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
0:31 Baked Spaghetti
5:20 Poppyseed Chicken Casserole
9:06 BLTs
9:37 Logan’s Take-Out
10:47 Pizza
11:40 Macaroni & Cheese

Baked Spaghetti
https://bit.ly/3IlWtry

Poppyseed Chicken Casserole
Ingredients:
3 cups cooked chicken, diced or shredded
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
salt & pepper to taste
1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
1 TBSP poppy seeds
1/2 stick butter, melted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cooked chicken, sour cream, soup, and seasonings in mixing bowl. Place in greased casserole dish. In separate bowl, mix crackers and melted butter and pour over casserole. Bake 25-30 minutes.

Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients:
8 oz elbow macaroni
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder (optional)
2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP flour
1 – 12 oz can evaporated milk
2 oz cream cheese (optional)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dry mustard powder
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese of choice, divided

Directions:
Bring water to boil. Add salt & chicken bouillon powder. Once a boil has resumed, cook macaroni until done. Drain & set aside.
In saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add flour and while whisking, cook 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in milk. Once thickened, add in cream cheese and seasonings. Turn heat to low. Add 1 cup of cheese & whisk until melted. Taste sauce & adjust seasonings. Add pasta & stir to combine.
Can serve right away or add to greased 8×11 baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until golden & bubbly. Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
https://bit.ly/3V1Rd3L
Note – make this your own! Play around with different types of vinegars or use lemon juice. Add more vinegar if you’d like it more acidic. Add different seasonings, grated Parmesan cheese, honey, Dijon mustard, whatever you like!

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

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 tried a new recipe for baked spaghetti this is from the Cozy cook and of course the recipe will be linked in my description box below for you so I’ve got the oven preheating to 375° while that’s preheating I’m going

To get started on my sauce in this Skillet I’ve got a little bit of olive oil this is on about medium heat I’m going to add in some diced onion redbell pepper and mushrooms here I’ve got about a half a pound of ground turkey you could also

Use ground beef or even Italian sausage I’m going to season that up with some salt and pepper and then I am going to kind of chop the meat up with this meat Chopper and then cook this for maybe 10 minutes or so until the ground meat is

Cooked all the way through now if you’re using sausage or ground beef you may have to drain the fat off here is the pasta that I’m going to use this is the burill Protein Plus thin spaghetti I’m just going to boil it up in salted water according to the package instructions so

Once that ground turkey was cooked all the way through in the veggies super tender I’m going to add in the Ros marinara sauce I really like this marinara sauce it can be a little pricey so I either get it when it goes on BOGO at Publix or I get it from Sam’s Club

You can use whatever pasta sauce you like or you can of course make your own now I’m going to add some salt and pepper and then here I meant to add the minced garlic to the ground turkey but I forgot but that’s totally fine I’m going

To add it now and then I like to doctor up spaghetti sauce anytime I use it so I’m going to add in a little garlic powder and Italian seasoning and then I like to add just a tiny Pinch of Sugar if that defin you don’t add it to your

Spaghetti sauce you’re in your kitchen you do you this Roo sauce doesn’t have any added sugar it’s just the tomatoes and some seasoning so I like to add just a tiny little pinch to that and then I’m going to let this simmer for about 10 minutes after 10 minutes and of course

Give it a taste make sure you’re happy with the seasonings and everything I’m going to add in some cream cheese now the recipe suggested um just soften cream cheese but I had some of this whipped cream cheese so I’m going to add that in and a quick note I forgot to

Mention this I have the recipe two the cream cheese I’m going to add in ricotta you could also use cottage cheese here if you’re not a big fan of ricotta cheese normally I would try it in this recipe because with it mixed into the spaghetti sauce you don’t have that same

Uh like dry texture with ricotta cheese if if that kind of you know turn you off from using it now I’m going to add in some Parmesan cheese I shredded this myself but you could just use the grated kind I’m going to give that a stir the

Stove is off at this point I’m just going to allow that to kind of carry over cook and and allow the cheeses to melt now I’m going to add in my cooked and drained pasta and again I’m using thin spaghetti you could use really any kind I mean this is called baked

Spaghetti but you can use any shape of pasta it doesn’t really matter I’m going to give the noodles a really good toss and then we’re going to get this in the oven so here I think this is an 8 by1 I sprayed it with some cooking spray I’m

Going to add in that spaghetti mixture and then we’re going to add some more cheese on top this is that shredded parmesan cheese and really I’m just adding that because I have it uh this little bit and I need to use it up and then the recipe called for just regular

Shredded mozzarella but I had about a half of container of um fresh sliced mozzarella so I just kind of pulled that apart with my fingers and did like a hand shredded mozzarella cheese this is going to go into the preheated oven remember it was set at 375 and I baked

This for about 20 minutes until it was bubbly and golden brown on Top This is what it looked like and then I allowed it to sit for about 10 minutes and then I added some fresh chopped basil to the top to go along with this spaghetti I’ve got

These New York bakery bread sticks I just find these at Walmart Kroger Publix and I feel like these are pretty similar to the bread sticks at the Olive Garden I mean they’re not as good but if you you know love those bread sticks give these a try cuz they’re pretty darn

Close I just bake them according to the package instructions and then once they are done I like to brush them with just a little bit of butter on top here are the plates so we’ve got some of the baked spaghetti the garlic bread sticks and then I just made some

Side salads both Gary and I really really loved this baked spaghetti I will definitely make this again I and Gary both felt like it tasted very very similar to lasagna except you know you don’t have to do all the layering and it’s not as timec consuming as lasagna

And like I said earlier I know some people don’t love the texture of rotta cheese or even cottage cheese and mixing that along with the pasta sauce you still got that creaminess of the cheese without that texture so this was really good super super budget friendly very

Filling this made a ton we had leftovers for lunch for a couple days and it was even better the subsequent days this was really really good like I said I’ll definitely make this again dinner the next night was not on the meal plan but I bought a rotisserie

Chicken um to use for lunches for us and I had some of it left over that needed to used up so I decided to do poppy sea chicken casserole I’ve shared this before on my channel but wanted to share it again this is a classic southern you

Know casserole dish I know if you’re from the south you’ve probably seen this um but again just wanted to share in case you haven’t so the oven preheating to 350° in this bowl I’m going to add in my cooked chicken like I said I’m using rotisserie chicken that I diced up you

Can of course you know use leftover chicken or boil up your own chicken next I’m going to add in a can of cream of chicken soup and I’m just doing like a regular recipe it does like an 8 by8 or a 9 by9 I would say it serves 3 to four

People um but if if you’re you know needing to feed more than that i’ double up on the recipe next I’m going to add in some sour cream and I have made this before where I’ve used plain nonfat Greek yogurt now we’re making poppy seed chicken so of course we’re going to add

In some poppy seeds if you don’t have these or don’t want to use them you can totally skip it now you can add whatever additional seasonings you want to a lot of times I just keep it simple and do some salt and pepper but I decided to

Add in some garlic powder tonight and then I’m coming in with that pepper now as far as the salt goes I added just a little bit you do want to be mindful of how much salt you’re adding because the sour cream and cream of chicken soup can

Have salt now I’m going to give that a really really good mix until it is very well combined and at that point I’m going to place it into my greased casserole dish and then spread that out into a somewhat even mixture once I’ve got that spread out it is time for in my

Opinion what’s the best part of this casserole and that is The Buttery cracker topping so here I’ve got a sleeve of crackers I think these are Townhouse crackers you can use rits I’m going to crush those up combine B them with some melted butter and then we are going to sprinkle those buttered

Crackers over the top some recipes I’ve also call uh seen cof for you to add some more poppy seeds on top as a little garnish but um you know that’s optional so I’m going to place this into the preheated oven again it was set at 350°

And I baked this for about 25 to 30 minutes until it was bubbly and those crackers were golden brown and I do like to let this sit for about 10 minutes before I serve it up now I believe the last time I made this we decided kind of on a whim to serve

This over some white rice and it was really good we really enjoyed that so I decided to do it again tonight I just cooked up some instant white rice in the microwave according to the package instructions and then for the side I had a little bit of fresh broccoli on hand

That I needed to use up so I cut it into florettes added it to a glass bowl added in a couple tablespoons of water covered it in some plastic wrap microwaved it for about 5 minutes until the broccoli was tender drain the water off of it mix

It with some salt and pepper and some cheese sauce now I didn’t have a ton of broccoli left over so I really more made that for Gary I decided to make myself some butter beans he doesn’t love them necessarily um he’ll eat them but so I decided the butterbeans would be for me

I don’t know why they look this weird brown color on camera but they tasted just fine I just took a can of butter beans and then simmered them with some chicken stock a little bit of brown sugar salt and pepper until the beans were tender about 20 minutes or so and

Then last but not least I did a can of regular whole carinal corn drained with a small like 8 oz can of creamed corn and I just warmed that up with a tiny pad of butter and some salt and pepper on the stove on like medium low heat

Here are the plates so I laid down some of the rice added the poppy sea chicken casserole for Gary’s plate he has the cheesy broccoli and some corn and then for me I’ve got the butter beans and the corn and this was such a yummy comforting dinner like said I love that

Poppy sea chicken casserole it’s super quick and easy to put together and it’s a great way to to use up leftover Chicken dinner the next night was also off a meal plan but I didn’t really feel like cooking and we weren’t super hungry so I just decided to do some quick BLTs just cooked up the bacon I like to put it on a baking sheet pop it into a cold

Oven and then turn the oven up to 400° and cook the bacon for about 20 minutes or so until it’s done to our liking and then drain it on some paper towels so we just had the BLTs along with some tater tots that I cooked up in the air fryer

With ketchup to dip in and that was our dinner this Night the next night was kind of like our eat out night and we weren’t feeling the greatest I mean we’re fine it’s just the weather changes and Spring weather and everything messing with our allergies and sinuses so we didn’t really feel like going anywhere and y’all nothing sounded good except yeast

Rolls to me of all the weird things that’s what sounded good to me and I wanted Texas Roadhouse but we didn’t feel like going and picking it up and they didn’t like do do door Dash or Uber Eats or anything so closest thing was Logan’s Roadhouse we haven’t eaten at

Logan’s in years and years and years um but I got their teriyaki chicken and I didn’t know that it came with rice um so I also got their loaded mashed potatoes on the side I ended up not eating those we saved those for another day um but to

Go along with that I had their side salad and then frary I wasn’t really sure what he would want he was taking a nap when I ordered it and I wasn’t really sure what he wanted so I just got him some buffalo wings so I figured if

He wasn’t necessarily hungry when he got up he could reheat those later and then I got him some fries to go along with that and yeah that was our dinner this night and by the way that teriyaki chicken from Logan’s it was really delicious it was so so

Good dinner the next night was so super easy we just did a frozen pizza I had this Motor City Pizza Company uh pepperoni pizza in the freezer and so I just baked it up according to the package instructions if you’ve never had this this is really good it’s delicious

So once that was out of the oven I let it sit for a few minutes and then sliced it up we topped ours with some grated Parmesan cheese and then some of the Mike’s hot honey if you have not tried hot honey on especially pepperoni pizza

You got to give it a try I know it might sound weird um but it is so so good it adds a little sweetness and a little spice it is delicious Gary wasn’t super hungry this night and I was pretty hungry so in addition to the pizza I

Also made myself a side salad and that was our dinner this night for the last dinner in this week’s video I had some cheese that I’d bought at Aldi that really needed to used up so I decided to make like a kind of gourmet macaroni and cheese to start out though

I’m going to make a homemade balsamic vinegret dressing to go with the macaroni and cheese I wanted to do a really light salad so in this little measuring glass I’m going to pour out some balsamic vinegar you could use whatever kind of balsamic vinegar you want um there is an olive oil store

Store here in Nashville they have a few different locations and they do all kinds of flavored olive oils and vinegars I mentioned them before on my channel I’m not sponsored by the way they have no clue who I am um but I got this little sample kit there and so I

Decided to do the Peach um bomic vinegar and then the basil olive oil so I’m going to add that to a little mason jar and I didn’t have quite enough of the basil olive oil so I’ve topped it off with just some regular olive oil once I’ve got that measured out I’m

Going to pour it into like I mentioned a mason jar Mason jars are really great for vinegrets because you can give them a really really good Shake as you’re mixing it up and then you know whenever you go to serve it you can give it another quick shake so I’m going to add

In some minced garlic and then Dion mustard and then I’m going to season to taste with some freshly cracked black pepper and some salt now I will put the recipe that I kind of loosely followed in the description box below for you now here is another thing I love these

Little plastic mason jar lids I get them on Amazon I’ll try to remember to put the link down below it will be an affiliate link but you can totally just Google like plastic mason jar lids I love having them on hand so again just give it a really really good Shake make

Sure you taste your vinegar though and adjust it to your taste if you want it more acidic add more of your vinegar you know you can add lemon you can add more Deon different spices just make sure you get it to where you like it and then I’m

Going to just pop that into the fridge until we’re ready for it for dinner now I’m going to get started on grating the cheese so I’ve got this block of gouda and again I got this at Aldi I just like to cut it in half to make it fit in The

Grater easier and I love this grater I I think this is the second one I’ve bought and I just love it it does cheese vegetables all kinds of things and it goes in the dishwasher so it’s super easy now I’m going to do the other cheese I got this is cheddar guier again

Got this at Aldi again cutting that in half to make it easier to go into the shredder and then look in like no time at all I’ve got the cheese grated now does look a little more awkward and messy than normal but it was backwards

To me and I couldn’t see what I was doing so once I’ve got that cheese grated up it is time to make our macaroni and cheese in this pot and this is the same pot I boiled my noodles up in so it’s clean it just I wiped it out

I melted up some butter I’m going to add in the flour and give that a really good whisk and once I’ve given that a good whisk I’m going to cook the flour for a couple minutes and you want to make sure you give that flour a minute or two to cook

So that that raw flour taste comes out next I’m going to add in a can of evaporated milk you could use whole milk you could use heavy cream half and half whatever you prefer but the evaporated milk is really good and you know you can

Keep this on hand in the pantry so I’m going to gradually add in that milk and whisk it constantly and as it is heating up I’m going to add in my seasonings use whatever seasonings you like I like to add some dry mustard powder garlic powder and smoked paprika along with

Some freshly cracked black peppernut I like to hold off on adding any salt until I get my cheeses in there because your cheeses um you know can have differing ranges of saltiness so I’m going to give that a whisk and again this has simmered for just a few minutes

And then it becomes thick as you can see here I can wipe the spoon and it holds just fine now this is totally optional but I like to add in just maybe a tablespoon or two of cream cheese it just makes it more creamy gives it more

Luxurious texture now I’m going to add in some of the sharded cheese that we um sharded up just a minute ago and then I had actually found some grated or shredded parmesan cheese in my fridge that needed to be used up so I’m going

To add that in as well now this was a little thick for my liking so I’m going to add in a little more milk and once the cheeses are melted that is you know pretty much our cheese sauce is done now I decided on a whim to add in

Some bacon so this is just some of the like cormel pre-cooked bacon a couple slices I popped in in the microwave and then chopped it up at this point give your sauce a taste adjust the seasonings to your taste if you’re happy with it it

Is time to add in our pasta I’ve just got some elbow macaroni noodles I cooked this up in some salted water according to the package instructions and drained it and then give that a stir and this is what it looked like so creamy and dreamy

This is totally fine to serve just as it is and you have a yummy stove top macaroni and cheese but I’m going to turn it into a baked macaroni and cheese and because we’re doing it a little Fancy with the Gudda and the Irish or

The cheddar year I’m going to do like a panko topping so in this little Bowl here I’m going to add in some panko breadcrumbs season it up however you want I’m going to add in a little seasoned salt and then you could add some melted butter I’m going to add a

Little bit of avocado oil and give that a really good stir now you could add some Parmesan cheese or cooked and crumbled bacon to the breadcrumbs but I added it into the macaroni and cheese so I’m just going to leave this as is now to a greased

Casserole dish I’m going to lay down about half the macaroni and cheese I’m going to sprinkle on some of that same shredded cheese we used in the mac and cheese I’m going to add the remaining macaroni and cheese followed by another layer of the shredded cheese and then

Last but not least we’re going to add the panko breadcrumbs on top now like I mentioned earlier you can totally skip this step all together and just do the stove top uh but if you are baking it everything’s already cooked so really you’re just getting everything kind of

Warmed through in bubbly golden brown I baked this in a preheated 350° oven for about 20 25 minutes or so and then I did decide to to uh broil it for just a minute or two to get the breadcrumbs a little extra golden brown just if you do

Broil it make sure you watch it like a hawk and then I allowed it to sit for about 10 minutes while uh it rested and while I made the side salad which here is what I decided to do for the side salad in this bowl I’m going to add in

Some spinach and then spring mix and I like to just kind of use my hands as I’m putting it into the bowl so I can pull out any of the Little yucky you know Brown pieces of lettuce next we’re going to add some dried cranberries and honey roasted pecans and

Then I’m going to add some apple and I just decided to give this a rough dice once I’ve added the Apple it is time to add in that vinegret we made earlier so I’m just giving it another good Shake I’m going to drizzle that on and I

Really wanted to add some feta but I kind of went back and forth because there was a ton of cheese in the macaroni and cheese but I did decide to add just a little bit um because you know we’ve got the sweet apples The Cranberries the nuts and then that kind

Of slightly sweeter vinegarette so I did add a little feta to kind of balance that out just gave it a really good toss and then here is my plate Gary ate later than I did cuz he was at the gym U but he had the same thing that I did I just

Did a small portion of that macaroni and cheese it is so decadent and creamy and just luxurious and heavy that you really don’t need a big portion at all we had tons of leftovers for days and so this salad you know with the freshness and the sweetness it really balanced that

Macaroni and cheese out really well this was a delicious dinner great way to use some things up all right that is it for this week video thank you so much for watching I hope you liked this video I hope you got some dinner ideas from it

If you did like it 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 week thanks so much for watching bye-bye