13 Easy Weeknight Meals

How often do you find yourself making the same weeknight meals over and over? It's intimidating to break out of the mold and try something new when you have a limited amount of time each night. Dinner cooked at home usually ends up being healthier than anything you can get at a restaurant, and it's a great time to introduce kids to all types of ingredients. Skip the takeout this week and try some easy weeknight meals.

Click here to see 13 Easy Weeknight Meals (Slideshow)

It's easy to get stuck in a weeknight meal rut, so we decided it would be the ideal theme for this week's SWAT (Sharing with a Theme). We put the Culinary Content Network to the test to come up with easy weeknight meals, and here are some of the highlights:

• Betsy Cohen, of Desserts Required, shares with us a classic recipe to finish off any weeknight meal, double chocolate chip cookies.
• Aaron, of The Hungry Hutch, shares with us an easy pasta dish with sausage and kale.
• This week's winner comes from Lori Yates of Foxes Love Lemons. Pop this healthy stir fry casserole into a pan and forget about it until dinner time.

All of the recipes featured can be made at home for about $20 or less, excluding the cost of small amounts of basic ingredients such as butter, oil, flour, sugar, salt, pepper, and other dried herbs and spices.

Slow Cooker Indian Eggplant: Bhurtha

(Credit: Diane Balch/Simple Living and Eating)
A slow cooked, vegetarian meal that's ready to eat when you get home. Click here for the recipe.

Sesame Noodles

(Credit: Ashley/The Hill Hangout)
This simple Asian-style pasta dish can be a full meal or a side dish. Just toss cooked noodles in a soy sauce dressing and it's ready to go. Click here for the recipe.

Click here for more Easy Weeknight Meals

Julie Ruggirello is the Recipe Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @TDMRecipeEditor.