WHAT’S FOR DINNER? | EASY & BUDGET FRIENDLY | REALISTIC WEEKNIGHT MEALS | DINNER INSPIRATION

In today’s What’s for Dinner video, I’ll be sharing some dinner ideas that I know your family will love. These realistic weeknight meals are easy and budget friendly. I hope this gives you some dinner inspiration. Enjoy!

Please like this video and subscribe to my channel for more What’s for Dinner videos, grocery hauls, and more.

***********************************************************

In today’s video:

0:00 Intro
0:32 Salmon Sliders
2:30 Fettuccini Alfredo
6:02 Sloppy Joes
9:15 Greek Chicken Thighs
14:45 Biscuits & Gravy
15:52 Y.O.Y.O
17:20 Hibachi

Salmon Sliders
https://bit.ly/3PxuKG9

Fettuccini Alfredo
https://bit.ly/3q7RQHd
Note – I start out by adding half the amount of cheese the recipe calls for and adding more if I feel like it needs it.

Sloppy Joes
https://bit.ly/3OzIPS1

Greek Lemon Chicken
https://bit.ly/3uKld9G

Greek Potatoes
https://bit.ly/3Xtj7mK
Note – I used store bought tzatziki sauce instead of making the yogurt sauce in the recipe.

Hummus Vinaigrette
https://bit.ly/42UrA6L

Gravy
https://bit.ly/48z8ODc
Note – As I mentioned in the video, I do not follow a recipe to make gravy. However, this is similar to what I do and has measurements in case those are helpful to you.

Channels Mentioned (Instagram):
@kimmyskreations1
@Ashlovescondiments

***********************************************************

You can view Auntie Nono’s seasonings using my affiliate link here: https://glnk.io/v473/maegenskitchen. You can also use my discount code MAEGENSKITCHEN15 for 15% off your order!

Some of my favorite kitchen products:
Kitchen Mama Can Opener https://amzn.to/3cv4udr
Cheese Grater https://amzn.to/30CEasb
Food Storage Containers https://amzn.to/3vlRbof
Secura Air Fryer https://amzn.to/3bIRTnL
Food Scale https://amzn.to/2NdDUNh
Reusable Food Storage Bags https://amzn.to/2Q0C0Az
Cuisinart Griddler https://amzn.to/2RvmeyF

***********************************************************

My What’s for Dinner Playlist: https://bit.ly/35d24NP

My Grocery Haul Playlist: https://bit.ly/32s6DlP

How I make our homemade dog food: https://bit.ly/3gxHAW4

Follow me on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/maegenskitchen/

Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maegenskitchen/

For collaborations or business inquiries, please email me at maegenskitchen@gmail.com

Get $10 off your first Wal-Mart grocery pick-up order of $50 or more http://r.wmt.co/v/maegen_20

Get $10 on Ibotta https://bit.ly/38vTAn1

**********************************************************

Edited using iMovie, Music from cchound

Disclosure: This video is not sponsored. All thoughts and opinions are strictly my own. The description box may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you purchase through that link.

#whatsfordinner #budgetfriendlymeals #easydinnerideas #dinnerideas #easydinnerrecipes #recipes #cookwithme #meals #cookingfortwo #familyfriendly #weeknightmeals #dinner #easydinnerideas #easyrecipe #quickrecipe #delicious #easyweeknightmeals

Hi I’m Megan and welcome to my kitchen in today’s what’s for dinner video I’ll be sharing with you what meals we had this past week our dinners were easy to make budget friendly and delicious so if you’re looking for some week night meal ideas for your family just keep

Watching for dinner this first night I made salmon sliders now I’ve shared this before my channel but it’s been several months months ago but I’ll quickly walk you through how I made them tonight I saw this on Instagram the lady’s name is Kimmy Creations I’ll have it link down

In the description box below for you here’s what I’m going to use for the sliders I have some slider buns these are the pepp farm sweet Hawaiian ones I have some salmon of course and then I’ve got some lettuce and tomato and then for the seasoning on the salmon you can use

Whatever you like I’m going to use this Kinder brown sugar garlic and then some of the anti no no seafood seasoning so all I did was season both sides of the salmon and then I cooked it on about medium high heat um I did cut the salmon

Into sizes that you know would fit on a slider bun and I just cooked them until the salmon was done to our liking and then I’m going to set those aside and I also quickly toasted up the Buns the sauce for the sliders is super easy it’s just two ingredients

Mayonnaise and sweet chili sauce you just combine the two together and I like to pop it into the refrigerator while I’m cooking up the sliders I’m going to keep the sides super simple tonight I’ve got these crispy green beans from birdy if you’ve ever had the like crispy green bean

Fries from TGI Fridays these taste exactly like that they’re so good I like to cook them in the air fryer and then I have this sweet kale chopped salad kit so I just mixed up the kale um salad kit and then the green bean fries like I

Said I like to cook them in the air fryer I cooked them at 400° for I think maybe like 10 minutes I shook them halfway through you just want to make sure they’re warm all the way through and golden brown and crispy here are the plates we’ve got the salad the green

Bean fries and then for the sliders all I did was place a piece of the salmon on the bottom bun add some lettuce sliced tomato and some of that sweet chili mayonnaise and this was a yummy and super quick and easy dinner for dinner the next night I had a

New recipe on the meal plan that I wanted to try which was a pasta carbonara with scal but when it came time to make it um I don’t know if this will make sense or not but I’ve never made a a carbonara before and I know it

Can be kind of finicky I’ve heard you know people say if you don’t do it right you can scramble the eggs and everything and it just when it came time to make dinner I just didn’t feel like taking the risk if that made sense so I decided

To just make some um alfredo sauce instead I had everything on hand I’ve said this before um if you’ve been with me for a while you’ve heard me say this if you’ve never met made your own uh homemade Alfredo sauce you got to give

It a try it is so easy and it is so much better than the jar and I’m not above using the jar I’ll use the jar but homemade is so so good so I’ll leave a recipe in the description box below for you let me walk you through how to do

This so first up I had this package of Panetta that i’ had gotten on markdown at Kroger I thought it so I’m going to place it in the skillet and I cooked it on about medium low medium heat until the pinetta was crispy you could also use bacon for this

Um but if you don’t want to use any bacon or Panetta at all you can just melt some butter in the skillet once your butter has melted or in this case you know The Panetta is crispy we’re going to add in some minced garlic give

That a stir and cook that for about 30 seconds next we’re going to add in the heavy whipping cream now I was just a little shy on the heavy whipping cream so I used some of this plant-based cream um and it was just like maybe two tablespoons of the plant-based cream but

I’m going give that a stir and then simmer that for about five minutes until the mixture thickens up I’m adding in some grated Parmesan cheese and then I like quite a bit of black pepper in my alfredo sauce I tasted it at this point and didn’t feel like it needed any salt

At all between the cheese and The Panetta so now I’m going to add in my vegetables I’ve got some asparagus I just chopped it into bite-sized pieces I’m going to add that and then some frozen peas give that a stir and now it’s time to add in the pasta I’ve just

Got some fetuccini that I cooked in some salted water I did reserve some of the um water from the pasta and that’s what I’m adding in this Krabby Patty cup and then once I’ve given that a really good stir the Alfredo is done this is what it looked like when it was all

Ready now you could totally eat it just like that you could add in some grilled chicken or shrimp I have some scallops from um my freezer that I needed to use up so I salt and peppered the first side of the scallops I’ve got this Skillet on

High heat with a little bit of oil in it once the skillet and oil were hot I’m going to add the scallops and then season the um top side with salt and pepper scallops don’t take very long at all to cook you just cook them for maybe

A minute or two on each side and then I’m going to remove them to a plate and this is what they look like once they were done and these were so good they were like butter now to go along with this I wanted some garlic bread but I

Had a couple of those uh sweet Hawaiian slider buns left over and so I just decided to make some garlic bread out of that just took some melted butter added some garlic powder parsley brushed it on the um slider buns and then baked it in the oven until they were toasted and

Here is a picture of my plate I have some of the pasta the scallops and the garlic bread Gary ate after he got home from the gym so he had the same thing I did just a little bit more and this was so good the next day I got a hankerin for Sloppy

Joe’s and I was out running errands at Target and so I picked up some of this ground beef it was on sale so that I could make the Sloppy Joe’s now I’m following the Pioneer Woman’s recipe I did have the recipe it of course will be linked below I’ve got this ground beef

I’m going to add some salt and pepper and then um using the meat Chopper I’m going to chop it up and just cook it um until it is brown along with some vegetables so in this I’ve got some diced onions and bell peppers so I’m

Going to add that to the ground beef and then take my little spoon mix it up and then like I said just cook it until the meat is brown now if you are using a ground beef with more fat content you will want to drain the fat off of it but

This was pretty lean so once it’s brown I’m going to add in the minced garlic give that a stir and then the Pioneer Woman’s recipe says that tomato paste is optional but I like to add uh add it you know if I have it on hand which I

Normally have these tubes on hand so I added the tomato paste gave it a stir and cooked it for a couple minutes and then we’re going to add the remaining ingredients which is some ketchup followed by some water and then the recipe um from The Pioneer Woman

Says that you can use hot sauce but I never add hot sauce I mean you could if you wanted to once I’ve added the water I’m going to give that a stir and then we’re going to add in the seasoning so we’re going to add in chili powder dry mustard salt and

Pepper now you could also add in garlic powder onion powder crushed red pepper flakes if you want to give it a little spice um but I actually like her recipe as is I think it’s delicious now we’re going to add in some Worster sauce followed by brown sugar and you

Can totally do the brown sugar to taste um you could also use a brown sugar substitute if you wanted I’m going to give that a really good mix and then that’s pretty much it you’re just going to simmer this for about 10 to 15 minutes or so this is what it looked

Like when it was done as you can see it thickens up and of course as always give it a taste and adjust the seasonings to your taste now I have these Brio buns I picked these up at Target honestly I just grabbed these because this was the

Only four pack of buns that I could find so I’m going to toast those up in the air fryer I am going to do some tater tots on the side so here I’ve got some frozen tater tots and I’m just going to season them with some of the Steak and

Shake seasoning I like to spray my tater tots with a little bit of cooking spray and then add the seasoning on I feel like when the tater tots or french fries are Frozen a lot of times I feel like the seasoning doesn’t stick to them so I

Like to give them a little spray with that cooking spray I feel like the seasoning sticks to them and it also kind of helps them crisp up in the air fryer but I just cooked these in the air fryer again at 400 for about maybe 12 minutes or so until they’re golden

Brown all right here is the picture of my plate Gary ate after I did um he had a meeting this evening I forgot to get a picture of his plate but it was literally the exact same thing except he likes cheese on his sloppy Jo so I just

Took the Toasted Bun added some of the sloppy joe mixture and then we’ve got the tater tots and the ketchup so so good and best thing we had leftovers which I had for lunch the next day and they were even better the next day for dinner the next night I tried a

New recipe for Greek chicken thighs check the description box below for the recipe here is what I’m going to use for the marinade for the chicken I’ve got salt and pepper dried oregano dried thyme Deon mustard all of oil some lemon and then minced garlic and I’m sorry I’ve got two things of

Pepper here but I only used one and then I have a package of chicken thighs really you could use um chicken breast you could do drumsticks whatever you prefer but all I’m going to do is mix up the marinade and add that along with the chicken thighs to a Ziploc bag you can

Marinate this for as little as 30 minutes or a couple hours I think I did about 3 hours once uh the chicken is marinated you are going to place the chicken breast and the marinade into a baking dish and bake this at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes flip your chicken

Over cook it for another 25 minutes or so until the chicken is at least 165 175° internal temperature I did boil the chicken for maybe 3 or 4 minutes to get that skin nice and golden brown on top and then I took the um like leftover marinade that was in the dish and

Brushed it on top of the chicken now while the chicken is cooking for one of the sides I decided to do a salad and I wanted to try a recipe for a hummus vinegret that I saw on Instagram the lady’s name I believe is Ash loves condiments so to this little this is

Like a personal size blender like for smoothies and stuff like that but I find it’s perfect for dressings I’m going to add in some olive oil followed by balsamic vinegar next I’m adding some salt and pepper fresh lemon juice next some garlic I didn’t have any

Fresh but I have the um Jarred garlic so I’m going to use that now we’re going to add in the Deon mustard gred parmesan cheese and I had some left over from making the homemade Alfredo sauce I’d grated this myself but I mean really you could just use the

Stuff in the jar now I’m going to add in some Italian seasoning and last but not least we of course need some hummus for our hummus vinegret you can use whatever brand whatever flavor you want I decided to stick with just the traditional flavor and um the Bor head was on salot

Kroger this week so that’s the brand that I got so once I’ve got all of that added I’m just going to whiz this up a little bit until it is smooth this is what it looked like when it was done you can thin this out with some water if you

Need to and then give it a taste adjust the seasonings to your taste you can add more lemon juice more salt whatever you feel like it needs for the other side I’m going to do some roasted Greek potatoes I made these once before and they were so good I couldn’t wait to

Make them again here I’ve got some red potatoes I washed them really well I’m going to cut them them in half and then I cut each half into uh wedge shapes I’m going to add those to a bowl once I’ve got all of my potatoes cut up and I just

Kind of loosely follow the recipe of course it’ll be linked in the description box below but I just kind of eyeballed all of the spices and you know the amounts of everything so to those sliced up potatoes we’re going to add some olive oil followed by some um dried

Rosemary and I just use what was left of this little jar next I’m going to add in some garlic powder paprika and a quick note I believe the first time I made these I used rusted potatoes and they turn out delicious so if you’ve got ret on hand you can

Totally use those next I’m going to use some dried oregano and finally some freshly cracked black pepper and kosher salt once I’ve added the seasonings I’m going to give that a really good mix with a spoon and then so the recipe for the potatoes said

To cook these at450 but but my oven was at like 350 or 375 for the chicken and so I decided to cook these in the air fryer I did 400° for about 15 minutes um gave the basket a shake and I cooked them for another 15 minutes or so until

They were tender and golden brown here’s what they look like when they were done and the recipe says at this point toss in some fresh lemon zest and give them a stir and the first time I made these almost didn’t add the lemon zest cuz it’s like I don’t know that kind of

Sounds weird but don’t skip the lemon zest it is so so good here is a picture of my plate Gary ate after he got home from the gym uh which was basically the same thing as I had it’s just of course he had a little bit more so we’ve got the chicken those

Potato wedges and then I had some of the Bor head taziki that I served for dipping with the potato wedges and then for the salads I just took some lettuce tomato cucumbers some feta cheese on Gary salad I added some olives and then croutons and that humus vinegret and

Y’all this was delicious that marinade on the chicken it was so simple but that chicken had so much flavor and because we used the thighs they were juicy and oh my gosh the chicken was delicious and the potatoes and the taziki is delicious the salad was really good um I loved the

Dressing to me the vinegret tasted very similar to a caesar dressing just with a little bit of that hummus taste um but of course you know you can make that your own by using different flavors of hummus or different um flavors of vinegar but this was such a delicious

Dinner it was light it was refreshing so so good for dinner the next night I really didn’t feel like cooking anything so I decided to do something simple and biscuits and gravy just sounded really good to me luckily I had everything on hand so I had this small can of

Refrigerated biscuit it’s perfect for just the two of us so I’m going to cook those up according to the package instructions and then I didn’t have any like fresh breakfast sausage but I did have these frozen turkey sausage patties so I cooked the turkey sausage patties

Up in a skillet according to the package instructions once they were done I removed them and then just gave them a quick chop to that same Skillet I am going to add in some fat now because I used turkey and Frozen sausage on top of

That I didn’t have any fat to use so I’m going to add in some bacon grease but you could use oil butter shortening whatever kind of fat you want once that bacon grease was melted and the um heat was on like about medium medium high

Heat I added the sausage back in and let that cook for just a minute and then we’re going to add in the flour now I’ve made gravy so many times I just eyeball it um but I will try to I’ll link I think the Pioneer Woman’s recipe I’ll

Link that down in the description box flow for you in case you need measurements to follow I let that flour cook for a couple minutes and then I’m going to slowly add in my milk I just added in little bit by little bit it’s better to

Do it that way one to avoid lumps but too that way you don’t add way too much milk that then you’ve got a super super thin gravy now I like quite a bit of black pepper in my gravy so I’m going to add that and then some salt give that a

Whisk and then I’m going to bring this to a simmer and then simmer this for a couple minutes and it will get thick and this is what it look like now gravy as it sits it will thicken up a little bit um so if you’re like making this ahead

You know like while you’re making other things you may want to add in a splash milk before you serve it up but this is what that gravy looked like and then like I said I just bake those biscuits according to the package instructions and Gary asked me if I would mind making

Him a couple fried eggs so I just made those with the yolks runny um here are the plates so I just split the biscuits added that gravy Gary’s got the two eggs super super simple dinner but yummy for dinner the next night we did a

Yo-yo night or you’re on your own so I just had some leftover Sloppy Joe’s and then I cooked up some tater choc I did it the exact same way that I showed you previously and then for Gary I apologize I forgot to get a picture of his plate

But um he had eaten or ordered Papa John’s earlier that week for I think it was lunch one day and so he just had some leftover pizza it was their Philly Che steak pizza and that was his dinner for the last dinner in this week’s video we did a little date night

We went out for Habachi we started out of course with the soup and the salad and then for our Entre I got the steak and shrimp Gary got the steak and steak and steak chicken and shrimp and uh you know of course we had the fried rice the

Vegetables and the yum yum sauce it was delicious it was so good but their portions are so big I mean I’m not complaining it’s you pay enough for the portions but I ate almost half U maybe a little less than half of what you see here and then um had the leftovers took

Them home and Gary had them that next day for lunch all right that is it for this week’s video thank you so much for watching I hope you liked this video got some dinner ideas from it if you did like the video hit the Thumbs Up Button

Below and subscribe to my channel if you’re not already and I hope you have a great rest of the day thanks so much for watching bye-bye