Looking for quick and simple recipe ideas to make at home? Or, trying to save money at the grocery store? I love trying new recipes, but hate when the recipe calls for a bunch of ingredients that I’ll only use a little of. These easy breakfast recipes have two or three ingredients. Most of the lunch and dinner recipes include either pasta or chicken so you can buy in bulk and have multiple recipes to choose from. Here are 20+ quick and simple recipe ideas with few ingredients.
Breakfast Quick and Simple Recipe Ideas with Few Ingredients
2 Ingredient Bagels
These 2 ingredient bagels are so easy to make, healthy and only require flour and greek yogurt! You can also add sesame seeds or everything but the bagel seasoning on top. We had lox and cream cheese as well and it felt like we went out to a deli. If you don’t have a mixer, it only takes a few minutes to knead by hand.
2 Ingredient Pancakes: Egg & Banana Pancakes
If you’re craving pancakes but don’t have milk or pancake mix you’re in luck. You can make pancakes with overripe bananas and eggs. Mix one mashed banana with 2 eggs. To make the mix smooth it’s easiest to mix in a blender but you can hand mix as well. Pour the banana mixture on a hot skillet with a little oil for a minute, flip and cook another minute.
Overnight Oats
An excellent pantry staple is oats, and luckily there are many ways to use oats besides adding water and heating it up on the stove. If you also have almond milk or another nut milk you can make overnight oats! My personal favorite is banana bread overnight oats which includes adding bananas and cinnamon to this. Fresh bananas only last so long, so I froze a few bananas and we’ll see how that works out. Otherwise, I will continue to just add cinnamon and try a few of these other recipes based on the ingredients I have in my pantry. Here are the recipes I use for overnight oats.
Granola
Making you own granola is another great way to use oats. Homemade granola is also much cheaper than buying granola at the store. Additionally, you get to control how much sugar is in the granola. This healthy granola recipe is very flexible. You can add whatever dried fruit you want or skip it, same with nuts. Personally, I use coconut oil, maple syrup, oats, apricots, pecans, flax seed and cinnamon in my granola.
Sweet Potato Toast
Did you buy sweet potatoes or regular potatoes? Slice them to make “toast” and add your favorite toppings! Oven baked sweet potato toast is a healthy way to start your day and is Whole30 Approved. To make sweet potato “toast” slice the sweet potato and bake for 25 minutes ahead of time. Put it in the fridge and when you’re ready to eat it toast it like you normally would a piece of toast in the toaster oven. You can have them plain, add salt / pepper, butter, almond butter, avocados or your favorite topping.
Sweet Potato and Caramelized Onion Hash
Sweet Potato and Caramelized Onion Hash is another great way to use the sweet potatoes you bought. This is also very healthy and was my favorite Whole30 recipe! I would meal prep on Sundays and make one batch of this. Throughout the week I would then add two fried eggs if I had it for dinner or warm up the hash for lunch. I also have made this with the crockpot salsa chicken mentioned below which was really good and added protein.
Eggs
There are plenty of ways to make eggs: scrambled, omelettes, over easy, hard boiled, frittata, quiche and more. Cheese and veggies (frozen work fine) are great mix-ins but if you don’t have any mix-ins look at what condiments and spices you have. A little salt and pepper will always add flavor and hot sauce can make almost anything taste better.
Chilaquiles
Chilaquiles is a dish made up of tortilla chips, eggs, salsa and your choice of toppings. Here is a recipe for chilaquiles, but when we tried to make them over the weekend we didn’t have many ingredients. Instead, we layered tortilla chips, salsa verde, cheese and scrambled eggs (eggs made prior to adding them to the dish) and put them in the 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. We loved how they came out!
Smoothies and Smoothie Bowls
Smoothie and smoothie bowls are a great way to use the frozen fruit you bought. Here are simple healthy smoothie recipes from Minimalist Baker using ingredients you likely already have!
Banana Bread
Banana bread is a great comfort food that takes relatively little effort and few ingredients to make. It’s also a great way to use bananas that are over ripe. Many banana bread recipes include sour cream, but since that item isn’t as frequently found in your fridge I found this banana bread recipe with fewer ingredients.
Lunch and Dinner Quick and Simple Recipe Ideas With Few Ingredients
Chicken and Salsa
Crockpot Chicken and Salsa is two ingredients, that’s it. It takes less than a minute to prep. Place a little salsa to line the bottom of the crockpot, add the chicken and pour the rest of the salsa on top. Set the crockpot for 4 hours on high. If you want to make this more like a meal add rice!
PS I haven’t tried this myself yet, but someone added Trader Joe’s Chili Lime Spice to this and highly recommended it.
Chicken Taco Bowls
If you want to get fancy with your chicken and salsa make it into a taco bowl. Chicken taco bowls also have canned or frozen veggies like black beans and frozen corn over a bed of rice with shredded cheddar on top. You can find a recipe for chicken taco bowls here.
Cacio e Pepe
I realize not everyone will have parmesan and pecorino to grate but both cheeses last a while in the fridge and for me have made 4 dinners for 2 people. Plus, there are only so many nights you can eat pasta with sauce. This cacio e pepe recipe helps provide some variety. All you need is pasta (I usually use bucatini), parmesan, pecorino, pepper and butter.
Simple Carbonara
I’ve always loved eating carbonara at restaurants but had never made it at home before. After realizing how few ingredients were required and that I had all of them I made this simple carbonara recipe. This recipe calls for spaghetti, eggs, parmesan cheese and bacon. I also used the parmesan cheese for the cacio e pepe so we didn’t have to eat the same dish every night.
Easy Chicken Enchiladas With Salsa Verde
Easy chicken enchiladas are a great way to use up chicken, cheese and tortillas. I modified this chicken enchiladas with salsa verde recipe. I didn’t have any sour cream, so I mixed the cooked chicken with salsa verde and cheese instead. Then, I topped it off with only salsa verde and cheese as I didn’t have cilantro. I was able to make a few extra so instead of baking it all at once I wrapped them up and saved a few chicken enchiladas in the freezer for easy lunches later.
Simple Turkey Chili
Chili is a great recipe for when you’re hunkered down, even as it starts to warm up. It requires very few ingredients and if you’re missing something like onions you can still make the recipe. This dish is pretty easy to make, requiring only about 10 minutes of prep. I always use frozen chopped onions and peppers so you don’t have to worry about getting fresh veggies to make the meal. Plus, this recipe is one way you can use all of those beans you bought.
Dessert Fast Easy Recipes With Few Ingredients
Mango Sticky Rice
Mango sticky rice is a thai dessert. I used frozen mango, jasmine rice, coconut milk and sugar to make this. Even though this is meant to be a dessert, I modified this mango sticky rice recipe by adding way less sugar and not making the coconut milk and sugar topping. I found that the rice came out best when I used 1 cup of rice with a little over 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of coconut milk, and 2 spoonfuls of sugar.
Healthy Banana Oatmeal Cookies
Do you have overripe bananas? Don’t let them go to waste! An easy cookie recipe with few ingredients is healthy banana oatmeal cookies. Take 2 overripe mashed bananas and add 1 cup of oatmeal. Optional to add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips or raisins. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
Buckeyes
Want candy but don’t have any in the house? Make your own. An easy dessert recipe with few ingredients is buckeyes. Buckeyes are like Reeses in a different shape – peanut butter covered in chocolate. Don’t have melting wafers? No problem. Use chocolate chips and add a little coconut oil. You can also substitute the peanut butter with almond butter. Here is a recipe for homemade buckeyes.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
And, of course, when you’re stuck at home for an indefinite amount of time there is nothing better than a batch of chocolate chip cookies. My favorite recipe has always been the chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag.
Want more recipe ideas? Check out weekly meal plan: what to cook for dinner, best Trader Joe’s dinner ideas and quick and easy breakfast recipes for more ideas!
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