During the week sometimes we’re thinking about cooking chicken, sometimes we are thinking about making Mexican food, but most of the time we are thinking about … time. And how to get dinner on the table with a limited amount of it; it’s a perennial challenge for all of us home cooks.

Each month we’ll toss out a handful of 30-minute dinner ideas that you can add to your meal plan, or just keep in your back pocket for those 5:00 pm stops at the grocery store on your way home. If there is a side dish involved it will be something you can make while the main course is sautéing or baking or occasionally Instant-Potting, and you will still be out of the kitchen with a meal on the table in half an hour.

A handful of ingredients turns a pound of shrimp into a terrific quick and easy weeknight dinner in under 30 minutes. Shrimp is one of the foods I have in the freezer at all times: they defrost quickly and they cook up quickly. Honey and garlic are combined with a bit of lemon juice, soy sauce and red pepper flakes to make a fast and flavorful sauce. Serve with rice (make sure to get the rice cooking before you start the shrimp, which cook in minutes), and a simple green salad.

A modified and simpler version of steak au poivre, this is the recipe to make when you have the desire for a steak with a little something going on, but only about 5 minutes to make that something happen. Steaks just love mustard and pepper — it’s a timeless and winning combination. Pair it with sauteed Swiss chard and some quinoa.

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As with all stir fries, get all of your ingredients prepped and chopped before starting the cooking process, since the skillet or wok time is quite fast. And again you’ll want to serve this with rice, and again that should be the first thing you get on the stove to ensure that the rice is ready at the same time as the stir fry is done. Brown rice will put you a bit over the half hour mark, but it is certainly an option.

Sure, I sometimes open a jar of prepared tomato sauce, heat that up while the pasta cooks, and call it a night. And that’s fine. But while that’s sustenance, it’s hardly soul-satisfying. Which brings us to this pasta. With a silky, creamy sauce that leans on real whole milk for its body and richness, this feels decadent and homey at the same time. Pair with a crunchy green salad to provide some textural and color contrast.

NEXT: Get 10 more 30-minute weeknight meal ideas

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