A weeknight blueprint for busy families
From an early age, I learned that weeknight dinners at home are not a given. Regardless of circumstance or routine, they are a gift—especially if your goal is to sit down, exhale from the pace of the day, and share a delicious dish with the ones you love.
When I was young, those weeknight dinners actually sparked my passion for cooking. My father, a rabbi, would most often only find 20 minutes between his usual nine-to-five appointments and after-hours hospital visits, meetings, or shiva (bereavement) calls. My mom, a planner in every aspect of her existence (including her event-planning business), would demand this 20-minute window so that the rest of us could work around it. We wouldn’t always cook from scratch, but we were always seated at our kitchen table, with a plate of food in front of us, ready to talk about the “highs” and “lows” of the day. It was a privileged and—while tedious at the time—pretty incredible ritual that has stuck with me in more ways than one.
I caught onto how much my mother did not enjoy the cooking part when I was in middle school, so I took my try at it. If only I still had her as a sous-chef in our kitchen today: She’d have the groceries ready, I would take over the stove and oven stations to put together simple proteins and interesting sides, and she would clean it all up.
Fast forward two decades later, where I play the role of mother and cook—and where we still make time to sit down and decompress over a plate.
As a recipe developer and content creator, during the surge of Instagram stories in 2018, I started the ritual of “Dinner on a Whim.” My Caramelized hashtag took on a real-time experiment, where I take ingredients from my fridge, freezer, and pantry to put a beautiful dinner together with a craving-guided, impromptu approach. Think Food Network’s Chopped: a personal challenge of limited time and unexpected ingredient pairings. I take followers along for the ride with loose instructions, demonstrations, and a final plating (with my followers as the judge?).
The idea of Dinner on a Whim reflects my style of grocery shopping. While meal planning would likely be beneficial for a working mother with three extra projects always in the mix, I simply can’t commit in advance.
Instead, I shop on Sundays with a blueprint that’s open for creativity and lets me shop with my eyes.
Each week, I pick two to three proteins and a few seasonal vegetables or herbs that will make the meal unique. I stock my pantry with an interesting array of grains and pasta shapes, spice blends, and canned staples, such as chicken broth, cannellini beans, and salsas. This way, the day-of decision is based on what my palate is in the mood for: a chicken breast, English peas, and basil, for example, can turn into an Italian farro risotto, a breaded chicken with pesto, or even a soup.
To this day, now with two little ones under the age of two, I still push myself to make #dinneronawhim a priority.
This season of life is spontaneous—and stretched—at best, but it’s always a joy to try something new for dinner.
I love the creative challenge, the feeling of finding new meaning in basic ingredients (and not wasting them), and the fun in documenting the process. Bonus? I deconstruct our dinner for Hudson’s lunchbox the next morning, which I document in a daily Instagram story highlight.
But don’t get me wrong: Cooking after a long day has its challenges. Exhaustion with two babies, a demanding career, and too many commitments is real. I love when Dinner on a Whim ideas make the regular rotation, like a rotisserie chicken enchilada recipe I developed a few years ago that is now a monthly favorite! It’s easy to keep shredded cheese, sour cream, salsas, and tortillas on hand with their longer shelf life, so this recipe can come together with ease when a rotisserie chicken makes it into my cart.
Week after week, I show up for my Caramelized audience and, most importantly, for my family unit. As our children Hudson and Ava grow—and as their palates hopefully remain curious—they, too, will know the meaning of a family meal around the table.
Cara’s Rotisserie Chicken Enchiladas
1 onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
Shredded meat of 1 large rotisserie chicken (about 3 cups)
1/4 cup salsa of choice
1 jar store-bought enchilada sauce, divided
1/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
4 ounces cream cheese
2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese, divided
8-10 flour tortillas
Fresh cilantro, to garnish
Sliced avocado, to garnish
Preheat oven to 350°. In a large nonstick skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat and add onion, stirring to cook until translucent. Stir in chicken. Then, stir in salsa, 1/4 cup enchilada sauce, cream cheese, and sour cream until all is combined. Turn off the heat and stir in 1 cup of cheese.
Spray a 9×13 casserole dish with oil and pour enchilada sauce to coat the bottom of the dish. Warm tortillas in the microwave for 1 minute. Spread a spoonful of enchilada sauce on each tortilla. Then, spoon about 1/3 cup of chicken mixture into each tortilla and roll tightly. Place seam-side down into the casserole dish. Continue with remaining tortillas and filling. Pour remaining enchilada sauce over tortillas, followed by remaining shredded cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake until cheese is golden and bubbly, about 10-15 minutes more.
Takeout Thursdays
I commit on the front end to cooking two weeknights at minimum. Often, we make a plan to see our extended family or friends on one of the others, but by the time Thursday night rolls around, takeout wins. As much as he supports my food and lifestyle brand Caramelized, my husband Alex would be content with a cheese pizza or burger over my aspiring-chef homecooked meals.
Our shared weeknight takeout preferences are Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana, Memphis Pizza Cafe, or Petals of a Peony. Or, if we choose a separate DoorDash or UberEats ordering route, I pick Sakura Japanese Restaurant, where I love the Mardi Gras roll, shiitake mushroom nigiri, and cucumber salad. Alex opts for an extra crispy cheese from Little Italy East.
Cara Greenstein is the founder of Caramelized, an award-winning food and lifestyle brand that inspires readers to create, explore, gather, and elevate the everyday. @cara_melized
Kim Thomas is a lifestyle blogger and photographer based in Memphis. Launched in September 2010, her blog, KP Fusion, provides of-the-moment fashion, style, and beauty tips and trends with a little Memphis flavor thrown in. @kpfusion