Cooking is hard enough when you’re tired at the end of the day. Factoring in every family member’s preferences can make it even more taxing, especially when one or more of them swears nothing sounds good (and everything you suggest gets shot down too). Ugh! On nights like this, it’d be nice to open up a cookbook of dinners to make when everyone wants something different, but alas, no such collection exists. But instead of making everyone their own dinner like a literal line cook, what if you started with plain bases everyone could customize to their preferences? Here’s what I mean.
Air-Fryer Chicken Bites
Family Fresh Meals’ air-fryer chicken bites are simple and the food version of a blank slate. Toss them in buffalo sauce and put them over an Easy Mac cup for one kid. Throw them in a quesadilla with cheese and taco sauce for the other. Finally, toss them into a salad for your and your partner. You could make them boneless wing-style, too.
Turkey Meatballs
Much like the chicken bites, turkey meatballs like Budget Bytes’ are versatile. Throw them over pasta, into a rice bowl, or onto a sub. Everyone can choose their carb and sauce and go from there.
Blackened Chicken Cobb Salad
This Cobb salad from Family Fresh Meals happens to have a lot of components that can be made into other meals. Not only can everyone decide what goes into their own salad, they could also easily whip up a BLT, chicken burrito bowl, or a wrap from what you’ve already made.
Southwest Chicken Bowl
Again, we’re going for versatile building blocks here. Entirely Emmy’s southwest chicken bowls look delicious as is, but could easily pop these components into a tortilla as a burrito or quesadilla, over tortilla chips to make nachos. For the pickiest kids, pull out the chicken and pair it with ketchup, fruit, and corn chips on the side.
Sweet Potato Beef Bowl
This recipe is Averie Cooks’ take on the viral sweet potato, cottage cheese, and ground beef bowls that were all over our social media feeds earlier this year. Healthy bowl dinner recipes are a great way to feel like you’re eating grown-up meals while also being able to separate the ingredients for kids who maybe aren’t that into avocado yet.
Easy Dutch Oven Shredded Chicken
Is there anything more versatile than shredded chicken? Toss it in barbecue sauce for sandwiches, put it in a wrap, or throw it over mashed potatoes with gravy — it’s good any which way, and everyone can get what they want out of it. Entirely Emmy’s recipe will teach you a trick for keeping it super moist and tender.
Homemade Pizza
Damn Delicious’ recipe will teach you how to make delicious homemade pizza dough. Whether you follow it or buy dough from the grocery store, pizza is a great way to make enough food for the whole family while allowing everyone to customize their half of the pie. White mushroom pizza for me, zucchini corn pizza for you, plain cheese for them…
Taco Potatoes
If the plan is taco potatoes a la Princess Pinky Girl’s recipe, then great — they look delish. You could also obviously pivot to tacos or baked potatoes loaded with whatever is in the fridge, depending on your family’s whims today.
An Easy Charcuterie Board
If you’re going to make something everyone likes, why cook anything at all? Compile a massive charcuterie board of fruit, veggies, cheeses, whatever proteins you have lying around, and various chips, crackers, and spreads. Dude That Cookz’ guide to making a charcuterie board at home will give you lots of ideas for jazzing up what’s already in your fridge.
Is it reasonable to make everyone their own dinner every night? No. But when you’re dealing with chronically different palates, maybe these dinner ideas will help you plan meals that leave everyone satisfied (or at least not starving).
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