Dinner doesn’t have to be a brand new decision every night. These easy customizable dinners bring together a handful of reliable, family-friendly meals that are easy to adjust based on what you have, what your family likes, and how much energy you have. Think of these as flexible go-to dinners – one base, simple swaps, and less stress at the end of the day.
I started this customizable dinner series so you don’t have to reinvent dinner every week. These are recipes you can make over and over, a cheat code for when your brain is tired. Change it up a little bit each time so that you don’t get bored.
To make weeknight dinners easier, these recipes fall into three flexible categories: power bowls for quick mix-and-match meals, casseroles for cozy one-dish dinners that are easy to customize, and sheet pan dinners for low-effort meals that use one pan and simple flavor swaps.
Use these ideas as inspiration or click on the underlined links for the full recipe.
dinner #1: The Protein Bowl
I love customizable protein bowls. Usually, they start with a base and then you can build them with proteins, veggies, and sauces – even drizzle sauce individually on the bowls so everyone gets what they want.
My Asian Shrimp Bowl and Chicken Fajita Bowl are great starting points. Small swaps in protein, grains, sauces, or toppings keep dinner flexible without requiring extra cooking or planning.
Dietitian tip: use cook and cooled rice because not only does that mean less dishes but it increases the resistant starch content! Resistant starch is a type of carb or fiber that resists digestion, improving the gut microbiome, lowering the glycemic index and helping with weight management.
Chicken Fajita Protein bowl
You can’t go wrong with this one – who doesn’t love a homemade Chipotle bowl? What vegetables do you have to use up? Any sauces expiring soon? Reduce food waste and make this a go-to weekly meal.
Ingredient Ideas
- Chicken breast, ground turkey, steak, ground beef, or shrimp.
- Mexican-Blend Shredded Cheese or even Cotija Cheese.
- Rice, quinoa or preferred grain. Cook a whole pot of rice the day before OR pull from your freezer rice (see my notes on resistant starch, above).
- Onions.
- Bell peppers.
- Avocados.
- Corn.
- Black beans.
- Tomatoes.
- Jalapenos.
- Fajita seasoning or taco seasoning.
- Lime.
- Sauces: salsa, pico, hot sauce, Chik-Fil-A Creamy Salsa Dressing, plain Greek yogurt or source cream.
As you can see, you can switch up the add-ins and sauces because there are just endless options. Even the grain could be swapped to lettuce, quinoa, or farro. This recipe is basically gluten-free and can be made dairy-free easily!
shrimp and Edamame Protein Bowl
An Asian twist on a power bowl using fresh and store-bought convenience foods.
Ingredients
- 2 cups of cooked and cooled rice, about 1/2 cup of rice per serving. Allow rice to have cooled for at least 12 hours for the most resistant starch.
- 16 ounces peeled and deveined raw shrimp, tail off, or about 4 ounces per serving.
- 8 ounces sugar snap peas, I used a microwaveable steamer bag.
- 1 1/2 cups frozen peas and carrots mixture.
- 2 cups of broccoli, diced small.
- Sliced avocado, about one medium or large.
- 1-1 1/2 cups of shelled edamame.
- 1/4 cup of low sodium soy sauce. See below for more sauce variations!
- One lemon.
- Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.
- Red Hot Sriracha.
- PF Chang’s Spicy Mayo.
Shrimp cooks very quickly and I love it with this bowl, but chicken or turkey or beef work well here, too. Other sauce ideas? Honey garlic sauce, teriyaki sauce, or a homemade stir-fry sauce.
Dinner #2: Customizable Casseroles
Casseroles are one of the easiest dinners to customize because they follow a simple pattern: a grain, a protein, veggies, and enough liquid to let everything cook together. Once you understand that base, you can swap flavors and ingredients without overthinking it.
In this section, I’m sharing a couple of my favorite casseroles – like my Mexican Quinoa Casserole and Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Casserole. The cook time is 60+ minutes but the prep time is super quick!
Mexican-inspired taco Casserole with Quinoa
You just can’t go wrong with a Mexican-inspired casserole because they taste so good and they are so easy to change up for variety. This one uses ground beef, which puts it at a disadvantage from my other casseroles because it does require cooking before assembling the casserole.
That being said, the end product is worth it! Similar to the customizable fajita bowl, it’s all about the toppings – and there are many Mexican-inspired ingredients to customize.
Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Casserole
The a classic, delicious flavor combination of buffalo chicken but as a healthy, one pan and well-balanced meal. This recipe uses shredded carrots and bell peppers, so there is minimal chopping. These casseroles are very cheesy so not ideal for those who are dairy-free unless substitutes are used.
More casserole options:
Dinner #3: Customizable Sheet Pan Dinners
Sheet pan dinners are one of the easiest ways to make a flexible, low-stress meal because everything cooks together on one pan. Once you have a simple protein-and-veggie base, it’s easy to change the flavor without changing the process – which means less thinking and less cleanup at the end of the day.
A great example is my Customizable Chicken and Veggie Sheet Pan Dinner (2 out of 3 examples below), where one base turns into multiple flavor paths depending on what you’re in the mood for.
With small seasoning or sauce swaps, the same dinner can feel completely different from week to week, making it an easy go-to for busy nights when you want variety without extra effort.
Base Ingredients (Pick 2-3 Vegetables)
Below are tried-and-true, mix-and-match combinations to build your sheet pan dinner. Season per your flavor preference and drizzle with sauces after the fact!
- 1-1.5 pounds chicken breasts or thighs thighs require longer cooking times
- Broccoli
- Baby Carrots
- Green Beans
- Red Onion
- Corn kernels
- Zucchini
- Bell Peppers
- Olive Oil. salt and pepper
Mediterranean Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
One pan with diced red onion, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, plus chickpeas. Then, I added diced cucumbers and feta cheese after roasting. I plated over quinoa and finished with hummus, kalamata olives, and a drizzle of Greek dressing!
BBQ Ranch Sheet Pan Dinner
As simple as it gets, the chicken and veggies are seasoned with 3/4 of a packet of ranch seasoning and a little bit of BBQ sauce. Then, more BBQ sauce is drizzled after baking.
Since carrots and potatoes were added to this sheet pan dinner (which required 10 extra minutes), I didn’t have to serve with a grain or side.
These recipes all took about 25-35 minutes to bake!
Hope These Helped!
I truly hope these three categories of dinners: casseroles, protein bowls, and sheet pan dinners, give you inspiration for assembling a few go-to dinners for those nights where your mental capacity has been reached.
Seriously, it can be such a huge help in eating more home-cooked dinners – which can then help with weight maintenance and overall health!