20 minutes is rough if you're including all prep time. I do as much prep the night before as I can, then only have to do the actual cooking when I get home from work.

Stir fry - thinly sliced chicken or shrimp, and a quick vegetable like snow peas, asparagus sliced on the diagonal into thin strips, or shredded cabbage (a bag of cole slaw mix works well). Bottled stir fry sauce, or a sauce prepped the night before. Microwave rice.

Hamburgers with sliced veggies.

Seared ahi tuna steaks, bagged salad, microwave rice.

Thinly sliced pork cutlets, pan seared. Mashed potatoes (peeled and cut the night before, so all you have to do is boil and mash them). Microwave-in-a-bag green beans.

Our easy meals are
Spaghetti and jarred sauce with vegetables on the side or salad
Fish tacos - Bake frozen fish fillets or veggie fish for the vegetarians and make a quick slaw with bagged shredded cabbage while fish is baking and slice limes.
Bake frozen pierogi and sauté coleslaw mix (and onions if I’m feeling ambitious) while it’s baking
Hot dogs with sides like baked beans and quick coleslaw
Make your own sub sandwich

We cook/ meal prep on Sundays. Lots of bowls, think frozen rice that takes 3 mins with a protein that was prepared on Sunday with all of the fixings prepared. This works for Asian, Mediterranean, and Mexican bowls. So quick. Salmon is fast. Breakfast for dinner is fast. I also make most difficult meals on Sundays and put in fridge to cook whatever night. Today we prepped chicken pot pie, meatloaf, corned beef for Rueben’s, and grilled steak and chicken for on top of salad or rice depending on the day. My commute is rough and kids have activities until 6:30 ish every day so making dinner at that time after a full day isn’t efficient. We also keep soup and grilled cheese in stock. Everyone eats any soup.

We have a list of meals somewhere, but some things we do off the top of my head are:
- hummus bowls
- chicken enchilada skillet with precooked chicken
- sweet potato/black bean tacos (though these take a bit longer than ground beef tacos for the person who said they take 30 minutes to make tacos)
- sausage/broccolini/tomato skillet with crusty bread
- chili
- pesto/mozzarella/tomato sandwiches with side of fruit and chips
- asian lettuce wraps
- beef and broccoli
- turkey zucchini burgers with sweet potato fries from frozen
- chicken with jarred Indian sauce and chopped vegetables
- breakfast burritos for dinner

We are also fast cooks (not worried about perfection) and we will take shortcuts, such as using jarred garlic vs chopping fresh, etc. We really have 20 mins max to cook with to keep our evening routine smooth (youngest goes to bed at 6:30)

Canned black beans, canned corn, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, mayo, sour cream, nacho cheese sauce, and add everything to flour tortillas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My quickest dinners are:
Spaghetti using store-bought sauce.
Breakfast for dinner.
Shrimp and veggie stir fry with rice.
Hot dogs and baked beans, with a simple salad.
Sautéed cabbage and sausages.

Are veggie stir frozen and pre cut mixes?

I buy this bag from Costco. I satuee my shrimp first, remove add some of these veggies along with spinach (I always have fresh spinach in the fridge) and then add the shrimp once vegetables are cooked through. I usually use a jarred sauce like Soyaki Sauce from trader Joe's or a teriyaki.

For me a 20 min meal is about meal assembly with pre-made ingredients like making bowls with precooked chicken, microwaveable rice and veggies. Or quesadillas. Or a salad with leftover chicken. Sometimes it’s just frozen chicken fingers and fries. If I only have 20 min and want to cook protein, it will be a steak or burger.

I always see people mention tacos but tacos are not fast between browning the ground beef, making the sauce, warming shells and chopping/shredding toppings. Thats more of a 30 min meal.

I am trying to use my crockpot more but my teen-young adult kids aren’t crockpot meal fans.

Also cook some stuff ahead. Soup makes great leftovers and is pretty easy. I usually have a pot of soup going on Sunday

stir fry - this recipe is so easy and quick and really good! https://www.skinnytaste.com/ground-beef-and-broccoli-stir-fry/ I do it with either rice or protein pasta as lo mein for my kids

Sheet pan meals - veggies, sausage, throw on a sheet pan

Salmon is very fast

Pasta with shrimp or premade meatballs - I usually buy the protein pasta and will roast broccoli or do salad

Rotisserie chicken and steamed veggies (fresh or frozen)

Quesadilla - can be with refried beans (from a can) and cheese, just cheese or make a pizza quessadilla eith tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese

Scrambled eggs (or sunny side up or omletre) along with biscuits (use Bisquik), while biscuits are cooking (9 minutes), steam veggies and cook eggs

Tacos - saute your meat (ground beef or turkey), add can of diced tomatoes, can of black or red beans, can or frozen corn. Add seasoning, serve in a tortilla, with chips, or over a bed of bagged lettuce (that's me eating the lettuce)

Start a pot of pasta and steam veggies. Thaw frozen shrimp and sautee with garlic and lemon juice, throw in parsley in the end, combine for am easy scampi

Bag of meatballs from Costco, jarred sauce, steam veggies and put up a pot of pasta

Anonymous wrote:My quickest dinners are:
Spaghetti using store-bought sauce.
Breakfast for dinner.
Shrimp and veggie stir fry with rice.
Hot dogs and baked beans, with a simple salad.
Sautéed cabbage and sausages.

Are veggie stir frozen and pre cut mixes?

Meat sauce and pasta, shrimp (I buy it cooked/frozen) with garlic and butter with pasta. Black cod. Chicken breast with steamed broccoli & couscous.

I eat a lot of vegetables raw while the other stuff is cooking. I know that's not for everyone.

My quickest dinners are:
Spaghetti using store-bought sauce.
Breakfast for dinner.
Shrimp and veggie stir fry with rice.
Hot dogs and baked beans, with a simple salad.
Sautéed cabbage and sausages.

Mac and cheese. Salad.

20 minutes leaves very little time for prep and most meat takes more than 20 min to cook — maybe fish or very small steaks

When people say they do 20 minute simple weeknight dinners, can you all give me some ideas? I am not a fast cook and I find that whatever time a recipe says it will take, if usually take me double. I need simple tasty ideas. How do you all get dinner on the table nightly?