Back-to-School Dinner Ideas: Quick, Affordable Meals the Whole Family Will Love
The first few weeks of school can feel like a crash course in scheduling. Between homework, extracurriculars, and trying to get everyone to bed at a reasonable hour, dinner can quickly become one more assignment on your already too-long to-do list.
Luckily, weeknight meals don't have to be complicated to hit the spot. From make-your-own meals to dinners you can pull straight from the freezer, here are a few back-to-school dinner ideas you can use to feed your crew without spending all evening in the kitchen.
1. Make It Their Way With a Taco or Burrito Bowl Night
Few things manage to keep both the picky five-year-old and the suddenly opinionated teenager happy, but a build-your-own taco or burrito night comes close. Plus, it makes things a heck of a lot easier on you, since this idea gives everyone the same easy-to-prepare ingredients while leaving plenty of room to customize.
To start, all you need to make are the basics (i.e, rice, beans, chicken or ground beef) at the beginning of the week. Couple that with a few family favorites from the store, like tortillas, cheese, pico de gallo, and guacamole, and you're ready to go! Set everything out and let each person build a taco, bowl, or even a salad their way.
That's three separate meals in one!
Short on prep time?
Burrachos' freshly made tacos and burritos are built to order. You get the same customizable energy without having to cook or do the dishes. Grab dinner on the way home from work or soccer practice and call it a win.
2. Let One Pan Handle Dinner
Sheet-pan dinners earn extra credit on busy school nights because most of the cooking happens in one place. Pick a protein, add vegetables, season everything, and roast it together.
Try options like:
- Chicken with potatoes and broccoli
- Sausage with pasta, peppers, and onions
- Fajita-style chicken with bell peppers and onions
- Hamburger casserole with lettuce, tomatoes, and sesame seeds
- Chicken stir-fry with peppers, onions, and broccoli
- Honey-garlic salmon with green beans and lemon
- Chicken with sweet potatoes and green beans
Serve your prepped ingredients with pasta, rice, tortillas, or a simple salad to stretch the meal and make it a filling dinner for everyone. And for even faster prep, chop vegetables or season your protein the night before. When you get home, dinner can go from refrigerator to oven with minimal effort.
3. Make Breakfast the Star of Dinner
Breakfast for dinner is an easy way to turn inexpensive everyday ingredients into a meal that feels a little more fun. Scrambled eggs, toast, pancakes, waffles, breakfast sandwiches, or oatmeal can all work. Add fruit, yogurt, or another favorite side to fill out the table.
It can also be a handy clean-out-the-fridge meal. Leftover vegetables can go into scrambled eggs, while cheese and cooked meat can become omelet or breakfast-sandwich fillings.
4. Let the Slow Cooker Work While You're Away
Get your cooking done before everyone walks through the door after school, practice, or work. Chili, soups, shredded chicken, pot roast, and other slow-cooker favorites can be prepared earlier in the day and left to cook according to the recipe you're following. Just be sure to choose recipes that reheat well so tomorrow's lunch or dinner is already covered.
5. Give Leftovers a Second Assignment
One dinner can do double duty with a little planning. When you cook rice, taco meat, chicken, or another versatile ingredient, make extra and use it to jump-start another meal.
Tonight's taco filling can become tomorrow's burrito bowl. Roasted chicken can go into quesadillas. Extra rice can become the base for a quick bowl with beans, salsa, cheese, and whatever vegetables you have in the refrigerator. Ultimately, you'll spend less time starting dinner from scratch, and ingredients you already bought get another chance to steal the show.
6. Keep a Few No-Cook Dinners on the Roster
Some evenings, even a 30-minute recipe feels ambitious. That's when no-cook or minimal-prep meals can save the night. Sandwiches, wraps, salads topped with pre-cooked chicken, or snack-style plates with fruit, vegetables, cheese, crackers, and other family favorites can turn what's already in the refrigerator into dinner.
And when the fridge doesn't have the answers? That's a pretty good indication that it's time for takeout. Luckily, Burrachos' menu is built for customization, with burritos, tacos, nachos, salads, kids' meals, and more. Order online for pickup on the way home, or choose delivery when getting everybody back in the car sounds like one task too many.
7. Stock the Freezer for Extra-Busy Nights
A well-stocked freezer is like having a substitute teacher for dinner. When you're already cooking something that freezes well, consider making a double (or triple) batch. Soups, chili, casseroles, meatballs, and cooked shredded meats are all useful options.
Just be sure to divide larger batches into meal-size portions before freezing so you can thaw only what your family needs.
8. Turn the First Day Into a Back-to-School Dinner Party
The first day back is worth celebrating! A casual back-to-school dinner party can give everyone a chance to share stories from the day and start the year on a fun note.
Keep the gathering simple by inviting a few family friends over and serving food buffet-style. Burrachos Catering offers customizable taco bars with fillings, rice, tortillas, toppings, and salsas, as well as nacho bars, desserts, and beverages. Depending on your needs, catering can be picked up, delivered and set up, or arranged as full-service catering.
Bonus Perk:
Use the leftovers from your dinner party to fuel the rest of the week's dinner itinerary. Not only do you spend less time hovering over the stove, but you also enjoy more time hearing all about new teachers, old friends, and what happened at school that day.
Make Weeknight Dinner One Less Thing to Study
School nights already come with enough homework. Dinner doesn't need to add to it. Skip the weeknight cooking stress and let your local Burrachos handle dinner.
Whether you're grabbing burritos on the way home from practice or catering a back-to-school get-together, fresh, fast, and family-friendly is what we do best. Browse the Burrachos menu or order catering today.