How to Make Weeknight Dinners Simple and Special at the Same time

How to Make Weeknight Dinners Simple and Special at the Same Time

this post is sponsored by Bed Bath & Beyond – all opinions are my own

Who else get’s tired, bored and frustrated by weeknight dinners? It never feels like there’s enough time and after work, I’m constantly struggling with how to decide what I want to eat. I also don’t have the patience to always be planning, shopping and cooking new recipes. So yeah, let’s just say pizza gets ordered more than I care to admit.

The reality is that different seasons of life mean sometimes you’re killing it in the kitchen and sometimes you’ve got your pizza place on speed dial. However, lately, my fiancé Chris and I have been making more of an effort to care and enjoy dinners together rather than just always go for takeout.

I found that key to making weeknight dinners less of a drag was to:

1. Create simple recipe-less meal ideas that you can easily mix up and repeat
2. Find ways to make weeknight dinners feel special by upgrading or enjoying good serve & cook-wares

Find Go-To Recipe-less Meals that Make Cooking Simple

Since living together, Chris and I have slowly cobbled together a handful of go-to recipe-less meal ideas that we can always count on. This winter we stumbled across a new gem that’s now a favorite meal at least once a week (if not more).

I’m talking about quesadillas. I know. Before this winter, when I thought about quesadilla’s I thought about ordering cheese quesadillas off the Friendly’s kid menu. However, nowadays Chris and I love using quesadillas as a creative delicious, and most importantly, easy vehicle for tons of different veggie combinations.

Dress Up Your Dinner to Make it Feel Special

If you’ve been feeling in a weeknight dinner rut, in addition to finding simple go-to dinners, something else that’s helped me is making a simple meal a little extra special by having fun with setting the table and how I serve things up. It’s my same philosophy on getting dressed in the morning. As someone who works at home most of the time, it’s so easy to wear PJ’s or leggings 24/7. I’m not knocking that once in a while, but after days of going from day leggings tonight leggings, it’s easy to get in a rut. It’s remarkable how just putting some effort into a cute outfit can totally change the trajectory of your day.

I believe the same goes for setting the table. Not that you have to have a dinner party style setup every night, but putting an extra five minutes of effort into your table, throwing on a garnish on your meal, having a little appetizer can make weeknights feel really special again. I’m such a believer that having a joyful life isn’t about chasing the big highs all the time. It’s so much about appreciating little moments. Even if you’re single or living alone you can still have fun with how you dress up your dinner. Making the most of every day can make time feel so much richer. Rather than looking back at a week that went by in a whirlwind, you can smile at the Wednesday night that you went to the little extra effort to create a special ambiance with your meal.

The Key to Rocking Simple and Special

Right now I’m loving the Artisanal Kitchen Supply brand from Bed Bath and Beyond. All the pieces are really classic, modern and stylish. I’m kind of obsessed with our new marble cheeseboard, mugs, marble lazy susan and most importantly our new cast iron aka the quesadilla creator. If you haven’t got yourself anything new for your kitchen lately, it might be the perfect way to treat yourself and get inspired. I also have my eyes on this amazing White Marble and Natural Agate Paddle Board but I’m pretty sure we have zero space for it in our little cottage right now.

I wanted to share this post today for two main reasons. First of all to encourage anyone who’s feeling uninspired in the kitchen that it’s totally ok to have simple meals that you repeat a lot and also to give a little inspiration to have fun with weeknight dinners. This is something I’m very much still working on but this collaboration has been a great reminder.

Our Favorite Weeknight Recipe-less Meal

While today I’m sharing favorite quesadilla combos, you can take this concept of the veggie vehicle and apply it to tons of things. Maybe you’re more of a pasta or pizza person, that’s great. Once you have a couple “veggie vehicles” in mind you can mix and match your favorite veggies that are either in season or that you’re craving and mix ‘em together. Then serve up your simple meal in a really fun way using serve-ware from Bed Bath & Beyond’s new Artisanal Kitchen Supply

Our Go-to Quesadilla Combos:

The Classic

• Pico de Gallo + Cheese + Cilantro +

The Veggie

• Mushroom + Zucchini + Onion + Cheddar

The Caprese

• Pesto + Tomatoes + Mozerella

The Breakfast

• Egg + Swiss Cheese + Salsa + Beans

So there you have it. Whether it’s finding a fun simple recipe to mix and match or serve up your dinner in simple, special dishes (or both) you can take the “meh” out of weeknight dinners.

thank you to Bed Bath & Beyond for sponsoring this post – all opinions are my own

Your Turn:

• What are your favorite simple recipe-less meals?

The post How to Make Weeknight Dinners Simple and Special at the Same time appeared first on In it for the Long Run.

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