24 Back-to-School Dinners That Are Family-Friendly and Low-Maintenance

• Time Commitment: 6 hours, 5 minutes
• Why I Love It: slow cooker recipe, <10 ingredients, make ahead
• Serves: 4

Hello, set-it-and-forget-it meal. You’ll place all the ingredients in your slow cooker, press a button, walk away and forget you did your future self a favor…until dinnertime rolls around and it’s already made. (Serve it with steamed rice to seal the deal.)

• Time Commitment: 40 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 4

They love chicken. They love pasta. Why not combine them into this creamy, smoky number? Charring the chicken breasts on the grill adds extra flavor, but you could use shredded leftover rotisserie chicken too.

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, crowd-pleaser, kid-friendly
• Serves: 6

Quinoa is a complete protein that also happens to make a mean breading. This is one fancy chicken nugget recipe even the adults can get behind. (Now pass the honey mustard, will you?)

• Time Commitment: 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: sheet pan recipe, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 4

I’ll be the first to admit that many sheet pan recipes don’t actually turn out the way you want. (Overcooked meat and undercooked veggies? No thank you.) Thankfully, cookbook author Jessica Merchant thoughtfully developed this one so everything is perfectly cooked when the timer goes off.

• Time Commitment: 7 hours, 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: slow cooker recipe, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 6

This is like vegetable soup with the flavor turned up. A Parmesan rind adds depth to the broth, and beans and tiny pasta add to the kid-friendly factor. Best of all, your slow cooker does all the work, so you can go about your day.

• Time Commitment: 40 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, kid-friendly
• Serves: 4

These chicken cutlets have a secret: They’re stuffed with mozzarella cheese, so when you cut in, you’re met with a delightful treat. Serve them atop a bed of lettuce (for the adults) and it’s basically a salad.

• Time Commitment: 15 minutes
• Why I Love It: <30 minutes, one pot, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 4

It doesn’t hurt that this pasta can basically be thrown together with pantry staples, but you know your kid who doesn’t like sauce? She’ll gobble it up too. Top it with a leftover chicken cutlet from last night to make it more filling.

• Time Commitment: 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 4

Bacon wins every time, even on Taco Tuesday. Your kids won't miss the bread, and they might even touch the lettuce and tomato this time too.

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: sheet pan recipe, crowd-pleaser, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 8

Bookmark this one for when the kids have friends over after soccer practice: It’s ready in a flash and leaves you with only one dirty dish, plus you can make it as simple (just cheese, please!) or as extravagant (all the veggies!) as you like.

• Time Commitment: 20 minutes
• Why I Love It: <30 minutes, high protein
• Serves: 4

Sticky and spicy-sweet, these lettuce wraps are as adaptable as they are crowd-pleasing. You can use another protein (like tofu or pork) if you want, and reduce the sriracha to make them less spicy for the kids.

• Time Commitment: 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: skillet recipe, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 6

School might be starting, but there’s still plenty of summer produce at the farmers market. Stop by for fresh corn and tomatoes and you’re halfway to dinner. (Psst: The trick to getting your kids to like vegetables is to serve them with noodles and cheese.)

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: one pot, <30 minutes, high protein
• Serves: 4

Cooking everything in the same pot saves you time *and* a few dirty dishes. And miraculously, this sun-dried tomato flavored dish is creamy with just a half-cup of half-and-half.

• Time Commitment: 20 minutes
• Why I Love It: Instant Pot recipe, <30 minutes
• Serves: 4

Yep, you can make salmon in the Instant Pot, and adding a creamy coconut milk sauce makes it *that much* more kid friendly. Toss in a few generous handfuls of spinach or snap peas to complete the meal in one go.

• Time Commitment: 40 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 4

These enchiladas come together with less than ten ingredients, and they’re even easier to make if you have a rotisserie chicken in your fridge. My recipe calls for green sauce, which is brighter and fresher, but you can use red in a pinch.

• Time Commitment: 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly, kid-friendly
• Serves: 4

Getting every single pot and pan dirty on a weeknight isn’t exactly my idea of fun, and I doubt it’s yours either. This sticky chicken recipe is pan-fried for less mess, and the sauce is just a combination of pantry ingredients like brown sugar, rice vinegar and sriracha. (Use as much or as little hot sauce as you like.)

• Time Commitment: 15 minutes
• Why I Love It: <30 minutes, <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 8

Slider recipes aren’t just party food—they’re also guaranteed hits when there are kids at the table. This entire batch comes together in practically no time, and with just seven ingredients at that. Want to switch it up? Use barbecue sauce in place of buffalo.

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: Instant Pot recipe, <10 ingredients, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 8

Instead of tinkering over a pot of soup for three hours (nobody has time for that), bust out your Instant Pot and make it in 30 minutes. Have you ever tried potato chips as a topping? Trust me, it’s amazing.

• Time Commitment: 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: sheet pan recipe, high protein
• Serves: 4

These tender meatballs are great on their own—and they all cook on one pan for less mess—but you could take this back-to-school dinner over the top by serving them with a side of homemade macaroni and cheese. (See the next item on this list—you’re welcome.)

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: one pot, beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 6

The trick to making mac and cheese that’s as easy as the boxed kind is to boil the pasta in milk (the natural starches in the pasta help thicken the sauce), then stir in butter, cream cheese and grated cheddar.

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: skillet recipe, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 6

I’m pretty sure if your kids had the final say, every meal would be topped with mozzarella cheese. If you want to riff, you could try chicken thighs in place of breasts and corn or zucchini instead of cherry tomatoes.

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: skillet recipe, <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 4

On hectic school nights, the takeout menu beckons. But I promise you can make a totally delish pizza at home without much effort. (The secret is store-bought pizza dough—I like the one from Trader Joe’s.)

• Time Commitment: 8 hours, 15 minutes
• Why I Love It: slow cooker recipe, make ahead, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 8

Are you Ina Garten or something? This easy back-to-school recipe is proof that you can make a gourmet chicken recipe without turning on the oven. In fact, you can basically forget about it until dinner rolls around.

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 4

For tons of flavor with little effort, use store-bought chicken stock and add miso paste for umami. Then swap the usual egg noodles for cheese tortellini and watch this soup disappear. To make it even simpler, chop up the leftover meat from that slow cooker whole chicken you made and toss it in the pot.

• Time Commitment: 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: one pot, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 6

Traditionally, you’d cook the pasta and sauce in at least two different pans, but this foolproof recipe eliminates one. Besides, what kid doesn’t like creamy pasta with chicken?