ThePrep: Easy 5-Ingredient Dinners to Save You Time This Week

These flavorful recipes use five ingredients or less (not including basics you probably already have in your kitchen, like salt, pepper and oil) and prove that you don't need much to make a great meal. 

Cabbage Roll Chicken Enchiladas

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I love a good shortcut dinner. Whether I have 10 minutes to get something on the table or an hour, I always like keeping things easy. And this week of easy 5-ingredient dinners is as simple as it gets. These flavorful recipes use five ingredients or less (not including basics you probably already have in your kitchen, like salt, pepper and oil) and prove that you don't need much to make a great meal.

Your Meal Plan

Cauliflower Gnocchi Caprese

We kick off this week of 5-ingredient dinners with easy Cabbage Roll Chicken Enchiladas. In this recipe, all you do is combine chicken (I like buying a rotisserie bird to keep things simple), cheese, refried beans and enchilada sauce together in a bowl and then tuck the mixture into cabbage leaves—yum! These flavorful, ready-to-use ingredients really help to add deliciousness to these dinners while keeping the ingredient count low. You'll see the same in Tuesday's Curried Butternut Squash Soup with Crispy Halloumi, which combines boxed butternut squash soup with curry powder and halloumi cheese to create a cozy, craveworthy meal. (Can't find halloumi? Try subbing in queso fresco, cheese curds or paneer!)

And then there's Friday's Bacon and Avocado Topped Baked Potato. You could stuff a potato with just about anything and it'd be delicious! Here it gets paired with cheese, bacon, salsa and avocado for an easy and delicious end to the week.

Sunday: Cabbage Roll Chicken Enchiladas

Monday: Cauliflower Gnocchi Caprese

Tuesday: Curried Butternut Squash Soup with Crispy Halloumi

Wednesday: Black Bean Fajita Skillet

Thursday: Creamy Chicken & Mushrooms over cooked egg noodles

Friday: Bacon and Avocado Topped Baked Potato

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Big Batch Snack

Baked Blueberry & Banana-Nut Oatmeal Cups
Jamie Vespa

This recipe is a riff on our oh-so-popular Baked Banana-Nut Oatmeal Cups but with the addition of fresh, juicy blueberries. This warm, nutty muffin is just the thing to get me out of bed in the morning and makes for the best afternoon snack. And thanks to all those oats, there's a nice little fiber boost.

Get the Recipe: Baked Blueberry & Banana-Nut Oatmeal Cups

Treat Yourself

One-Bowl Monster Cookies

It looks like it's going to be a bit of a rainy weekend where I live, which is the perfect reason to bake up a batch of something tasty. I'm craving some good old fashioned cookies, so I'm going to make these colorful One-Bowl Monster Cookies.

Get the Recipe: One-Bowl Monster Cookies

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