Easy used to mean few steps. Now it mostly means few ingredients, and specifically few ingredients you might not be able to find this week. The recipes below were rewritten with that in mind.

Five dishes, one shopping list

Each of the five leans on the same eight staples, so a single trip covers the week. Substitutions are listed for everything perishable, because the aim is a dinner that happens rather than a dinner that is correct.

Nothing here takes more than forty minutes, and three of the five are done in twenty-five. Two make deliberately generous portions so tomorrow’s lunch is already handled.

Cook them in any order. The point of a weeknight recipe is that it survives being made badly.