8 No-Brainer Dinners For Busy Nights

For those nights when you have to hit the kitchen running, it’s handy to have a few stress-free recipes in your back pocket. From Chicken Tacos to Turkey, Spinach & Cheese Meatballs, all of these recipes are easy to fix and guaranteed to please.

1. Chicken Tacos

My kids love these chicken tacos. They’re a healthier spin on traditional beef tacos — and they’re just as good, if not better. GET THE RECIPE

2. Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli

This delicious pasta dish, adapted from Lidia’s Italian Table by Lidia Bastianich, is not only quick and easy to make — 25 minutes tops — the whole family eats it up, broccoli and all. GET THE RECIPE

3. New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp

New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp as actually very little to do with barbecue; the dish refers to sautéed shrimp in a Worcestershire-spike butter sauce. If you keep shrimp in your freezer, it’s one of those dishes you can throw together at a moment’s notice. GET THE RECIPE

4. Broiled Spicy Chicken Thighs with Sweet & Tangy Honey Glaze

Inspired by one of the most popular Cooking Light chicken recipes, boneless chicken thighs are flavored with garlic, chili powder, cumin and smoked paprika and then quickly broiled with a sweet and tangy honey glaze. It’s a family-friendly dish that’s incredibly easy to prepare. GET THE RECIPE

5. Blackened Tilapia

In this easy fish recipe, mild tilapia fillets are dusted with a bold Cajun spice rub, and then sautéed in olive oil until crisp on the exterior and flaky within. GET THE RECIPE

6. Parmesan Crusted Chicken

This is a great chicken dish to add to your repertoire. It’s easy enough for a quick weeknight dinner but also elegant enough for company. Even kids love it — partly because it bears some resemblance to chicken fingers. GET THE RECIPE

7. Turkey, Spinach & Cheese Meatballs

There’s always excitement when meatballs are on the menu. To make life easy, these are cooked under the broiler rather than in a frying pan. That means no stovetop splatters, and you can get the rest of dinner ready while the meatballs cook. GET THE RECIPE

8. Banana Pancakes

You can never go wrong with breakfast for dinner. Fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside — these are phenomenal banana pancakes. The recipe, believe it or not, is adapted from a children’s cookbook, which only proves how easy they are to make. GET THE RECIPE