-Pot dinners, simple pasta dishes, and meals that do not require you to spend half the evening standing at the stove.

The whole idea is simple. Dinner can be easy and still be something everybody looks forward to eating.

Dinner Done Easy includes 25 recipes built around that idea. Some are the kinds of dinners you can throw together when the day got away from you. Some use rotisserie chicken or refrigerated dough. Some are old favorites with a slightly easier way of doing them. And a few started with recipes we have all seen before, but I found another way to use them that makes them feel new again.

The recipe trend I kept coming back to

One of the recipes that made me think about this whole collection differently was baked feta pasta.

You probably remember when baked feta pasta seemed to be everywhere. The basic idea is almost ridiculously simple: tomatoes, a block of feta, olive oil and seasonings go into a baking dish. Everything roasts together until the tomatoes soften and the feta becomes warm and creamy. Then you stir it together and add pasta.

There is a reason that recipe took off. It is easy, it looks good, and most of the work happens in the oven.

But here is the part I started doing differently: before I ever add the pasta, I like that baked feta and tomato mixture all by itself.

When the feta comes out of the oven and the tomatoes have burst into all those juices, stir everything together and spoon some onto toasted bread. It becomes this warm, creamy tomato-and-feta spread that feels completely different from the pasta dinner you are about to make.

That means one baking dish can give you two ideas. Put out the feta and tomatoes with toast first, then stir the remaining mixture into your cooked pasta for dinner.

I love that kind of cooking because it does not make anything harder. You are not adding another complicated recipe. You are simply looking at what is already in front of you and getting a little more out of it.

That is a big part of Dinner Done Easy. I am always looking for the point where I can make something simpler, stretch an ingredient, use a shortcut, or turn one basic idea into something else.

Easy does not have to mean boring

I think sometimes we make dinner harder than it needs to be because we assume a good dinner has to involve a long ingredient list.

It does not.

A rotisserie chicken is one of the best examples. Bring one home and you already have the hardest part of several dinners finished. Add rice and a few vegetables and you have the beginning of creamy chicken and rice. Add black beans, corn, tomatoes and taco seasoning and you have chicken burrito bowls. Add sauce and pasta and you are headed in a completely different direction.

That is why I use shortcuts without apologizing for them. Refrigerated crescent rolls, jarred sauce, frozen vegetables, cooked chicken and seasoning packets can all have a place in a real kitchen.

The question I care about is: does this help you get dinner on the table?

If it does, I am interested.

There is also nothing wrong with changing a recipe around based on what you already have. If you have a different pasta shape, use it. If you have leftover cooked chicken instead of rotisserie chicken, even better. If there is a vegetable sitting in the refrigerator that needs to be used, that may be exactly what goes into dinner tonight.

You do not need to reinvent dinner every night. In fact, I think having a handful of dependable recipes you can make almost without thinking is one of the smartest things you can do.

Sheet pan lasagna changed the way I think about lasagna

Lasagna is one of those dinners everybody loves, but traditional lasagna can feel like a commitment.

You have the noodles, the sauce, the cheese, the layering, the big baking dish and then the cleanup. It is absolutely worth making sometimes, but it is not always what I want to tackle on a regular weeknight.

That is why I love the idea of sheet pan lasagna.

Instead of building a tall, heavy lasagna with layer after layer, you spread everything out across a sheet pan. You still get pasta, sauce and plenty of cheese, but you also get more of those browned, bubbly edges that everybody fights over anyway.

It cooks in a shallower layer, it is easier to portion, and it feels much less fussy.

And here is one of my favorite practical tricks: line the pan with parchment when the recipe allows it. Anything that makes cleanup easier gets my attention.

The sheet-pan method is also a good example of what I mean when I talk about making familiar food work better for real life. I am not trying to turn lasagna into something unrecognizable. I still want it to taste like lasagna. I just want an easier route to dinner.

That is usually the sweet spot for me. Keep the part everybody loves. Lose some of the work.

The dinners that save you are usually the simple ones

I have learned that the recipes you make the most are not always the fanciest recipes in your collection.

They are the ones you remember when it is 5:30 and somebody asks what is for dinner.

That is why casseroles show up so often in my kitchen. They solve a very practical problem. You can combine a protein, a sauce, a starch or vegetable, add something good on top, put it in the oven and move on with your life while it cooks.

Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole is exactly that kind of idea. Start with cooked or rotisserie chicken, Alfredo sauce and ranch seasoning. Add cooked bacon and cheese and suddenly three very ordinary things from the grocery store have turned into the beginning of a dinner everybody understands.

You can take that same thinking in a dozen directions. Serve a creamy chicken mixture over pasta or rice. Put crescent rolls on top of a chicken casserole. Use marinara, chicken and mozzarella for an easy chicken Parmesan-inspired pasta. Make a cold ranch chicken pasta salad when you do not want a hot casserole at all.

Once you start thinking this way, dinner becomes less about finding one perfect recipe and more about knowing a few combinations that work.

Keep a few easy dinners in your back pocket

This may be the most useful thing I can tell you: pick two or three dinners your household genuinely likes and keep the basic ingredients around.

Not twenty dinners. Two or three.

These are your back-pocket meals. They are the answer when you are tired, when plans change, when you get home later than expected, or when nothing you had planned sounds good anymore.

Maybe yours is a chicken casserole. Maybe it is pasta with a jarred sauce that you dress up with cooked chicken and cheese. Maybe it is burrito bowls because everybody can build their own. Maybe it is breakfast for dinner.

The specific recipe matters less than the fact that you know it works.

I also shop my own kitchen before I make a grocery list. I am not perfect about it, but it saves money and it keeps me from buying another can of something I already have three of. Look at the freezer. Look at the pantry. Look at the refrigerator. Sometimes dinner is already halfway there.

That is another reason I like recipes with flexible, familiar ingredients. When the same chicken, cheese, rice, pasta, vegetables and sauces can move between several meals, you have more options without buying a completely different grocery list for every dinner.

Crock-Pot dinners still earn their place

There are days when the best dinner is the one that cooks while you are doing something else.

That is why I will always have room for a Crock-Pot recipe.

Slow-cooker dinners are especially useful when you know the end of the day is going to be busy. There is something very satisfying about knowing dinner is already handled before the afternoon gets away from you.

And the Crock-Pot is not only for roasts and soups. It works for easy chicken dinners, casseroles, dips, and even dessert.

Crock Pot Apple Dump Cake is a perfect example of the kind of dessert I like in a collection like this. It is not trying to be a pastry-shop dessert. It is warm, easy, familiar and exactly the sort of thing you can put together without turning dessert into another job.

That is the standard I kept coming back to while putting this book together: does the recipe make real life easier? If the answer is yes, it belongs.

A few things I want you to remember

First, use what you have.

Dinner Done Easy is supposed to make life easier, not send you back to the grocery store because you are missing one small ingredient. Use common sense. Make the substitution that works for your family and your kitchen.

Second, keep a few dependable meals in regular rotation. There is no prize for making something completely different every night. If everybody loves a recipe, make it again.

Third, simple ingredients can still make a great meal. Rotisserie chicken, a jar of sauce and a few seasonings can become dinner. That is not cheating. That is knowing how to use what is available to you.

And finally, do not overlook the little twists. The baked feta mixture can become something to spoon onto toast before it ever becomes pasta. Lasagna can go onto a sheet pan. Leftover chicken can become tomorrow’s completely different dinner.

Those little ideas are what keep easy cooking from feeling repetitive.

What you’ll find in Dinner Done Easy

The 25 recipes in Dinner Done Easy are meant for the nights when you need an answer.

You will find easy casseroles, pasta dinners, shortcut chicken recipes, Crock-Pot ideas, breakfast-for-dinner possibilities and simple comfort food that does not require a culinary degree or an afternoon of prep.

I wanted the recipes to feel familiar enough that you would actually make them, but useful enough that you might find a new favorite or a new way to make something you already love.

This is not a book about perfect dinners.

It is about having dinner handled.

And I think there is a lot of freedom in that.

One more thing before you go

Dinner was never really about making something perfect.

It is about feeding yourself and the people you love. Sometimes that means making something from scratch because you have the time and you feel like it. Sometimes it means grabbing a rotisserie chicken and figuring out what you can turn it into when you get home.

Both count.

If this collection gives you a few recipes you can rely on, a couple of shortcuts you had not thought about, or even one night when you do not have to stand in front of the refrigerator wondering what to make, then it did exactly what I hoped it would do.

Love, Shannon

Get the free Dinner Done Easy cookbook

If you would like all 25 easy dinner ideas together in one place, download my free Dinner Done Easy cookbook here.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY HERE.

Save it to your phone, print the recipes you use most, or keep it nearby for the next night when you have absolutely no idea what to make for dinner.