30 Easy Family-Friendly Dinners to Make This Spring (2024)

Gather everyone together for one of these simple, seasonal meals that require just 25 minutes of active prep in the kitchen. Whether you want to fire up your Instant Pot for a flavorful meal or whip up a sheet-pan meal with lots of roasted veggies, your family will love one of these dinners. Recipes like our Rosemary Roasted Salmon with Asparagus & Potatoes and Quiche Lorraine serve at least four, so you can share something healthy and delicious with all your favorite people.

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Crispy Fish Taco Bowls

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The adobo sauce in a can of chipotles lends earthy heat to the crema that tops these bowls. Don't toss out the unused peppers! Freeze them in an airtight container and pull them out to add to sauces, marinades or chili.

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Instant-Pot Sausage & Peppers

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Yellow and green peppers, tomatoes and sweet onion come together in the Instant Pot and make this classic sandwich pop with flavor. Cooking sausage and peppers in your Instant Pot makes this even easier for a busy weeknight. While green peppers are classic, any color bell peppers will work well.

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Quiche Lorraine

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Quiche Lorraine is a classic French dish that makes for a hearty breakfast, lunch or dinner.

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Rosemary Roasted Salmon with Asparagus & Potatoes

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Yukon Golds are great here because they get crispy on the outside but completely creamy on the inside. A brush stroke or two of balsamic glaze provides a rich color and a sweet finish to the roasted salmon.

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Shrimp Pasta Salad

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This fresh and bright cold shrimp pasta salad features classic shrimp scampi flavors. Lemon and Dijon mustard brighten the dressing, and asparagus adds a nice crunch. Farfalle pasta works well with this dish, but any medium pasta shape will work.

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Skillet Lemon Chicken with Spinach

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This simple, ultra-quick chicken dinner--packed with spinach and peppers--is delicious on its own or served over brown rice or your favorite pasta.

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Creamy Spinach Pasta

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This might be one of the creamiest light pasta dishes you've ever had! The mascarpone cheese adds a richness to the spinach pasta that's unexpected--especially in a healthy pasta recipe.

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Chicken-Gnocchi Soup

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Gnocchi, those little Italian potato pillows, behave like dumplings in this deliciously homey soup with hearty chunks of carrot and celery. The best part is that the dumplings come fresh from a store-bought package and the cooked chicken can come straight from the rotisserie section of your favorite supermarket.

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Sheet-Pan Shrimp Fajitas

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Fajitas make an excellent weeknight meal. These come together faster than ever, using quick-cooking shrimp and veggies all on one sheet pan so you can focus on family rather than cleanup.

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Chicken-&-Rice-Stuffed Peppers with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

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Sometimes meals come in perfect packaging. This is one of those times. Here's a satisfying dinner packed into two bell pepper halves per serving. Chicken and rice are infused with umami from sun-dried tomatoes and the filling is bound by Parmesan and a bit of cream for cheesy goodness. Use shelf-stable precooked brown rice to make this meal super quick.

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Roasted Maple-Glazed Chicken & Carrots

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Olive oil and maple syrup transform into a sticky-sweet sauce in the hot oven. Drizzling the chicken drippings over the carrots amps up their flavor even more.

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Roasted Chicken Thighs & Radishes with Lemon Crème Fraîche

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Roasting radishes helps mellow out their spiciness. We reduce food waste by using their tops, too—they add color and a slightly bitter bite. If your radishes come without tops, sub in another dark leafy green, such as chopped kale.

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Roasted Tofu & Broccoli with Peanut-Curry Sauce

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Pressing the tofu before roasting rids it of some excess moisture for crispy results. If you have the time, let it sit for more than 10 minutes—the longer it's pressed, the better!

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White Bean Soup with Pasta

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We use mirepoix—a combination of onion, celery and carrots—to flavor this soup. Keep a store-bought bag of the mixture in your freezer to ensure you always have some on hand without worrying about it going bad.

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Cauliflower Fajita Skillet

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Thinly sliced cauliflower florets mimic the signature shape of fajita meat in this dish. We cook it in a cast-iron skillet for that tableside sizzle you'd get at a restaurant.

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One-Pot Chicken & Broccoli Pasta

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This creamy chicken and broccoli pasta makes for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. We opt for small shells in this recipe, but any other small pasta, like orecchiette, would work, too.

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Chicken Cutlets with Artichokes & Lemon-Dill Sauce

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You won't want to let a drop of this creamy lemon sauce go to waste. Serve with rice pilaf or roasted potatoes to soak it all up.

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Easy Sesame Chicken with Green Beans

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Sweet-salty hoisin sauce and nutty sesame team up in this easy meal that's cooked on one baking sheet. Serve this sesame chicken with brown rice and sliced cucumbers, drizzled with sesame oil and rice vinegar.

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Garlic Butter-Roasted Salmon with Potatoes & Asparagus

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This spring-produce-packed one-pan meal makes a healthy and satisfying weeknight dinner. Melted garlic butter coats the salmon and vegetables, adding depth of flavor and richness to the dish.

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Salt & Pepper Shrimp with Snow Peas

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In China, salt and pepper shrimp is traditionally made with tongue-numbing Sichuan peppercorns. If you have some in the pantry, feel free to use them here; we opted for a combo of easier-to-find white and black pepper. The white pepper adds earthy flavor, while black kicks up the heat.

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One-Pot Lentils & Rice with Spinach

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This hearty vegan dish gets its earthy flavor from cumin and brown rice. If you can handle extra heat, try doubling the crushed red pepper for a bigger punch of flavor.

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Lemon Shrimp & Orzo Salad

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Consider making a double batch of this easy pasta salad--it's delicious the next day. The orzo will absorb the dressing as it sits, so add a little more olive oil and lemon juice if you'd like.

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Mahi-Mahi Fish Tacos

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In this mahi-mahi fish taco recipe, chili-coated fish gets a lovely crust from the hot pan. The creaminess of the avocado sauce complements the crisp crunch of the jicama, and it's all pulled together in 20 minutes.

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Sheet-Pan Harissa Chicken & Vegetables

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This one-pan dinner gets a hit of flavorful heat from harissa, the popular North African chile-and-garlic paste. We use harissa paste from a tube for this recipe. It's got a concentrated chile flavor that makes an excellent spice rub for chicken and adds a subtle punch of heat to a refreshing herbed yogurt sauce.

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Mushroom Shawarma with Yogurt-Tahini Sauce

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The bold spices and cooling and creamy tahini-yogurt sauce make these vegetarian pitas a home run for lunch or dinner. The meaty, umami-rich mushrooms do enough heavy lifting so that you don't miss the meat at all.

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Sumac Chicken Thighs with Purple Cauliflower

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Cauliflower has gone full technicolor, leaping from white to bright orange, neon green and--you guessed it--purple. The roast chicken in this recipe gets its hue from a marinade that's seasoned with tangy sumac.

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Crispy Cod with Charred Snow Peas & Creamy Herb Sauce

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This crispy cod recipe shows you how to make golden fish that's not deep-fried, to put a healthy twist on a classic. Pat it dry and dredge it with a bit of flour before sautéing in a hot pan.

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Spinach, Lima Bean & Crispy Pancetta Pasta

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We opt for fresh spinach pasta here--it cooks quickly and adds a pop of color. Cooking lima beans in pancetta drippings infuses them with flavor.

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Spinach & Artichoke Casserole with Chicken and Cauliflower Rice

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This high-protein chicken casserole clocks in right around 400 calories to help you end your day feeling satisfied—not starved or overly full.

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Slow-Cooker Lemon-Pepper Chicken Thighs with Broccolini

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What if you could have tender, slow-cooker chicken thighs and crisp Broccolini to feed four with 10 minutes of hands-on time and eight common ingredients? Now, you can, and here's the recipe to prove it. Garnish with fresh oregano leaves and additional kosher salt and black pepper, if desired.