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Sunday Dinner Ideas
Mains, sides and a few desserts to pick from when Sunday dinner needs a plan.
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If you're cooking Sunday dinner for the family and want a short list to choose from, not a hundred recipes, start here. Pioneer Woman builds it simply: a main dish, a salad or cooked vegetable, some warm bread. Half Baked Harvest goes further and says the pot roast is the only recipe a full dinner really needs, plus a salad and one dessert. Buy what you like, and ask guests to bring something. The list covers mains, sides and a few desserts. It leaves out drinks and a full timetable.
Why these items are on the list
- Pot roast with root vegetables. Meat and vegetables roast together, so it can be a whole dinner on its own.
- Whole roast chicken. Pan drippings are made for pouring over rice or potatoes.
- Chicken pot pie. Make the crust from scratch or buy one; the filling's chicken and vegetables.
- Baked ziti. Beef, Italian sausage and plenty of sauce. It suits a relaxed Sunday with a full house.
- Spaghetti and homemade meatballs. Add garlic bread for swiping up the tomato sauce.
- Slow cooker chicken and dumplings. The slow cooker handles the chicken and broth; the dumplings go on top at the end.
- Honey-glazed ham. That's 14 servings and 4 hours 40 minutes total, according to Taste of Home.
- Pork roast with chunky applesauce. The applesauce works with pork chops or a pork roast, and takes about 45 minutes.
- Slow-cooked beef roast dinner. Slow cooking lets you use a less expensive roast. Swap the vegetables to taste.
- Swedish meatballs with noodles. Six servings in about an hour and ten minutes, with gravy over the noodles.
- Beef burgundy. Spoon it over mashed potatoes or noodles; it's beef simmered with wine, onions and mushrooms.
- Lasagna Bolognese. Plays Well With Butter shelves it under Sunday suppers, beside a slow-simmered Bolognese.
- Hearty minestrone soup. A soup-led supper; one version adds Italian sausage.
- Chicken noodle casserole. Egg noodles, chicken and vegetables bake under a buttery cracker topping.
- Potatoes au gratin. Thin slices baked in cheese sauce; slide the dish in next to any roast.
- Collard greens with beans. Taste of Home lists it as serving eight in about 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Buttermilk biscuits. Good with jam, honey, or a swipe through leftover gravy.
- Last-minute garlic bread. It takes ten minutes, using plain sliced bread.
- Arugula side salad. Make the vinaigrette on Saturday, then toss the salad just before serving.
- Roasted apples with ice cream. Butter, maple and cinnamon, served warm with vanilla ice cream. Almost no prep.
- Bakery apple cake or doughnuts. A fair swap for baking; you don't need to do it all.
Tick the mains and sides you'd actually cook and your phone holds the shopping shortlist. If someone's coming over, hand them a couple of items to bring and tick those off too.
When to use it
Friday or Saturday, when you're choosing the menu and writing the grocery list for Sunday.