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.

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In today’s video:

0:00 Intro
0:25 Take-Out
1:30 Creamy Italian Chicken & Rice
2:43 Corned Beef
8:42 Chili Cheese Dogs
9:55 Korean Beef with Bean Sprouts & Cabbage
13:08 Copycat Red Robin’s Chicken Teriyaki Sandwiches
17:14 Chicken Kebabs with Tomato Feta Salad

My Creamy Italian Chicken & Rice video:
https://bit.ly/3TOzyvg

Slow Cooker Corned Beef
https://bit.ly/3r5QP1s
Note – I didn’t add any veggies this time, as I was making other side dishes.

Small Batch Irish Soda Bread
https://bit.ly/3vpb56u
Note – As I stated in the video, I would check your bread after about 25 minutes.

Colcannon
https://bit.ly/4as8nMp

Sauteed Green Peas
https://bit.ly/3x0Gf4v

Korean Beef with Bean Sprouts & Cabbage
https://bit.ly/3x5E2VI

America’s Test Kitchen – The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook:
https://amzn.to/3TPkLAE

Chicken Kebabs with Tomato Feta Salad
https://bit.ly/4amG7L4
Note – As I stated in the video, I found this recipe in the above America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook. This recipe is only accessible at this link if you have a subscription to their service. I was able to locate what I believe is the same recipe, just published on another site. You can view that here: https://bit.ly/4a5etCt

Herbed Basmati Rice and Pasta Pilaf
https://bit.ly/3TQxuSD
Note – As I stated in the video, I found this recipe in the above America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook. This recipe is only accessible at this link if you have a subscription to their service. I was able to locate a similar recipe, although it’s not exactly the same. You can view that recipe here: https://bit.ly/4a46WE1

Channels mentioned:
alifefromscratch Instagram:
https://bit.ly/3VP92Uj

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Some of my favorite kitchen products:
Kitchen Mama Can Opener https://amzn.to/3cv4udr
Cheese Grater https://amzn.to/30CEasb
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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

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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

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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 so this first day we had driven back to Nashville from Florida and it was a long day of driving had a grocery delivery order as soon as we got home that I had to unload film get put away and so for dinner we just did take out

We wanted to different things so I wanted a burrito so I ordered one from Mo I just got a chicken and rice burrito and then some queso on the side I like to drizzle the queso on my burrito as um I eat it instead of like putting the

Queso in the burrito and then Gary wanted pizza so I ordered him a pizza from a place called boomball they have several different locations in the Nashville area and around the country um I can’t remember the name of this pizza I think it’s no I I started to say it’s

The carnas pizza but it’s not it’s a chicken pizza with like onions and bell peppers but instead of the Chicken Gary gets the steak and then it has a garlic sour cream on the side it’s delicious and we had tons of leftover pizza that we ate on for the next couple days for

Lunch from traveling and um you know eating out quite a bit and then my sinuses started to act up once we got home from all the crazy weather changes and I was just wanting something super comforting so I decided to make creamy Italian chicken and rice if you’ve been

With me for a while you have seen this many many times and you know this is definitely one of our family favorites I will include a video in the description box below showing you how I make this super easy I just take some chicken breast place them in a crock pot add

Some dry Italian dressing mix can of cream of chicken soup some cream cheese I cooked that on low for about 4 hours until the chicken was 165° and nice and tender I like to remove the chicken and dice it up I know a lot of people just

Shred it in the crock pot either way is fine we like to serve it over white rice um I’ve seen a lot of people serve it over pasta whatever way you prefer it is delicious and so so easy just like I said a family favorite now to go with it

This night I had this um steamable tusin broccoli so I just cooked it according to the package instructions and then for the plates just laid down some of the rice the crey Italian chicken and we’ve got that broccoli and this was a delicious yummy dinner the next day was St Patrick’s Day

And both Gary and I do come from Irish heritages so I have tried the past several years of our marriage to make an Irish um you know dinner so start out I’m going to do corn beef I got this on sale a couple weeks ago at Aldi and I

Just placed this into my crock pot covered it with water added a bay leaf as well as the seasoning packet and then I cooked it on low for about 9 hours until it I mean this was just fall apart tender and then I pulled it out of the

Water covered it in foil and let it sit for about 10 or 15 minutes before I sliced it up to go along with dinner I’m going to make some Irish soda bread this is a small batch recipe and it will of course be linked in the description box below

For you so I’ve got my oven preheating to 425° in a bowl I’m going to add in some all-purpose flour sugar salt baking soda and then I’m going to give that a really really good whisk now if you’ve never made homemade bread before this is a good recipe to start with because it’s

Super easy and there’s no yeast in it you don’t have to worry about activating the yeast um you know letting it rise or anything like that so it’s a really good um you know beginner’s bread I think now I’m going to take some cold butter and I

Cubed up the butter and then just taking a fork you can use a pastry cutter if you’ve got it but I don’t have once I just use a fork you just want to combine the butter and the flour together until the butter resembles little small like p-shaped

Sizes next I’m going to add in some buttermilk if you don’t have buttermilk you can do regular milk with a little splash of vinegar or lemon juice as well as an egg yolk I’m going to whisk that until it’s combined really well and then stir that just until it’s combined you

Don’t want to over mix it now you can add either raisins or currants to your soda bread but I wanted um I didn’t want to add those tonight so to a flowed surface you really don’t have to need this at all we are just going to basically sprinkle a little flour on top

And then just need it enough to form a little circle and you want to do it about 4 in I’m horrible with measurement so I just pulled out a ruler real quick and then you’re going to take a um serrated knife and score an X into your

Bread place this onto a grease baking dish this is going to go into the preheated oven now the recipe said to bake this for about 35 to 40 minutes I checked it at 30 minutes and it was super brown and done and honestly a little overdone for my liking so I would

Say maybe start checking this at like 25 minutes or so now that’s it the bread’s done this is what it looked like next up I’m going to try to make Co Canan for the first time I know that this is a traditional Irish dish I don’t know if this recipe is traditional but

It was delicious it will be linked down in the description box below for you so in this Skillet I’ve got some butter and I went with the Cary gold you know we’re doing Irish this is on medium heat I’m going to add some chopped onion and then

Season the onion with a little salt and pepper and cook this for maybe 3 to 5 minutes until the onion is tender next up I’m going to add some green cabbage that I gave a rough chop I kind of shredded it kind of chopped it and then when you’re cooking it’s really

Best to season in layers um you know instead of just dumping a whole bunch of salt or pepper at the end so added a little more salt and pepper to the Cabbage gave that a stir and then you’re going to cook this for another about 7 minutes or so until the cabbage is

Golden brown and tender and then you’re going to remove move that to a separate uh plate or bowl and then we’ll proceed with making the co Cannon so in this bowl I’ve got some more of that Cary gold butter to that I’m going to add some yukong go potatoes I just washed

And peeled them cooked them in a little um salted boiling water until they were tender and then drained them really well I’m going to mash those up and I’m using a hand Masher today but you can use a ricer you can use a hand mixer whatever you prefer I believe the recipe called

For heavy cream I didn’t have any on hand so I’m just using what milk I do keep on hand to that we’re going to add salt and pepper and then some cooked bacon I gave that a chop now I didn’t have well okay I made enough bacon but

Somebody Gary saw the bacon and snacked on a couple pieces so I was a little short so I just made up the difference with some just you know already packaged bacing crumbles once I’ve gotten that added we’re going to add in the cooked cabbage and onions give that a stir give

It one final taste and you know adjust the seasonings to your taste and like I said this was delicious we both really enjoy enjoyed this so while I was researching to come up with this meal plan a lot of things that I read said to make mushy peas but

I didn’t think Gary and even myself would necessarily love that texture so I found a recipe for sauteed peas with shallots and garlic so I decided to make that of course the recipe will be linked down below so in the skillet it’s on medium heat I added in some butter and

Olive oil or I think I used avocado oil it doesn’t really matter then I added in some thinly sliced shall I’m going to season that just with a little bit of salt and pepper and cook that for about 5 to 7 minutes until the uh shallots get

Tender and slightly golden brown at that point I’m going to add in some minced garlic give it a stir and cook it for about a minute now I’m going to add in my frozen peas as well as just a little bit more salt and pepper give that another stir

And then cook this for about 5 to 7 minutes until those peas are heated all the way through and this is what it looked like once it was done all right here are the plates so we ate dinner separately Gary was at a meeting this

Night so first up is my plate I’ve got some of the corn beef the soda bread added a little bit of the Cary gold butter to the soda bread and then we’ve got the peas and the Cole Cannon and then this is Gary’s plate basically the

Same thing except he has a little more and then I added some horseradish mustard to his plate cuz I thought he might like that with the corn beef and this was so good Gary actually really loved the peas which I was kind of surprised at cuz they’re not his

Favorite vegetable he’ll eat them but they’re just not his favorite vegetable that Cole Canon like I said we both really enjoyed the corn beef was so tender and that soda bread with the butter was so good dinner the next night was off a meal plan but I’d seen someone earlier

In the day U make chili cheese dogs on Instagram and it just sounded really good to me so I had some hot dogs some shredded cheese and I just have a mixture of shredded cheeses here just using up what I’ve got on hand a can of hot dog chili you could use your

Favorite chili CH or make homemade of course and then I’ve got some hot dog buns and then for this side I was going to do tater tots but as I was getting out the stuff for the chili cheese dogs I saw this little package of um macaroni

And cheese that you just pop in the microwave and I needed to use that up so what I did was I placed the hot dogs in the air fryer cooked them at 390° for about 5 minutes and then I laid them out on my hot dog buns I prefer when I make

Chili cheese dogs to use one bun but have two hot dogs I’m just don’t love the extra bread um but after I did that I added the hot dog chili and then the shredded cheese and then I popped this into a preheated oven it was set at 375

And I baked them for about 8 to 10 minutes until the Buns started to get a little bit toasted and that um cheese got melted and then I just warmed up the macaroni and cheese according to the package instructions quick and easy but yummy dinner for dinner the next night I tried

A new recipe for Korean beef with bean sprouts and cabbage of course the recipe will be linked down below for you so first up to make the sauce for uh the Korean beef we’re going to combine some ground ginger sesame oil soy sauce and brown sugar I’m just going to mix that

Up in a um like glass measuring cup you can do a bowl and then I’m going to set that to the side in a skillet over about medium heat I am Browning up some ground beef I season this just with a tiny tiny little bit of salt and I’m using a meat Chopper

To break it up now normally I use lean ground beef but this was 8020 and so if you’re using 8020 um you know a fattier ground beef like I am today you’ll want to drain some of the excess oil off once that ground beef was brown all the way

We’re going to add in some garlic give that a stir and cook that for about a minute next I’m going to add in some shredded carrots give that a stir and cook that for another minute or two and while I’m doing that a quick note about this recipe so you can switch

Up any of the vegetables use whatever you like or what you’ve got on hand I am going to add in some chopped or shed semi- chopped semi sharded cabbage this is just the same green cabbage that I used from our Irish night then I’m going

To add a bag of bean sprouts now I don’t think I’ve ever cooked with fresh bean sprouts before um but this was actually really good so I’m going to give that a stir and then cook this for I don’t know maybe like 3 to 5 minutes or so until

The cabbage has wilted and cooked down now back to my note um I this is a super filling dish it made a lot great way to stretch a pound of ground beef um and it wasn’t super like spicy or anything like that so I think it’ be great way to

Introduce um you know Korean or Asian food to your kiddos once that cabbage has wilted we’re going to add in the sauce give that a stir and cook it for about another minute now I will say for us personally we would have liked it to

Be a little more SA y um that’s just a personal preference thing though and it also could be that I didn’t really measure the vegetables um if you saw I just kind of was using what I had on hand um but it was so so good and so to

Serve this up I just cooked up some microwavable rice you could cook your favorite rice or do this over um like cauliflower rice or noodles and then I’ve got some sesame seeds some chopped green onions and yum yum sauce and then I’m going to add some kimchi to Garry’s

Here are the plates so I laid down some of the rice laid some of the beef and cabbage added some sesame seeds and green onions as a garnish like I said I put some of that kimchi on Gary’s plate and then I did just a light drizzle of

The yum yum sauce and again with us serving it over the rice we would have liked a little more sauce but it was still really delicious and Gary had the spiciness from the kimchi but you could add some GOI Jang or some Sriracha like I said this was so good and this was

Super quick to put together y’all this took like maybe 15 or 20 minutes I chopped up like the cabbage and got the vegetables and everything prepped while the ground beef was cooking so it took like no time for dinner the next night I made copycat chicken teriyaki sandwiches from

Red Robin I just kind of did these my way so first up I took a chicken breast that I had sliced in half horizontally I’m going to season the chicken use whatever seasonings you like I’m using some of the Kinder’s Japanese barbecue seasoning I’m going to season both sides

Generously and then I’m going to grill up the chicken now you canook this in the air fryer you can do on top of the stove on the grill in a skillet however you want but I’m just going to set that chicken aside and kind of let it marinate while I make the little

Teriyaki mayonnaise super easy to do it it’s just two ingredients I didn’t use a recipe for this I just eyeballed it adding some mayonnaise and teriyaki sauce I’m using the Kinder Japanese barbecue uh for that sauce I’m going to give that a stir and then give it a

Taste if you feel like you want to let add a little more teriyaki sauce you can do that now for one of the sides I had just a little bit of broccoli on hand that really needed to be used up so I cut it into fettes added it to this bowl

Added some avocado oil some more of that Kinder seasoning gave that a toss I popped the broccoli into the air fryer and cooked it at 390° for about 6 minutes or so until it was tender and golden brown for one of the other sides I’m going to do some sweet potato fries I’ve

Got the Alexia sweet potato fries and this is how I like to make them in the air fryer I just put enough for us in the air fryer I put a little too much so I put that back in the bag and then I like to do just a little Spritz with

Some olive oil or some cooking spray I just feel like it helps the fries I do this with like fries tater tots whatever I make in the air fryer like that um but I just feel like it gets a little bit crispy and it helps the seasoning stick

To it so for the seasoning I’ve mentioned this before I love love love this Kinder brown sugar garlic seasoning on sweet potatoes delicious so I just popped this into the air fryer it was 400° I cooked these for about 9 to 10 minutes or so until they were done to our

Liking I’ve mentioned before on my Channel that I don’t have a lot of cooking gadgets because I have very little counter and kitchen space but I’ve seen this smokeless Grill from qux on Instagram from a life from scratch and she also like tends not to get a lot of gadgets and things like

That and she has talked about how much her and her family love this now this is is not sponsored by the way um I did do a sponsorship with quez and Max a couple years or so ago with a mixer but like I said this is not sponsored at all I

Bought this with my own money um but uh yeah I’m just wanting to give it a try this is my first time using it I’m going to use this to cook up the chicken and the pineapple so I preheated this to 400° added the chicken and then I cooked

It on both sides for about 5 minutes or so um you just want to cook it until the chicken is at least 165° internal temperature and the last minute or two of cooking I did add some of that same um Kinder’s Japanese barbecue sauce that

We used to make that mayo and I brushed it on both sides and then like I said allowed that to cook for a minute or two um now this was my first time using this and I wasn’t really thinking clearly so I didn’t use it um with the lid at first

And then I realized oh wait you know let me use the lid it just kind of helped the chicken to cook faster once the chicken was done I added a slice of Swiss cheese and then allowed the chicken to rest for just a couple minutes and this is what the chicken and

The pineapple look like when it was done so here are the plates to assemble the sandwiches I just toasted up some hamburger buns added some lettuce sliced roma tomato and then the chicken and the grilled pineapple and then some of that um like Teriyaki mayonnaise that we made

We’ve got the broccoli and the sweet potato fries and we like to dip our sweet potato fries and honey mustard and this dinner was so so good and I really liked that Grill so I’m going to you know keep trying it out and keep looking for different ways that I can use

It for the last dinner in this week’s video I tried a couple new recipes the first was for Chicken Kebabs with a tomato feta salad this came from I think it’s an America’s Test Kitchen Mediterranean cookbook um I will show a picture of the cookbook here just in

Case you’re interested I will also do my best to try to find the recipe online for this if I can find it I’ll link it in the description box below for you um but if I can’t find it uh then I’ll just link The cookbook and I apologize I

Won’t be able to put the measurements and everything because I you know it’s copyright I don’t own this recipe um but anyway so like I said if I can find it I’ll link it down below for you we’re going to start out by making like the marinade and salad dressing in this bowl

Here I’m going to add in some olive oil next some lemon zest for followed by lemon juice and a quick note although the recipe is chicken kobs you could totally just use like whole chicken breasts or even chicken thighs and marinate them and then Grill them whole now that I’ve

Added the lemon juice we’re going to add in some minced garlic I’m using this up from the jar but of course you can you know mince your own and then we’re going to add in our seasoning so we’re adding in some dried oregano followed by salt and

Pepper now I’m going to give that a really really good mix and then set that to the side we are going to divide this mixture up so in a small bowl I’m going to get started on the tomato feta salad I’m going to take some cherry tomatoes

Slice them in half and add them to a bowl once I’ve added that I’m going to add in some thinly sliced red onions now we’re not super huge fans of raw onions but I’ve been trying to incorporate them more I have found that we like them

Better if I soak them in ice water so here as you can see thinly sliced them added some cold water a few ice cubes let them sit for about 15 minutes that takes away some of the bite of the raw onion once I have pulled those out of

The ice water and you want to make sure you know you drain as much water off of them as you can we’re going to take half of that olive oil vinegret that we just made just half save the other half and give that a toss now if you’re eating

This right away you can go ahead and add your fed it cheese um but I made made this like an hour in advance and I didn’t want the feta to get you know nasty so I waited right until I was ready to serve to mix in the feta set

This to the side after you’ve mixed it up and of course you want to make sure you taste for salt and pepper and this little salad was yummy we ended up adding a ball salic glaze on it and it was delicious to go along with the kebabs

And tomato feta salad I tried another recipe from The cookbook it is an herbed basmati rice peelo and this was so good I’ve got a little bit of oil I added it to the sauce pan it’s on about medium heat I’m going to add in some pasta I’m

Just using thin spaghetti that’s what I had on hand and I just broke it up into little pieces and I cooked this for about maybe 3 minutes until it got brown now I forgot to film me actually adding the onion but I just um I already had

Out the red or purple onion from making the tomato feta salad so I just diced that up cooked it for maybe another 3 to 4 minutes until it was tender I added in the minced garlic gave that a stir and cooked it for just a

Minute or two and then I’m going to add in my rice this is basmati rice that I rinsed under cold water until the water rain clear I’m going to give that a stir and then cook that for a couple minutes until the rice is toasted now I’m going

To add in some salt to taste give that a stir again and then add in the chicken broth now I have some of this bone broth on hand I want to use it up so I use I finished out the carton that I had and then I use the last measuring cup of

Water so one more stir and then you’re going to bring this to a boil reduce it to a simmer cover it and cook this for about 18 minutes you don’t want to remove the lid cook it for 18 minutes and then set this off to the side and let it sit

Again don’t remove your cover let it sit for 10 minutes and then your rice should be tender and fluffy we’re going to add in some chopped parsley and fluff that up with a fork and then the rice peel off is done and like I said we really

Enjoyed this it was delicious and a quick note I did have the recipe and just like with the Tomato uh feta salad and Chicken Kebabs if I can find this recipe online I’ll link it down below for you um if not I’ll try to find a

Similar recipe not sure if I can you know find exactly it now for the chicken kebab so in this bowl here we have the remaining half of that um olive oil vinegret dressing we made in the beginning to that I’m going to add in my Greek yogurt and give that

A really really good mix now now once I’ve got that mixed in I’m going to take just a little bit of this um you know olive oil vinegret dressing yogurt marinade thingy mybob I’m going to take just a little bit of that and set that off to the side because we’re going to

Brush this over the chicken once it’s done and we don’t want to cross contaminate you know raw chicken with cooked chicken so in this bag here I had prepped earlier in the week this chicken it’s just chicken breast I cut it into chunks I’m going to mix that into the

Yogurt olive oil mixture and then the recipe didn’t say to let this marinate but I did I mixed the chicken up about maybe an hour or so ahead of time you don’t have to do that but I mean obviously with the yogurt and all that

Flavor that’s in there if you can let it marinate a little bit it’s going to be even better now you can Grill these on an outdoor grill you can cook them in the air fryer um however you want I wanted to use the uh same queas max

Grill and so I just cooked these on the grill I’ve let it preheat to 350° and I cooked them for maybe like 7 to 8 minutes per side just make sure you cook it until it’s at least 165° internal temperature and then the last like

Minute or two of cooking I did take that um yogurt olive oil mixture that we had set aside and I brushed that onto the chicken I took the chicken off the grill and let it sit for about 5 minutes before I served it and I forgot to

Mention but I skewered the chicken using some wooden skewers I did soak them before I grilled them now to go along with this I have some of this terafina taziki feta dip and spread this was our first time having it and we really liked it and then I’ve got some of the

Joseph’s pita bread I’m just going to warm that up here are the plates so we’ve got some of the rice the chicken I added some of the chopped parsley that I had from the rice over top of that as a garnish we’ve got that toiki the warmed

Up pea the tomato feta salad y’all this was so good everything had so much flavor it it was just it was delicious it was so good I’m looking forward to trying new recipes out of that cookbook because I’m mean this was just delicious all right that is it for this week’s

Video thank you so much for watching I hope you liked this video and that you got some dinner ideas or new things to try 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 day thanks so much for watching bye-bye