Easy Weeknight Meals in 30 Minutes Or Less

These easy weeknight meals are perfect for those nights when you need to get something on the table in 30 minutes or less. Quick dinner recipes definitely make our healthy lifestyle goals much more manageable!

When it comes time to get dinner on the table, meal prep and quick dinner recipes help. Lunch and breakfast are meals that we can usually throw something together if necessary, but for dinner the options get a little more limited.

These easy dinners keep well in the refrigerator throughout the week (hooray for meal prep recipes) but they’re also easy to throw together before meal time. Each of these meals can be on the table in 30 minutes or less!

Table of Contents

Easy Weeknight Meals | 30 Minutes Or Less

I chose to separate these meals by category. They are all healthy options, but some of them are calculated for Weight Watchers and 21 Day Fix. If you are on either of those programs you can pull the recipes you want to try directly from the sections below.

For those of you who are just looking for easy weeknight dinners or quick dinner recipes that are healthy, you can make any of these recipes and feel good about what you are serving up to your family! They’re not “diet,” just healthy :)

21 Day Fix 30 Minutes or Less Meals:

Almost all of these 21 Day Fix recipes are also calculated for Weight Watchers. If you do not see a WW version of these recipes just check out the 21 Day Fix version for more info, likely you’ll find the points are included in there as well!

Healthy Buffalo Chicken Roll Ups

Healthy Dill Pickle Chicken Salad

Easy and Healthy Tuna Casserole

Chicken Gyro Bowl with Homemade Tzatziki

Carne Asada Burrito Bowl + Creamy Chili Lime Dressing

Healthy Homemade Hamburger Helper Recipe (green chile sauce that you’ll love)

Easy Shrimp Cakes | Healthy Shrimp Cakes Recipe

Instant Pot Orange Chicken | Healthy Orange Chicken

Chicken Lo Mein | Instant Pot | Slow Cooker | Stove Top

Instant Pot Lentil Tacos | Vegan Taco Recipe

Cajun Chicken Alfredo | Healthy Alfredo Sauce Recipe

Teriyaki Meatballs | Easy 21 Day Fix Meatballs

Lasagna Stacks | Bite Sized Instant Pot Lasagna

Instant Pot Jambalaya | 21 Day Fix Jambalaya

Beef Fajita Bowl Recipe | Instant Pot | Slow Cooker | Stove Top

Healthy Beef Stroganoff | 21 Day Fix Beef Stroganoff Recipe

Mini BBQ Meatloaf Bombs

Instant Pot Spanish Rice with Chicken and Cauliflower

Weight Watchers Quick Dinner Recipes:

A lot of these Weight Watchers recipes are versions of my 21 Day Fix posts and vice versa. If you see something here that you think you would enjoy, click it! There is probably 21 Day Fix information in there as well.

BBQ Chicken Meatza | A Delicious Keto Pizza (VIDEO)

Weight Watchers Buffalo Chicken Dip (put it on lettuce wraps, sandwiches, chips, etc.)

Apricot Chicken | Sheet Pan Dinner Recipe (VIDEO) (this marinade would be awesome on pork chops too)

Cauliflower Taco Bowl Recipe

Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower Bites Recipe

Healthy Drunken Noodles

Weight Watchers Orange Chicken

Crack Chicken And Rice Casserole

Spaghetti Squash Taco Boats | Instant Pot | Slow Cooker | Oven Recipes

Weight Watchers Cajun Chicken Alfredo

Buffalo Cauliflower Mac And Cheese

Weight Watchers Teriyaki Meatballs

Chicken Enchilada Bake | 21 Day Fix Enchiladas

Weight Watchers Spanish Rice with Chicken (I love adding black beans for even more protein and fiber)

Healthy Meals Done In 30 Minutes Or Less:

The Best Instant Pot Spaghetti | 21 Day Fix Spaghetti (add ground beef, turkey, or chicken, whatever you like)

Instant Pot Pad Thai Recipe | Vegetarian Pad Thai Recipe

Healthy Cream Of Mushroom Soup

Healthy Greek Kabobs

Healthy Buffalo Chicken Dip

Healthy Tuscan Chicken Pasta | Instant Pot | Slow Cooker | Stovetop

Healthy Bang Bang Shrimp Pasta

Healthy Crack Chicken Recipe | Instant Pot Crack Chicken (chicken breasts never looked so good)

Healthy Slow Cooker Tuna Casserole | Instant Pot Tuna Casserole

Healthy Mango Salsa Chicken | Creme de la Crumb

Greek Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner | Laughing Spatula

Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken | Whole Kitchen Sink

Mostly Veggie Steak Stir Fry | Our Salty Kitchen

30 Minute Creamy Goat Cheese Pasta | Dishing Out Health

Are these easy weeknight meals family friendly?

I used to get so frustrated. Just because I’m doing a healthy lifestyle program like Weight Watchers or 21 Day Fix, does not mean that my family is following that same plan. Some of the recipes are too restrictive, not their taste, not kid friendly, etc.

All of these recipes are sure to wow both you and your family. They won’t know that they are eating something healthy and you won’t have to feel bad about only making one meal for the whole family to eat!

How can I meal prep with these 30 minute meals?

If you have some time you can prep one or two of these meals one day a week. That means you will have some great meals on hand that you can just pull out and heat up. Quick dinner recipes are nice but nothing beats being able to throw something in the microwave and put it on the table in minutes.

If you have older kids in the house like we do, having some healthy dinner options on hand for weeknight meals is a must. It means they can heat something up for themselves and you don’t have to worry about everyones schedule lining up perfectly for mealtime.

Here are some of my favorite meal prep tips & tricks:

This is a four part course that I set up originally on Facebook. It will literally walk you through from start to finish for how to meal prep and plan. If you have never prepped or done a meal plan before this is where you should start!

Can I freeze these easy weeknight meals?

I love to freeze meals ahead of time so I can pull them out, thaw them in the refrigerator or on the stove and have even easier weeknight meals to serve the whole family. Most of these healthy meals listed above can be frozen and served up at a later time. You can make a double batch when you are cooking to set some aside for later as well!

Here are my best tips for freezer meal prep, they will come in handy if you have never done any freezer meal planning before! Most of the recipes on this post are about 30 minutes or less but I know, sometimes you are lucky if you have 20 minutes. Use the tips and tricks in the freezer meal prep post to plan ahead!