WHAT’S FOR DINNER? | EASY & BUDGET FRIENDLY | REALISTIC WEEKNIGHT MEALS | DINNER INSPIRATION

In today’s What’s for Dinner video, I’ll be sharing some dinner ideas that I know your family will love. These realistic weeknight meals are easy and budget friendly. I hope this gives you some dinner inspiration. Enjoy!

Please like this video and subscribe to my channel for more What’s for Dinner videos, grocery hauls, and more.

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In today’s video:

0:00 Intro
0:26 Greek Take-out
1:27 Chili Cheese Dogs
2:29 Spooky Snacky Dinner
7:22 Copycat Applebee’s Crispy Orange Chicken Bowls
11:50 Leftovers
12:28 Chicken Pot Pie
15:31 Slow Cooker Balsamic & Herb Pork

Note – For the Halloween items, I used the below as inspiration. I didn’t necessarily follow the exact recipes
Witches Finger Mozzarella Sticks
https://bit.ly/3QK9mAF

Witches Brooms
https://bit.ly/3Mw2nsp

Mummy Pigs in a Blanket
https://bit.ly/3sjfvKK

Eyeball Caprese
https://bit.ly/3fESmLZ

Bone Cream Cheese & Pepper Jelly
https://bit.ly/45UtHrn

Spider Web Taco Dip
https://bit.ly/3u7dPnT

My BBQ Pepper Jelly Meatballs video:
https://bit.ly/3QsB6sh

Graveyard Brownies
https://bit.ly/461I7pJ

Orange Punch
https://bit.ly/3RG1yNs

Copycat Applebee’s Crispy Orange Chicken Bowls
https://bit.ly/462LInj – This website is no longer active, I am including the recipe below.
Ingredients:
CHICKEN
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
oil (for frying)
GLAZE
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange rind
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
Dash cayenne pepper
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Cut chicken into 2-inch pieces and place in a large bowl. Stir in egg, salt, pepper and oil. Mix well and set aside. Stir cornstarch and flour together in another large bowl and mix well. Add chicken mixture to the flour mixture, stirring to coat each piece well. Pour enough oil to be at least 1/2-inch deep in a wok or heavy skillet and set over high heat. When it reaches 375 degrees F (hot!) carefully add chicken pieces in small batches and fry 3 to 4 minutes or until golden and crisp. Do not overcook or chicken will be tough. Remove chicken from oil with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Continue frying chicken in small batches until all are nicely browned and crisp. Set aside while you make the glaze:
Cool the oil in the skillet slightly, then remove all but 2 tablespoons of oil and set over medium heat. Saute garlic in oil for 1 minute (if the oil is too hot the garlic will turn bitter). Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil. Allow to boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens to your liking, stirring frequently.
To serve, toss the chicken in the glaze. Serve over steamed rice with Asian vegetable medley and sliced almonds.
Note – Instead of battering and frying chicken, I use a bag of frozen popcorn chicken and cook it according to the package instructions. I then toss it with the above glaze.

Chicken Pot Pie
https://bit.ly/49AfNOf

My Slow Cooker Balsamic & Herb Pork video:
https://bit.ly/3tZ6EhR

Channels Mentioned:
​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠ @croutoncrackerjacks

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Edited using iMovie, Music from cchound

Disclosure: This video is not sponsored. All thoughts and opinions are strictly my own. The description box may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you purchase through that link.

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[Music] hi I’m Megan and welcome to my kitchen in today’s what’s for dinner video I’ll be sharing with you what meals we had this past week our dinners were easy to make budget friendly and delicious so if you’re looking for some week night meal ideas for your family just keep watching for dinner this first night Gary ran and grabbed takeout from our local Greek place so here’s what we got and this is way more than enough food for one meal we had leftovers that we had for lunch the next day so we both got their mix plate which is Euro and chicken over rice with salad and then peer bread and then Gary got their dolas or their grape leaves and we love their Ranch I’ve said this before but y’all I don’t know what it is about at least the Greek places near us their Ranch is the best Ranch I’ve ever had and I’ve asked before how do you make it and they’ve told me oh we just use um you know Ranch mix and mayonnaise and some milk and yogurt I’ve tried to recreate it my Ranch doesn’t taste like theirs but I could just drink the ranch it’s so good anyway I digress this was delicious it was so good and it hit the spot dinner the next night I don’t even remember what was on the meal plan but whatever it was I did not feel like cooking it this day and I know we just had chil cheese dogs a couple weeks ago but that just sounded good this night so here’s what I’m going to use to make this I’ve got some hot dog buns hot dog chili just from the pantry some hot dogs sharded cheese I just have this Fiesta blend on hands that’s what I’m going to use I have these little shells in my pantry that need to be used up and then I’ve got a couple packets of the Vita cheese sauce so I just boiled the um shell pasta in some salted water until they were tender drained them added them back to the pot added the Vita packets and a little bit bit of milk and some pepper and that was it for the mac and cheese for the hot dogs I cooked them in the air fryer and then placed them in the bun added the chili that I’d warmed up added some shredded cheese popped them back in the air fryer for a few minutes or no I’m sorry I popped them into the oven um until that cheese was melted and the bread was slightly toasted and that was our dinner this night the next night we had my parents and siblings over for a spooky snacky dinner and we watched What Lies Beneath so first up I pretty much shared everything that I’m making before on my channel I will have my Halloween playlist linked down below so that you can check out how I made these but um I haven’t shared these witches finger mozzarella sticks before but they’re so easy all I did was take Frozen mozzarella sticks baked them according to the package instructions as soon as they came out of the oven I took a sliced almond and put it in the end to look like a little fingernail now I only did it on some of them because my little brother can eat his weight and mozzarella sticks so I made a lot and I did not f feel like doing that to all of the mozzarella sticks and then I served it with some warmed up marinara sauce for dipping and my mom actually likes dipping her mozzarella sticks in honey mustard so I set out some honey mustard as well here I’ve got some witches brooms I’ve shared these before just take some string cheese cut them in half and then in each half I took a little pairing knife and about halfway up just made some little slices and then stuck a pretzel stick on top just to look like a little witches Brom next up I made some of the little Smokey mommies my dad y’all he said these look like little baby jesuses I like no they don’t but um anyway I’m sure you’ve seen this before I’ve shared these before I just took some little smokies took some crescent rolls that I cut into strips wrapped them around the Smokies baked it at 375° for about 10 minutes until the dough was done and then I just took some mustard and made some little eyeballs for them next I made eyeball Capra so I laid down some fresh basil added a sliced Aroma tomato and and then I took the little tiny mozzarella balls cut them in half and then for the little black part of the eyeball really you can use anything you can do slic black olives you could do like a little um bit of balsamic reduction tonight I just took a black edible food marker and just made the little dots and then on the side I had some of the Trader Joe’s balsamic glaze we could drizzle over it next up I did a sharer board I just use things that I had in my fridge and in my pantry that needed to be used up we’ve got some veggies some different Meats different crackers different cheeses I added some pitas as well as took some Little Cuties and Drew little faces on them for Jackal lanterns I did some grapes which I love grapes with cheese some olives gerkens for the spreads I did some mik hot honey and fig preserves and then when I do Sherie boards I’m not all the time but I try to remember to at least try one New cheese or one new thing and tonight I added some Mano cheese to this which I hadn’t tried before and it was actually pretty good while I was digging around looking for cheeses and meats in my fridge I had like a half a package of cream cheese I needed to use up so I’ve seen this on Pinterest I just took the cream cheese let it sit out at room temperature and formed it into a little bone and then I had some strawberry jalapeno jam in my pantry to use up and so I just kind of drizzled that across that to do you know pepper jelly and cream cheese that combination is so yummy in this bowl I just have the Cheetos bag of bones cheese puffs that they put out this time of year I got these at the Dollar General store but I’ve seen them at different stores and then like a month or so ago I saw these orange and black tortilla chips at Target so I set that out and then I’ve seen this for years and wanted to give it a try it’s the little spiderweb Taco dips I’ve shared this taco dip recipe before I’ll link that below um I just layered it a little bit differently and I took some sour cream thinned it out with a little water and put it in a squeeze bottle to make the um like spider web and then I have the fake spider ring next I did a crock poot meatballs which I’ve shared this many times before just did some frozen meatballs with barbecue sauce a little grape jelly and then some pepper jelly and cooked it on um high for 2 hours next I made some graveyard brownies just took a box brownie mix baked it according to the package instructions added some canned chocolate frosting on top and then just decorated it like a little graveyard with decorations that I already had on hand and then we had some um just odds and ends of sweet treats so I just did like a sweet uh shuder board type thing I had a couple decorated sugar cookies I got from the dollar store we had just a few of the Halloween Oreos left so I added those we had a caramel apple that needed to be used up so I sliced that up we had some of the Little Critters Reese’s Pieces and then the Reese’s covered pretzels and then last but not least I made punch this is just orange sherbet orange soda and lemon lime soda you want everything to be nice and cold just add it to the punch Bowl um you know a little bit before you’re ready to serve so that the sherbet melts and here is my plate everything was delicious and we had a nice time together for dinner the next night I made copycat Applebee’s crispy orange chicken bowls I’ve shared this before my channel but it’s been a while and I wanted to share it again because I’ve had lots of new viewers since then so I mentioned before that this was my favorite thing that Applebee’s had on their menu they had it for years they took it off years ago every once in a while they’ll bring it back but they’ve changed the recipe it’s not the same that it used to be I’ve made this copycat version for years and it is like spot on it’s delicious it’s easy so let me show you how to put this together real quick I’m going to start out by making the glaze so in this little sauce pan here I’m adding just a touch of oil this is on about medium heat I’m going to add in some minced garlic give that a stir and cook that just for about a minute until you really start to smell the garlic you don’t want it to burn so don’t cook it longer than that and you know make sure your heat’s not crazy high next I’m going to add in some orange juice now tonight I squeeze this fresh but in the past I’ve just used bottled orange juice either’s fine I’m going to add in some orange zest and if I’m using bottled orange juice and I don’t have any orange D zest on hand you can just skip it then we’re going to add in some hoiston sauce this is like an Asian barbecue sauce you can find it just at your regular grocery store in their Asian aisle we’re going to add in just the tiniest pinch of cayenne pepper then some sugar and we’re going to season this to taste with some salt and pepper I’m going to give that a really good whisk and then I’m turning my heat up slightly to about medium high heat you’re going to bring this to a boil reduce it to a simmer and simmer it for about 5 minutes or so until it’s thick you know like a glaze now I speak from personal experience here keep an eye on this while it’s simmering you do not want this to boil all over your stove it is a pain in the neck to clean next we’re going to make the veggie portion of the bowl so in this Skillet I’m going to add in some oil I’ve got this on about medium heat I’m just using you know what Applebees used to use use whatever you’ve got on hand or what you and your family like here I’ve got some sliced red bell pepper some sliced mushrooms sugar snap peas and then some broccoli that I gave a rough chop I’m going to season this with a little bit of salt and pepper and then just cook this for I don’t know maybe 8 to 10 minutes until all the veggies are tender now sometimes if I’m you know kind of feeling lazy or I’m just trying to get dinner on the table really quick I’ll just use like a frozen Asian vegetable medley and just cook that in the microwave according to the package instructions now for the chicken the recipe that I use which of course will be linked down below calls for you to take chicken breasts Cube them up batter them deep fry them which you can totally do I prefer to just use frozen bagged chicken there are two reasons for that one it’s easier too if you’ve watched my channel for any period of time you know I hate deep frying food I avoid it where I can so I just prefer to do this but use your preference if you want to you know batter and cut up your own fresh chicken totally do that I bought this um Tyson anytizers popcorn chicken this is the chicken I prefer to use uh I got this at BOGO on Publix like a month or so ago so it was half price but really any frozen chicken you could do you know chicken nuggets popcorn chicken whatever you prefer any brand is fine I’m just going to cook this according to the package instructions once that’s cooked I’m going to add it to a bowl and when I added it a little bit of the oil from the air fryer basket came into the bowl so I just took a little paper towel and cleaned that up I’m going to take the orange glaze that we made and drizzle that over the chicken and then give that a toss and that’s it for the orange chicken now really you could eat this just like that is this is you know a good orange chicken recipe but we’re going to turn it into the copycat Applebee’s Bowl so to a bowl I’m going to add in some cooked white rice I’m using the you know just microwaveable Bowl 90 second rice tonight to make it easy I’m going to lay down some of those vegetables and then the orange chicken now I do like to make the full recipe of the sauce because we like to drizzle the sauce over our chicken and vegetables like you see me doing here and then last but not least we’re going to add some sliced almonds uh you know obviously if you have allergy don’t add these but add them if you can they give a nice texture and a nice crunch to them so here is my plate Gary was at the gym this night so he ate later than I did but his plate looked exactly the same this is delicious so yummy and if you you know do the shortcuts like I mentioned like using the bag frozen chicken microwavable instant white rice this dinner comes together in like no time for dinner the next night I apologize I didn’t get pictures it was Halloween and so you know with the dogs and the trick-or-treaters and everything was just kind of a lot uh but we just had leftovers Gary had leftovers of the orange chicken bowls and then for lunch one day that week I’d made my dad’s burger and and beans I’ve shared that before I’ll link the video down below so I had leftovers of that I just warm that up for dinner the next night I made chicken pop pie now like some of the other things I’ve shared in this video today I have shared this before but I wanted to share it again so this originally I found on Crouton Cracker Jack’s Channel I’ll have it linked down below this is really easy and it is delicious there’s nothing wrong with using you know the recipes that call for cream of chicken soup nothing wrong with that I make that too but making your own fing from scratch it’s it’s just delicious so in this Skillet I’m going to add in some butter I’ve got this on medium heat once the butter has melted I’m going to add in some DIC onions and cook those for about 5 minutes or so with a little salt until the onions are soft and if you wanted to you could add in some DIC celery here if you’ve been with me for a while you know I’m not a celery lover I’ve only recently started using it and I have to like put it in the food processor and I didn’t have any on hand this night so um anyway like I said once those onions are tender then we’re going to move forward with making our filling we’re going to do that by adding in some flour we’re going to give that a whisk and cook that for a couple minutes until the flour tast is out of it and it kind of starts to uh change colors just a little bit then we’re going to add in our chicken stock now I’m just using some water with chicken bullon powder then I’m going to add in the milk now you could use you know the whole milk half and half heavy cream whatever you’ve got on hand I’m just using what I’ve got on hand and I’m just whisking the liquids and you want to add them kind of slowly and whisk to make sure you don’t have any lumps then we’re going to add in our seasonings we’re going to add some dried thyme seasoned salt and then a little black pepper nut you could use whatever seasonings you prefer I’m just using what the recipe calls for uh but use what you like so again we’re going to give that a whisk and then you just have to simmer this for a couple minutes until it gets thick once it’s there we’re going to add in our chicken this is just some rotisserie chicken that I gave a rough chop this is also great way to use up Thanksgiving leftovers if you got some you know leftover turkey makes a great turkey pot pie so now for the potatoes if you don’t like potatoes in your pot pie you can skip it um the recipe calls for you to take like russets and you know peel them boil them everything which you totally can do um but I just prefer to use the canned diced potatoes they’re already cooked um you know all you got to do is drain it so I’m going to add that and then add in some frozen peas and carrots again use whatever vegetables you like you can do mixed vegetables whatever you prefer we’re going to give that a stir and then give it a taste adjust the seasonings to your taste now for pie crust you can totally make your own I have in the past but tonight I’m just going to use some store-bought ones so what I did was preheated the oven to 375° I laid down one of the pie crust in the bottom of a cast iron skillet added the filling added the second pie crust pinch the two crusts together cut a slit into the top and then I took a little egg beat it with some water and brush that on top I popped this into the preheated oven and I baked it for you want to bake it about 45 to 60 minutes or so just until the crust is cooked all the way through and is golden brown and then once you remove it from the oven you do want to let this sit for about 10 or 15 minutes and then serve it up so here are the plates just got some of the pot pie and then I made some side salads and this pop pie is so so good it’s delicious for the last dinner in this week’s video I did a slow cooker balsamic and Herb porkloin I shared how I made this in my last video it was a Thanksgiving collab I will post that link down in the description box below if you’d like to see how I made it to go along with the porkloin I just made some sweet potatoes I cooked them in the air fryer at 400° for about 20 minutes flipped them over cooked them another 20 minutes or so until they were fork tender and to go along with that I’m going to make some quick sauteed vegetables I’ve got this Skillet on about medium heat I had some oil in it that I allowed to heat up once it was hot I added in some diced onions sliced mushrooms and some cubed up zucchini I’m going to keep the seasonings pretty simple I did salt pepper and some minced garlic and then I just cooked these for about 7 to 10 minutes stirring them ever so often until all the vegetables were tender and started to get golden brown here’s what the vegetables look like when they were done and then here are the plates so we’ve got some of that porkloin with the extra glaze the vegetables and then for the sweet potatoes I um topped them with a little bit of butter a little sprinkle of brown sugar and a Sprinkle of cinnamon and this was a delicious dinner all right that is it for today’s video thank you so much for watching I hope you liked this video got some new dinner ideas to try from it if you did like it hit the Thumbs Up Button below and subscribe to my channel if you’re not already I hope you have a great today thanks so much for watching bye-bye