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Home » Collections » Quick & Easy Family Dinners

Quick & Easy Family Dinners

Published: Jul 29, 2021 · Modified: Jun 21, 2021 by Dora · This post may contain affiliate links ·

For most of our readers, dinners are the main daily meal when the family comes together and enjoys some together time. It's a time of the day when we get to chat about how our day went, laugh at jokes and spend some quality time together while enjoying a delicious meal.

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Jump to:
  • The Perfect Family Dinner
  • How To Combine Dinner Foods
  • What About Fruit And Veggies?
  • Don't Spend Ages Making Dinner
  • Quick & Easy Family Dinners
  • Vegetarian Family Dinners
  • Final Note
  • More Like This

The Perfect Family Dinner

For most of the moms and dads out there, you want the meal to be nutritious as well as tasty with preferably as little preparation and clean up time as possible. We've got it!

And since it's the main meal of the day for most families, it should also ideally cover all the macro and micronutrients. Simple, right? Well it should be, but sometimes it's easier said than done. But if you follow our recommendations below you'll be a family dinner expert in no time.

How To Combine Dinner Foods

You'd want your dinner to contain all 3 macronutrients - carbohydrates, protein and fats. Let's see how.

Carbohydrates

  • Calorie-dense carbohydrates like wholegrains
    • Whole grain pasta or rice
    • Couscous, quinoa, bulgur, spelt, barley etc
    • Wholegrain bread or crackers

Protein

  • High quality protein food
    • Poultry, lean red meat
    • Fish
    • Tofu
    • Beans or legumes
    • Eggs

Fats

  • High quality "good" fats
    • Nuts and seeds (including nut and seed butters)
    • Vegetable oils like olive oil, sesame seed oil or linseed oil
    • "Oily" fish like salmon

What About Fruit And Veggies?

Yes, fruit and veggies are a big part of your and your child's diet. Although they are 2 different food groups we can group them together when talking about daily meals into one group called "produce".

In order to ensure that your daily produce requirements are fulfilled, my recommendation is to include veggies in main meals such as lunch and dinner and fruit in breakfast and snacks. You can of course choose to include them in any meals you like per your preference. I've just find this combination to be the easiest.

Don't Spend Ages Making Dinner

Even though it might seem that you'll need ages to make a nutritious family dinner, it really doesn't have to be so.

Take this for example: put some salmon with broccoli and olive oil into the oven and while it's baking cook some quinoa in some stock. There you have it. Protein and fats from the salmon, fats from olive oil, carbohydrates from the quinoa and some broccoli to fulfill the veggie requirements. Easy, right?

And salmon and broccoli are very easy to for baby-led weaning also.

And with just a little practice it can and will become that simple to you too. But just to get you started we've compiled a list of quick and easy family dinners that you can turn back to and use anytime you need.

Most of our Family Recipes take 10-15 min to prep and you just pop them in the oven and take them out 30 min later (and in one or two roasting tins so minimal washing up).

And they can all be easily adapted for any member of the family – from weaning baby to adult.

Quick & Easy Family Dinners

Meat and Fish Family Dinners

Easy Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas

easy oven baked chicken fajitas

"Sweetgreen Fish Taco" Bowl for the Whole Family

Sweetgreen fish taco adaptation with salmon and bulgur

Easy Salmon Leek Quiche

Salmon Leek Quiche Featured image

Vegetarian Family Dinners

Vegetarian Crispy Roasted Chickpea Gyros

Vegetarian Crispy Roasted Chickpea Gyros with toddler plate

Mediterranean Sweet Potato Salad with Lemon Mint Vinaigrette

Mediterranean Sweet Potato Salad with Lemon Mint Vinaigrette

Vegetable Frittata

Vegetable Frittata

Mediterranean Summer Salad with Eggplant

Mediterranean summer salad with eggplant

Oven-baked Spanish Tortilla (Spanish Omelette)

Oven Baked Spanish Tortilla in glass dish

Baby and Toddler Dinners

Turkey Eggplant

Turkey Eggplant

Lamb and Cucumber Salad

Lamb Cucumber Salad

Roast Turkey, Sweet Potato and Oven Cooked Peas

Chicken Broccoli Millet

8 month old recipe Chicken Broccoli Millet

Baked Beef

11 month old recipe - Baked Beef

Lamb Carrot Potato

1 year old recipe Potato Carrot Lamb

Salmon Spinach Pasta

Salmon Spinach Pasta 1

Salmon Asparagus Pasta

9 month old recipe salmon asparagus pasta

Potato Leek Cod

10 month old recipe potato leek cod

Salmon Beans Pasta

1 year old recipe Salmon beans pasta

Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

cauliflower mac and cheese

Quinoa Tomato Risotto

Quinoa Tomato Risotto

Broccoli Pea Gnocchi

11 month old recipe broccoli pea gnocchi

Final Note

Family dinners don't need to be complicated or require hours and hours spent in the kitchen to offer your family a perfect meal. All of your family dinner choices are suitable for the whole family – adults, kids, toddlers and babies. It's just a matter of how you serve each food. And the best part is – most of them can be stored for later so simply make a bigger batch and serve the next day also so you don't have to cook every single day.

More Like This

  • 9 Easy Delicious Vegetable Lunches
  • 15 Healthy Toddler Snacks To Take On The Go
  • 6 Healthy Dessert Recipes For Babies And Toddlers
  • 5 Healthy Toddler Snack Ideas
  • 9 Nutrient Dense Baby And Toddler Breakfasts
« Easy Salmon Leek Quiche
Easy Homemade Wholewheat Pizza »

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