Quick and easy dinners for the hectic holiday season

Between the parties, cookie baking, shopping, candy making, musical events, family gatherings, and gift wrapping, the year-end holidays make for one of the busiest times of the year. It can be exasperating to fit in home-cooked meals when you are scurrying about at breakneck pace. To help keep you sane yet well-fed, we’ve gathered a few resources so you don’t have to search for what to make for dinner.

Epicurious starts us off with five quick dinners that will keep you satisfied. They’ve got comforting chili, breakfast for dinner (always a winner in our house), and a healthy Cracked farro and broccoli salad to balance out the cookie tasting. Indexed blog Food52 takes us in a slightly different direction with the winners of their recent “Easy Weeknight Roasts” contest, which includes Mulligatawny carrots and Coffee-rubbed pork loin. 

Delicious (Aus) Magazine ups the ante with 56 quick, easy, and healthy midweek dinners.  With everything from roast chicken to Valli Little’s Raw pad Thai to spiced coconut eggs, you are bound to find something that is both delicious and a snap to prepare. Not to be outdone, Delicious (UK) Magazine has a collection of easy midweek recipes that all take under 30 minutes to prepare.  You’ll find delights like Fennel and pork pappardelle, Creamy leek and gorgonzola risotto, and sausage, apple and potato one-pan roast. 

Food52 aims to please carbohydrate addicts (myself included) with 15 pastas “you can make with your eyes closed”. The recipes include One-pot garlic Parmesan pasta (a.k.a. the Lazy Cook’s Fettucine Alfredo. Another indexed blog, The Kitchn, gives us 20 timesaving “Miracle Meals” for the frantic holiday rush. Highlights of this list include Easy skillet chicken pot pie, Weeknight General Tso’s tofu (pictured top; perhaps fitting since the creator of General Tso’s chicken died last week), and 10-minute black bean tacos.