Family Dinner Menus

Perhaps it’s not possible to sit down every night to a full dinner, complete with dessert. But we’ve pulled together a collection of menus for you to use as inspiration for planning your family meals. No time to prepare an entire meal from scratch? Make one or two dishes from scratch and supplement your dinner table with prepared side dishes or desserts.

This is a menu that’s suitable for festive occasions but easy enough to put together on a weeknight. Try the lime drizzle on fresh fruit or over ice cream.

Origami dumplings may take a little time to make, but this menu provides a great opportunity for everyone to gather around the table and prepare a meal together.

This is a great menu for a weekend barbeque or a quick weeknight gathering. The honeydew melon with mint is a refreshing conclusion to the meal.

Try these teriyaki burgers for a change from the traditional burger. Load them up with vegetables, and you have a complete meal. The blondie cupcakes are a great way to serve dessert: Top them with a scoop of ice cream and chocolate sauce for a real treat!

Customize these dishes to suit your family’s taste: the pizza can be toped with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese, or ham and pineapple – whatever the family wants. The ribbon salad is a great dish for small hands to help with as they peel piece after piece off the vegetables. Have fun joking about the origins of “Fool” as a name for dessert – what makes a dessert foolish?

Enchiladas are a great make-ahead meal. Pop the crumble in the oven at the same time as the main course, and dessert will be ready when you are. The confetti slaw is even better when it’s made ahead, so make it earlier in the day when you’ve got a minute (use pre-shredded cabbage to make things easier for you).

There’s not much that’s more soothing than the smell of a chicken roasting in the oven. What makes it even better is the bed of roasted potatoes under the chicken, turning crispy and golden. The brownies can be made ahead and are easily made by a youngster with Mom or Dad helping out.

Use your slow cooker or crockpot to make this hands-off dinner. The cucumber salad comes together quickly, and once you’ve tried this method for rice, you’ll never buy the boil-in-bag stuff again.

Put together a salad bar in your own kitchen for a hands-on dinner that everyone can help with. Use bottled dressing if you prefer, or make your own. A creamy make-ahead dessert like panna cotta makes for an elegant finish to dinner.

A mint-mustard pesto might sound unusual, but it’s a great way to dress up salmon. If you don’t want to serve fish for dinner, try it on boiled potatoes, grilled chicken, vegetables or pasta. The orzo pasta salad can be a meal in itself: Just top it with grilled chicken or steak tips or add a cup or so of white beans.

For more recipe ideas, be sure to visit our food links page.