Today I’m sharing ten of my favorite quick-and-easy one pot dinners! Scroll down for a link to my Pinterest board with even more one-pot dinner ideas!

I love food. I love to cook it. I love to eat it. I love to read about it. This should come as no surprise, given that around 70% of my posts involve food in some way…

At one point in my life, I was a self-proclaimed food snob. Only later did it occur to me that it may not be the best idea to give myself a label involving the word “snob”. Now I prefer the term “foodie”. During one season of life, probably at the same time I was calling myself a food snob, I decided that I would never make the same dinner twice. It was a fun treadmill to be on a for a while. But when I got married, and began having kids shortly thereafter, I quickly realized that my previous lifestyle was no longer feasible. The Lord had set before me a new challenge: to be able to cook a crowd-pleasing meal in a reasonable amount of time, and on a tight budget. I have learned a lot, and discovered many new meals and methods of cooking in the process. I now have a repertoire of dinners that can be made in the midst of changing diapers, nursing babies, and helping outfit two little “firefighters” in their favorite play costume.

One of my favorite discoveries has been one pot dinners. These are all-in-one meals, with meat, veggies, carb, you name it, all in the same pot (or pan, or crock pot…you get the idea), meaning you can get dinner on the table quickly, with minimal cleanup. Even better is that they are very kid friendly!

Having meals like these in your back pocket means easy dinner inspiration, and makes meal planning a snap!

Not only am I sharing some of my favorite tried-and-true recipes, but many of them also come from my favorite blogs, where you can find even more great dinner ideas.

Top 10 One Pot Wonders

In writing this post, I tried to order them from least to most favorite. But I picked these recipes specifically because they’re all my favorite. So instead I assigned numbers randomly. But I made sure to start with the recipe that started it all, the one that inspired my love for one-pot dinners.

Click either the title or the picture to view a recipe on its original website.

1. One Pot Pasta – Cooking Light

Did you know it is possible to cook pasta, veggies, and sauce all in one pan? This idea was revolutionary to me, and has been a great blessing because we love pasta! The key is adding just enough liquid to cook the pasta through.

This is a great basic recipe that can be adjusted and customized based on your preferences, or what you have on hand. I usually add chicken to it, by sautéing cubed chicken in the pan before adding the other ingredients.

4. Crock Pot Cowboy Casserole – Funny Is Family

When your men love meat and potatoes, you need this recipe in your arsenal. Throw the ingredients in and crock them for a few hours, add some cheese, and there’s dinner!

7. Creamy Chicken and Rice – Natasha’s Kitchen

I have an undying love for chicken and rice. At least four different variations on this theme make it into my regular dinner rotation. But this one is the creme de la creme. It probably has to do with the half a stick of butter, parmesan cheese, and wine…

My recipe notes:

• I often make it without wine simply because I don’t have any on hand, but adding it in definitely takes it up a notch.
• She does something weird with the garlic. I just mince several cloves and add it in when sauteing the veggies at the beginning.
• I often just chop the carrots, rather than grating them as she suggests, for simplicity.

8. Instant Pot Spaghetti – The Salty Marshmallow

I tried this recipe because I was tired of dirtying three pans to make a simple dish like spaghetti. But I found that this is not just a shortcut method – something wonderful happens between the sauce and the noodles under pressure, producing a thick, almost creamy sauce infused with flavor.

This recipe is a recent discovery for me and I’m pretty stoked about it. It doesn’t *technically* fit my definition for a one-pot meal because it doesn’t include a meat and veggie. BUT, it is a true one-dish mac and cheese, meaning you stir together the sauce ingredients and pour over raw noodles in your baking dish. Stir and bake, and voila, homemade mac and cheese! And since you’ve already got the oven going, throw in some chicken on a sheet pan and you can call it a healthy dinner. 😉

6. Autumn Chicken Dinner – Cooking Classy

This recipe introduces another mind-blowing concept: sheet pan meals. The whole meal is baked on one sheet pan, so the flavors meld in a wonderful way, and you have minimal cleanup.

The marinade for the chicken and the combination of fall produce can’t be beat. If you’re not in the mood for fall flavors right now, set a reminder for yourself to make this in October. You can thank me then.

10. Ground Beef Stroganoff – Carlsbad Cravings

I only recently discovered that I like stroganoff. This recipe is amazingly easy and full-flavored.

9. Cheesy Beef & Tomato Pasta Skillet – Yellow Bliss Road

In our house we call this “cheesy beefy pasta” because I can never remember the exact name. It is like homemade Hamburger Helper. And I mean that as a compliment!

For Even More Recipes…

Follow me on Pinterest! And check out my One Pot Wonder Board. It is a collection of one-pot recipes that I personally have tried and love. I will keep adding to it as I discover more!

Let me end with a confession. I have a few more one pot recipes up my sleeve, that I purposely did not include in this post. They are ones that started with inspiration from elsewhere, but that I have been tweaking and perfecting to make them my own. Stay tuned as I hope to roll these out in the future! Just as soon as I train myself to actually measure ingredients when I’m cooking…