Easy Meals to Cook for Stay at Home Moms | 23 Meal Ideas

Easy meals to cook for stay at home moms is a list of kid-approved meal ideas that are simple to cook & wholesome to eat for the entire family. 

These meal ideas offer a great benefit to busy moms. It can help them take the much-needed breather on maddening days spent rushing around the endless chores & attention-seeking kids in the house. 

Feeding nutritious & wholesome meals is one of the top priorities of any mom & more so for SAHM. So let us dive straight into the list now.

Easy Meals to Cook for Stay at Home Moms

As a SAHM, I always focus on making nutritious and yummy meals at home which help in filling up the nutritional requirements naturally for my family. And so I most often end up not using processed and packaged foods much.

I have come a long way but still can’t say my kitchen is totally free from the packaged foods. So for example, if I plan to make pasta, I would focus on adding vegetables to the meal in an interesting way to avoid a carb only meal. 

I would also cook the tomato sauce at home from raw tomatoes, but I would go in for the packaged pasta. You might also want to have a look at 43 healthy & fun snacks to make for kids at home.

1.   Chicken Sliders

These delicious chicken burgers are very easy to make and are sure to brighten up your kids’ mood. You can make it interactive by spreading out the ingredients for the burger like lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, chicken patties, mayo and cheese slices.

Everyone can assemble their own sliders and enjoy these. I often bake burger buns at home using the Sourdough Baking techniques. 

2.   Mac n Cheese

This classic English dish is very simple and tasty to make. All the kids around the globe love this cheesy meal and enjoy it. This is one of the easiest recipes and can be done in no time.

With simple ingredients available in most pantries, this is a sure winner on my list of easy meals as a stay at home mom. Also being a one-pot meal, it really helps in keeping the dishes to a minimum. 

However, I do serve this with some veggies on the side because I just don’t like the idea of serving only a carb-heavy meal. So either a raw salad with yogurt/hummus dip or some steamed & blanched greens. 

3.   Pasta

This one is the most versatile of all dishes I have on the list. Use pasta of your choice and toss it with Alfredo/mushroom/tomato or pesto sauce and you are ready to serve a filling meal to your family.

Easy to make & with few ingredients, this 20 minutes preparation is sure to delight your kid’s taste buds. Add in the vegetables to make it high on its health quotient and you are sure to serve a wholesome meal to your kids & family too.

4.   Baked Vegetables

I like to make this often. With vegetables like 3 coloured peppers, zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, carrot, all tossed in white sauce topped with cheese and baked to perfection. 

My secret twist to the dish is adding pineapple chunks and some cottage cheese chunks to the recipe. I also add some bread crumbs on the top along with cheese for the nice brown colour to my dish.

This in itself is a great meal option for people who want to go low on carbs in their meals but my kids do need a dinner roll or a slice of baguette to go along with this dish.

5.   Pizza

Homemade pizza dough with simple tomato-based sauce and veggies of my choice is all I need to dish out yummy restaurant style pizzas to kids. I generally use the Sourdough pizza dough for its fermented and so health benefits. 

I also tried a white sauce pizza instead of tomato sauce and kids were happy with the outcome. This was spinach corn and some cheese on top of the pizza dough baked to perfection.

6.   Chicken Tortilla Wraps

Easy to make and quick to assemble, chicken tortilla wraps is my go-to recipe on those harsh days. I usually team it with a basic and comforting soup. 

7.    Lasagna

This one-pot meal baked with whole wheat lasagna sheets, veggies or chicken, tomato-based sauce, and cheese is my idea of a quick and easy dinner. And yes you guessed it right, I do add in vegetables in my lasagna too. No way I serve empty calories to my family and kids.

8.   Chicken Mushroom Hot Pot

A wholesome one-pot meal with mushrooms chicken little bit of white sauce, vegetable stock and mix veggies of your choice. This is then baked to perfection. to make it more filling you can add bread chunks and cheese.

9.   Chicken, Egg, and Vegetable Fried Rice

This quick easy to cook recipe makes up for a wholesome meal. Add vegetables, garlic, chicken and fried egg and garnish it with some spring onions and voila, the meal is ready to be served. 

Additional tip: Try out different millets in place of regular rice and it tastes really good too. The rest of the recipe remains absolutely the same. 

10.  Tomato Soup with Cheesy Garlic bread

This light and nutritious bowl of tomato soups is best served with cheesy garlic bread. While tomato is the main ingredient in this I do add & blend in beetroot and some other veggies to make it more wholesome.  

Garlic Bread is baked at home and is usually stuffed with corn cheese filling. 

11.  Chicken Kebabs with Grilled Flatbreads

This is the perfect dinner when you are camping [ yes even backyard camping ]. Just take your marinated chicken, pan grill it and make your flatbread to take to the porch. A plate of fresh green salad and pickled vegetables & you are ready to go.

12.  Chicken Couscous Casserole

One-pot meal filled with a healthy grain and lots of vegetables and proteins. This is a wholesome and nutritious dinner that can be prepared in a jiffy. My kids especially love the rainbow colours in their bowl and hence eat this without a fuss. 

Try out Mango spinach salsa along with this dish if you are fond of mangoes. This tangy salsa is sure to up the deliciousness of this entire meal. 

13.   Bean Burgers

I usually bake burger buns along with my sourdough loaf once a week. Once the buns are readily kept, dinner is just a matter of making patties and assembling the fillings inside to dish out a tasty yet healthy dinner.

Red Beans along with potatoes, onions & ginger & garlic make up for a well balanced and yummy patty for the Bean burgers. Shallow fry this and load it inside the buns to serve up a delicious meal.

14.   Mushroom Stroganoff with Rice

This is one dish that goes well with or without chicken. The stroganoff curry is ready in less than 15 minutes. Putting in vegetables that go well with mushrooms like bell peppers, corn, garlic, baby corns and broccoli too sometimes makes it up for a healthy meal.

I usually serve this with buttered Cilantro rice. It also goes well with freshly baked bread. 

15.   Savoury Pancakes

There are days when I just don’t feel like cooking up an elaborate meal. These days I go in for this easiest meal on the planet.

Using chickpea flour to make the batter and putting in my greens like spinach cilantro, and some vegetables like grated carrots, broccoli and the meal are ready to be cooked in the pan.

It takes hardly 2 minutes to cook one pancake and I am done in less than 15 minutes of cooking time for entire family. 

16.   Chicken Steak with Herbed Rice

This is easy to cook meal however I do prepare and marinate my chicken in the morning when I plan to cook this for dinner. Marinated chicken perfectly grilled served with cilantro rice is a quick dinner that my family loves.

I usually serve it with some steamed vegetables & fries on the side. 

17.    Peri-Peri Chicken with mashed potato and broccoli

This chicken broccoli and potato combination is sure to win your heart if you are fond of hot and spicy foods. The marinade is said to have originated from Africa and now is a hot favourite around the world.

Chicken marinated in peri peri sauce and grilled to perfection is best served over rice or with a salad. I love to serve it with some mashed potato and steamed and sautéed broccoli. 

18.    The Burmese Khao Suey

The recipe is again a one pot meal and has the goodness of coconut and vegetables of your choice with some filling boiled noodles. I usually add some chicken or tofu to up the protein quotient of this recipe too.

But the best part of this meal is that you would usually not require any accompaniments along with these. So I just serve the soup in the bowl and that’s it.

19.    Indian Dum Biryani

Veggies and rice slow-cooked in an earthen pot with Indian spices and then finally sealed and baked to get the heavenly aroma of whole spices makes up for a flavourful and healthy meal. Seemingly an elaborate recipe, it is very easy and quick to cook. 

One of the key ingredients of my Indian Biryani is saffron and it is used to get the aroma as well as a wonderful colour to the dish. 

20.    Baked Risotto

This easy Italian meal is easy to cook and is loved by all in my house. I love the small list of ingredients required in this and I usually don’t add any new ingredients from my side to this dish. So its a simple baked risotto for the meal and that’s it.

21.    Boiled egg and vegetable casserole with dinner rolls

This protein rich yummy casserole with a lot of sautéed onions, peppers, zucchini and boiled eggs topped with sauce of your choice. I usually top it with spicy schezwan dressing but go for a milder sauce for kids.

It can be served with bread of your choice.

22.    Stir Fry Noodles with Schezwan dry chicken

Easy Peasy stir fry noodles with some pan-fried chicken with seasonings of your choice and the meal is ready to be served. The Peri peri chicken, Sweet & Sour chicken or barbecue chicken is all that would go well with the meal. 

[box] Additional tip: I use cold pressed Sesame Oil for all my Chinese style preparations and it tastes really well. Also try out some toasted or fried nuts like cashews or peanuts sprinkled on if you are making the saucy schezwan chicken. [/box]

23.    Chicken Pot Pie

This traditional recipe is sure to win your kid’s hearts. This tops my list of comfort foods and I love it more for its ease to cook. This one-pot dish packs in the proteins and carbs with the hint of vitamins & minerals from the vegetables you add to it. 

So this is my list of 23 Easy meals to cook for stay at home moms. I hope you find it useful. If you are looking for some fresh breakfast ideas and a big list of homemade dinner ideas, do have a look at my other food blogs here.