ThePrep: Cozy 20-Minute Dinners for Winter

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With winter officially here, I'm craving cozy dinners that'll help keep me warm. But, like always, I still want my meals to come together quickly. Especially now that the holidays are upon us! (I'm already way behind on writing my holiday cards and shopping for gifts.) Enter these easy 20-minute meals. These dinners use quick cooking ingredients, like frozen riced cauliflower and chicken cutlets, to keep things speedy, yet still as delicious as ever.

Your Meal Plan

There are a few recipes I always turn to when I need a quick and cozy meal: Sunday's Chicken Cutlets with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce, Monday's Chickpea Curry and Tuesday's Spinach & Artichoke Dip Pasta. They're all super easy to make and deliver tons of delicious flavor—the perfect combination! It's honestly hard to believe they come together so quickly for how tasty they are. To help round out these dinners, I'll pair them with other convenient ingredients, like frozen riced cauliflower, naan bread and simple salads.

The cozy theme continues with Wednesday's Easy Eggplant Stir-Fry. It'll be my first time making this recipe and I can already tell it'll be a new favorite. This veggie-packed dish is flavored with fresh basil, ginger and garlic and gets a kick of heat from jalapeños. I'll serve this tasty dish over brown rice, for a little extra fiber. I always like to keep a few packets of pre-cooked brown rice on hand for nights when I don't want to wait the 40 minutes it takes to cook it from scratch. To close out the week, I'll use chicken cutlets again in Thursday's 20-Minute Chicken Cutlets with Creamy Pesto Sauce (creamy pesto? YUM!) and naan bread again in Friday's Garlic, Sausage & Kale Naan Pizzas.

Sunday: Chicken Cutlets with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce over cauliflower rice

Monday: Chickpea Curry (Chhole) served with naan bread

Tuesday: Spinach & Artichoke Dip Pasta greens topped with Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette

Wednesday: Easy Eggplant Stir-Fry over cooked brown rice

Thursday: 20-Minute Chicken Cutlets with Creamy Pesto Sauce

Friday: Garlic, Sausage & Kale Naan Pizzas with greens topped with Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette

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Big Batch Snack

I'm a big fan of savory flavors and these cheesy Baked Broccoli-Cheddar Quinoa Bites sound like the most delicious savory snack ever! Plus, I love that I can make a big batch and reheat-and-eat them throughout the week.

Get the Recipe: Baked Broccoli-Cheddar Quinoa Bites

Treat Yourself

I've been enjoying some delicious cocktails and wine this holiday season, but this week I'm going easy on the booze and instead will be making this Fizzy Rosemary Cider Mocktail. This fresh and flavorful mocktail is just the thing to sip on at the end of the day. The recipe calls to use a sugar substitute to make a sugar-free simple syrup but I'll plan on using regular sugar (you only use a little bit per serving).

Get the Recipe: Fizzy Rosemary Cider Mocktail

Love this newsletter, have a meal-prep tip you're dying to share or a question you need answered? Email me at ThePrep@eatingwell.com