Back-to-school season brings packed schedules, busy mornings, and the daily challenge of getting delicious meals on the table fast. Between school drop-offs, homework, and after-school activities, having easy go-to recipes can make mealtime so much less stressful. That’s why we’ve rounded up these simple and family-friendly back-to-school recipes that are perfect for busy weekdays. From quick wraps and hearty dinners to satisfying snacks and make-ahead favorites, these recipes are designed to save time while keeping everyone happy and well-fed all season long.
1.Best Southwest Chicken Wrap – Fresh, Flavorful & Easy!
Ingredients For Southwest Chicken Wrap
- Chicken Tenders: To keep this southwest wrap recipe simple, I love to buy frozen crispy breaded chicken breasts and pop them in oven. To cut back on calories, you can use grilled chicken tenders.
- Flour Tortillas: You can use your favorite flour, whole wheat, protein, low carb or spinach tortillas for these southwest chicken wraps.
- Lettuce: I love to use romaine lettuce in this wrap, but you can use your desired one.
- Tomato: Choose a couple of medium-large sized tomatoes and cut them into slices. If you don’t like them, then you can skip them.
- Black Beans: These are good source of fiber and protein. Drain and rinse black beans before adding them into the wrap.
- Corn: You can use canned or frozen corn.
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese: I love to keep it simple and use the shredded cheddar cheese and other great options are Mexican, Colby Jack and Monterey Jack cheeses.
Southwest Dressing
- Mayonnaise: I love to use lite mayo to cut down on calories and fat.
- Milk: You can use any kind of milk will work for this homemade southwest dressing, i usually use 1% milk.
- Salsa: You can use homemade salsa or any kind of it will works for this dressing.
- Taco Seasoning: It adds such great flavor to this south dressing.
How To Prep The Best Southwest Chicken Wrap
- Preheat oven and bake chicken strips.
- Take a small mixing bowl and add mayonnaise, milk, salsa, taco seasoning and cumin. Mix well and set aside.
- During chicken was baking, place thawed corn into a small skillet with 1 tablespoon of oil and cook until corn gets light browned.
- Remove Chicken from the oven, then cut into small strips.
- Start assembling chicken wraps by adding a couple tablespoons of southwest dressing to lower half of tortilla. Add romaine lettuce, sliced tomatoes, black beans, corn, chicken strips and drizzle more southwest dressing on top.
- Roll the tortilla tightly, and cut it half and serve with a side of southwest dressing. Enjoy!
2.Healthy Asian Chicken Salad with Tangy Ginger Dressing For Back-to-School Meals
Key Ingredients for Healthy Asian Chicken Salad
Coleslaw mix: It will available in produce section of grocery store. I’ll use slaw mix because it makes salad more easy because I don’t have to slice cabbage. Mostly mixtures has nice assortment of both green and purple cabbage and a bit of carrot are added for color.
Green Leaf Lettuce: It adds little textural difference.
Cilantro: This can really adds a fresh herbaceous flavor to salad.
Chicken: You can also use leftover cooked chicken or shred rotisserie chicken for this chicken salad.
Sliced almonds: Add toasted sliced almonds which is a great crunch to the salad.
Sesame seeds: You can add this to enhance the taste of salad.
Mandarin oranges: Use fresh or jarred Mandarin oranges.
Garlic: It adds great flavor to dressing.
Ginger root: Use fresh ginger root which gives dressing amazing flavor.
Olive oil: It balances the tanginess of vinegar.
Rice vinegar: It’s a mild flavor vinegar, there are different flavors but I get plain variety.
Soy sauce: It adds a bit of salty umami flavor to dressing
Honey: This adds natural sweetness to dressing.
Red pepper flakes: This adds a bit of spice. You can also add a small amount of Sriracha to dressing instead.
Chow mein noodles: This are crunchy noodles which enhances flavor.
Step-by-step instructions for Asian Chicken Salad
Heat skillet over medium flame. Dry toast sliced almonds, sesame seeds to bring out their flavor.
It will take around 5 minutes.
During almond seeds, sesame seeds are toasting add chicken, coleslaw mix, lettuce, cilantro, and sliced green onions to a mixing bowl.
To prepare salad dressing, add olive oil, rice vinegar, honey, soy sauce, red pepper flakes and sesame oil to a small bowl.
Use fine grater to grate ginger root and garlic clove into dressing. Stir it well to combine and pour on the salad mixture and toss well.
Add Mandarin oranges and crunchy dried chow mein noodles top to the salad and serve immediately.
Make Ahead
Are you planning to make this ahead, it is the best store the salad separate from dressing. So Salad stays nice and crunchy.
After mixing all the salad ingredients portion in to individual airtight containers for 3-4 days. Then this is a great salad for meal prep.
3.The Best Lasagna Roll Ups Recipe – Easy, Cheesy & Irresistible!
Ingredients Required For Meat Lasagna Roll Ups Recipe
To prepare these melty lasagna roll ups, here is the quick overview of all ingredients you will need to prepare this recipe.
- Lasagna Noodles: To cook the noodles properly, follow the instructions on the package. If you want gluten-free, then you can easily swap them out for a gluten-free option.
- Ground Beef: I like to use 80/20 beef but you can use 99% lean for healthier lasagna. You can use ground Italian sausage or turkey instead of ground beef as an alternative.
- Marinara Spaghetti Sauce: I have delicious sauce recipe which I make all time and keep on hand for quick meals. But, can use your store bought jarred sauce to save time.
- Onions and Garlic: I’ll try to use fresh onion and garlic when possible. It enhances the flavor of marinara sauce and overall just tastes better.
- Seasonings: To enhance flavor to this dish, I use salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper. If you don’t want spice, then you can leave crushed red peppers and add little bit of black pepper.
- Cheese: I use 3 kinds of cheeses for this lasagna roll ups recipe: ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.
- Egg: Eggs helps to bind all ingredients for lasagna filling together.
- Parsley: This is optional but it gives a pop of color to this dish when serving.
Equipment Needed
- White Baking Dish
Instructions To Make Lasagna Roll Ups Recipe
- Initially preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat and cook until no longer pink, and breaking apart with a spatula for 3-4 minutes. Later add ½ cup of yellow onions and cook until they transparent for 3 minutes.
- And add ¼ cup of crushed red pepper, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning, ½ teaspoon of salt and garlic. Then mix well and saute for 1 minute.
- Now pour 24 oz of your favorite marinara sauce, then bring it to a simmer cook for 5 minutes, later set aside. Now, pour water in a large pot to boil and add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Cook lasagna noodles according to directions listed on package.
- Later drain noodles and put them back in pot and cover with cold water.
- During pasta is cooking, make the cheese mixture. By adding ricotta cheese, 1 large egg, ½ parmesan cheese, 1 ½ cups of mozzarella cheese, parsley to a large bowl, then mix until fully incorporated.
- Divide cooked noodles and ricotta cheese mixture over noodles and spread them evenly. Add a large spoon of meat mixture to each noodle, spread evenly. Now spread ⅓ cup of meat sauce on bottom of a baking dish. Then roll noodles up jellyroll style and place seam side down in baking dish.
- Later cover roll-ups with remaining meat sauce then sprinkle remaining 1 ½ cups of mozzarella cheese over them. Now, cover with foil and bake for 38 minutes in preheated oven. Later remove foil and bake for an additional 2 minutes, serve garnished and chopped fresh parsley.
4.Creamy Avocado Chicken Pasta Salad – Light & Fresh Recipe
Ingredients Required For Chicken Pasta Salad Recipe
- 2 medium cooked chicken breasts
- 2 ripe avocado
- 1 pound of cooked rotini pasta
- ½ cup of chopped red onion
- 1 cup of cherry tomatoes
- ½ cup of freshly chopped basil
- Salt and fresh cracked pepper
