Easy Recipes for Dinner, Parties and the People You Feed
Dinner needs to happen again. Apparently yesterday’s dinner does not count. Start here for casseroles, slow cooker meals, something sweet to take to a friend’s house, and a drink that makes staying home feel like a plan.
Find your occasion | Dinner ideas | Drinks and secret menus
Something savory. Something chocolate.
Pasta, vegetables, cheese and Italian dressing. A bowl worth making room for.
An 8-inch pan of chocolate is a perfectly reasonable contribution.
What are you cooking for?
- Feeding a crowd
- A bridal shower
- A picnic
- Meal prep
- Bringing someone dinner
- Keeping the grocery list short
This is the Delicious Food archive at Totally The Bomb: home recipes, restaurant stories, copycat ideas and a very serious interest in dessert. The collections below give you somewhere useful to start. Open each recipe for its ingredients and method; the full article feed follows the guide.
A good menu does not need twelve dishes. Pick the thing everyone is there to eat, give it a side, and decide whether dessert is happening. Dessert can be happening. You do not need to arrange a second event to justify brownies.
Dinner without an unnecessarily long grocery list
- Slow Cooker Pot Roast puts chuck roast, carrots, potatoes and onion soup mix to work. Allow 7–8 hours on LOW after prepping and searing the roast.
- Crock Pot Chicken Tacos starts with chicken, taco seasoning and tomatoes with green chiles. The recipe lists 4–6 servings and 6–8 hours on LOW. Set out toppings separately so dinner can accommodate different opinions.
- Simple Macaroni Casserole brings cheese, green chiles and garlic to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes, then let it rest for 10 minutes. The original recipe includes an option for adding cooked meat.
Recipes for feeding a crowd
Start with dishes you can serve by the spoonful. The pasta salad and macaroni casserole are useful starting points for a potluck table. Add brownies for a dessert you can portion before anyone arrives.
The pasta salad recipe lists 8 servings and needs a half-hour chill after mixing. The brownies make one 8-by-8-inch pan, listed as 8 servings; allow 15–20 minutes to bake, then cool before cutting.
Check the recipe’s yield and your pan or cooker capacity before increasing quantities. A bigger guest list does not make the slow cooker bigger. Write down which dish needs the oven and when; that is where an innocent menu turns into a traffic jam.
Bridal shower recipes and a simple lunch menu
For a lunch spread, build around rotisserie chicken salad, with croissants or crackers served alongside. Add fruit salad and a sweet finish. Our Vanilla Crazy Cake is made without eggs, milk or butter in the cake batter; check any frosting and each guest’s ingredient needs separately.
For the shopping list: the chicken salad starts with one rotisserie chicken, grapes, apple, celery, two pickle relishes and mayonnaise. The fruit salad uses four cans of fruit, drained and layered. Neither recipe gives a reliable guest count, so match your quantities to the rest of the menu.
Choose the serving dishes before the shower, too. Realizing the salad bowl is currently holding the mail is not a preparation step anyone enjoys.
Picnic recipes that make sense in a container
Pasta salad, fruit salad and brownies give you a starting spread without needing to assemble dinner on a blanket. Let the brownies cool before boxing them, pack a serving spoon for each salad, and plan cold storage for perishable food.
Meal prep for people who still want choices
The shredded filling in chicken tacos can go into tacos, burritos or a salad, as the recipe suggests. Chicken salad offers another lunch option, with the bread or crackers kept separate until serving.
Plan the storage before you plan five days of lunches. FoodSafety.gov’s cold storage chart gives refrigerated chicken salad and cooked poultry leftovers a three-to-four-day window at 40°F or below. A recipe being convenient does not give it an unlimited fridge life.
Meals to bring someone
When someone has a new baby, is recovering, or simply needs dinner handled, ask what they can eat and when they want it. Macaroni casserole or chicken taco filling can anchor the meal. Pack tortillas and toppings separately from the chicken filling. For the casserole, plan for a 9-by-13-inch dish. Include the ingredient list, preparation date and recipe link so they have the details.
A container they do not need to return is a lovely finishing touch. Dinner should not arrive with an errand attached.
Budget-conscious meals and pantry shortcuts
Compare what is already in your kitchen with the short lists for chicken tacos, pot roast and canned-fruit salad. Fewer ingredients can simplify shopping, but the price still depends on your store and what you need to buy. For chicken tacos, count tortillas and toppings in the shopping budget too. Start with the ingredients you can use again.
Drinks, Starbucks orders and the sweet stuff
For a cold-weather gathering, slow cooker hot cocoa uses milk, cream, chocolate chips and cocoa. It calls for a 5-quart or larger cooker and two hours on LOW, with occasional whisking. For your next coffee run, the Starbucks secret menu guide groups drinks by type and explains how to order from a recipe.
Looking beyond the kitchen? Read our edible glitter explainer before decorating, or the story behind some Chinese takeaways’ Tuesday closures. Restaurant news and older promotions stay in the feed below; check the story’s date before treating an offer as current.
Pick dinner. Save the recipe. Give the brownies their own spot on the counter.
