6 Easy Dinners with Short Ingredient Lists [and gratitude and creativity at the table]

I went to Costco the other day. I usually love perusing the aisles, trying samples, and mentally formulating recipes with whatever ingredients look interesting. Now, it’s strange. We’re still observing a stay-at-home order where I live, and everyone wears face masks when they go out for essentials. No samples are served. Items are even more spread out in the store to allow for social distancing. And depending on when the last deliveries came in, some food sections are nearly empty.

It’s unsettling. It’s not like I want to hug strangers or anything. But the plexiglass divider between the cashier and me along with the smell of hand sanitizer makes the whole experience feel sterile. We’re doing what we need to do, of course, to keep as many people safe and virus-free as possible. But there’s also a loss of our shared humanity. We can’t even see each other’s faces enough to share a smile. We’re on guard, calculating if we’re six feet away from the person next to us. Or we’re preoccupied with adjusting the cloth on our face because our homemade mask doesn’t quite fit. We’re not sure if we can get half the items on our list, and so we huddle in the corner of the store to Google recipes. 

Kid-friendly vegetarian recipes.
Tomato sauce out of just tomato paste.
What to do with leftover rice.

I have searched for all of those things, or some version of them, so I can make dinner for five out of what’s in my pantry or what happens to be available at the store. Some days, I find myself enjoying the creative challenge. It’s like my own version of Chopped. (But instead of professional chefs as food critics, I have three small children analyzing what I create, and they can be much harsher critics sometimes!). Other times, I stare into the refrigerator completely uninspired and stuck in a cooking rut.

We Have Much to Be Thankful For

It’s a privilege to be worrying about my lack of culinary inspiration. I’m not concerned about actually having enough food. That’s a gift, and I don’t take it for granted. Cancelled school means no lunch for many kids, going to the grocery store is a huge health risk for some, and the residual effects of this pandemic can be felt around the world. In places that are already food insecure, people won’t be suffering from COVID but from starvation.

So as I stare at the leftover pasta and wilting spinach in my refrigerator, I have to practice gratitude. I have more than enough. As my dad always said growing up, “We have much to be thankful for.” I’ve been given the gift of food, and I don’t want to be like the Israelites in the wilderness who complained about the manna God gave them (Numbers 11). God continually provided for his people, yet they grumbled against him and craved the food they had when they were slaves in Egypt.

I don’t want to do that. Every good gift I’m given comes from God’s hand, and that is something to be thankful for—no matter what’s on my dinner table.

(Side note: If you’re able, consider supporting others in need of food during this time. Grocery shop for an elderly neighbor, donate to your local food pantry, or donate to organizations like Feed My Starving Children. There are so many great ways to share the gift of food with others!)

Inspiration in the Kitchen

As we practice gratitude, it’s okay to exercise our creativity, too. We don’t grumble about the food we have, but we can learn to cook it well. Creativity is also a gift from God, and we can look for a taste of inspiration when we feel uninspired.

If you’re struggling to cook in this season, you are not alone. Life is not normal right now, and the loss of routine, even after months of quarantine, can still be a struggle. We’re thrown off kilter by the changes. We’re left without the normal anchors in our week like school, commutes, childcare, and playdates. Even our food routines, like grocery shopping or making a favorite meal every week, may have changed, and we’re grasping for some sense of normalcy, inspiration, or excitement in the strange monotony of our days.

In my house, we’ve simplified our meals quite a bit—doing snack dinners more often than normal, ordering takeout, and eating leftovers. But my budget and my body still need real food. So I’m trying to continue to cook recipes that are full of flavor and use real ingredients—but don’t require you to shop at five different stores to find what you need.

These six recipes below are ones that don’t require many ingredients, and much of what they require, you may already have on hand (like olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, carrots, eggs, pasta, etc.). Many of them, you can also mix and match a bit. Don’t have fresh thyme? Use a pinch of dried thyme or rosemary. Not sure about the roasted fennel and grapes (which I happen to love), just skip it and use only the chicken thighs part of the recipe.

Follow these recipes to the letter, or use them as a guide to help you find inspiration in the kitchen. And no matter what you make, we can remember that, as my dad says, “We have much to be thankful for.”

What are you cooking these days? What are you grateful for as you sit down to eat? Are you all about the cooking or are you trying to get out of a culinary rut?

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