30 Minute Meals

Do you ever need a quick dinner and not sure what or how to prepare it? I’m sharing three of my 30 minute meals and besides being quick to make, they are easy and delicious.

Steak and Potatoes

This meal started with about a pound package of boneless NY strip steak, I cut it in thin slices and pan fried the steak in olive oil with a sliced onion. While that was cooking I microwaved 4 golden potatoes for 2 minutes (just to precook them) and then cut in cubes. I pan fried the potatoes in butter. While the steak and potatoes were cooking I steamed some frozen broccoli. The entire dinner took about 30 minutes and cost less than $8.00 for two meals. We had left overs so I plan to use the steak and potatoes with scrambled eggs for another meal!

Chicken and Pasta

This is one of my favorite throw together meals! When chicken legs are on sale I buy in bulk and freeze them on a baking sheet before putting in a freezer bag. That way I can pull out how ever many I need for a meal. I got these legs on sale for 59 cents a pound! A box of pasta is 50 cents on sale, the sauce was left over from when hubby made his last batch and the peas cost $1.00 for the bag and I used half a bag.

I cooked the chicken legs in my cast iron pan with a small amount of oil. Brown one side, turn and brown the other, cover and cook for about 20 minutes. Add spaghetti sauce to the pan for the next 10 minutes while the pasta is cooking. Again the peas only take a few minutes in the microwave.

Since I love cheese, I sprinkled my chicken with shredded mozzeralla and let it melt while preparing hubby’s plate. This was so delicious, took about 30 minutes and cost less than $4.00 for two meals! We had no leftovers on this yummy dinner.

Burgers and Broccoli

There are many times when we don’t have anything for dinner except meat and vegetables. This was one of those days. Tuesday is sale day for ground beef at Fresh Market and we stock up on it for meatballs, chili, meatloaf and burgers. I make up burgers and freeze them individually like I do with the chicken legs. If I decide last minute for a burger, I can even cook it frozen.

For my burger meal I had already planned this is what I was going to cook so I had them already thawed out. I started out grilling some onions, then use the same fry pan to cook the burgers. I also fried up a strip of bacon and while the burgers were cooking, I steamed the broccoli. I steamed up some cauliflower to add to my dinner since hubby doesn’t eat that.

Remember I said I love cheese? Well a burger isn’t a burger without cheese and bacon! So when my burger was ready, I added cooked onions, bacon and topped it with swiss cheese. Now that was a delicious meal! Total cost for two burger meals was about $4.00 and took about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Do you have some ideas for 30 minute meals? I’m always looking for quick, easy and inexpensive ideas for meals!