7 Busy Parents Share Their Quickest Go-To Dinners

End-of-school year chaos has arrived. These 20-minute (or less) meals will get you cooking through it.

Ah, May.

To kids, the month is a thrilling wind-in-the-hair downhill race toward summer, freedom and possibility. For parents, it’s also a race, but the gasping, out-of-breath kind, toward a finish line that feels like it keeps moving farther and farther out of reach.

Every commitment that seemed like a great idea in September culminates, making our Google calendars look like someone scattered confetti all over them: school concerts, sports banquets, dances, recitals, tournaments, graduation ceremonies, shopping for teacher gifts, not to mention summer child care and vacation planning. All are worth celebrating — but when concentrated into a single month, it’s a lot.

The Holderness Family, known for their online parodies, even produced a video about the month, calling it Maycember, because its festive mayhem can rival that of December. “But without all the fun cookies and twinkle lights,” the song goes. It went viral.

And then there’s dinner. How can you meal plan, shop and cook when time and energy levels are abysmally low, when you’re, well, dunzo? For that, there’s what I call the dunzo dinner, a.k.a. a dead-simple meal for when things pile up.

I asked seven parents, recipe developers, a reporter and a photo editor, what they make for their families when they are absolutely dunzo, but still want to get something cheap, delicious and mostly nutritious on the table. They delivered seven delightfully speedy, real-life recipes you can turn to on your busiest days that’ll make everyone happy.

The blurbs below have been condensed and edited.

Samantha Seneviratne, recipe developer and mom to Artie, 8, Brooklyn, N.Y.

I could eat pastina, the simple Italian pasta shaped like stars, with chicken broth, egg yolks and Parmesan, every day. (In fact, I’ve gone on weeklong pastina benders when I’ve been deep in work and unwilling to go to the grocery store.) It’s fortifying, comforting and tastes like a hug. My sometimes tricky-to-feed son loves it, too. Is it soup? Is it pasta? Who cares! It’s a slurpable supper that takes mere minutes to make. The only downside is no veggies. But I’ve come up with an easy solution. While it’s not traditional, shredded cabbage adds flavor and nutrients without signaling “vegetable” to the kids in your life. It becomes meltingly tender when simmered with the pasta and gives the soup a mild sweetness that goes beautifully with cheese and butter.

Recipe: Creamy Cabbage Pastina
Ready in 20 minutes

Samantha’s Maycember Tips

• I do a lot of fridge-leftover potlucks. I have one other single girlfriend with a kid, and we do that thing where I’ll say, “I have some potatoes.” And she’ll say, “Well, I have this,” and then we just get together and cook it all up.

• I don’t do birthday parties. I once got Artie a piñata and stuffed it with candy. We strung it up in my parents’ house, inside. And then my parents and I just watched him go at it. He took all the candy, and he was so happy. That was way better than a birthday party.

Melissa Clark, columnist, recipe developer and mom to Lee, 17, with husband, Daniel, Brooklyn, N.Y.

I always keep sausages in the freezer. Quick to defrost, seasoned and ready for your pan, they are a boon for those crazy-busy nights. In this recipe, I roast them with cumin-scented chickpeas, then shift to broiling, so everything gets a little crisp at the edges. I love to throw in some spinach during the last minute of cooking so it can wilt into silky ribbons. The extra veg eliminates the need for a salad, turning this into a one-pan meal.

Recipe: Roasted Sausages With Chickpeas and Spinach
Ready in 20 minutes

Melissa’s Maycember Tips

• I buy treats. I stock my fridge with washed vegetables and my pantry with beans. Then, I’ll get some special things, whatever the favorites are of the moment. I keep those on hand because not only do they help you get through it, they’re also good to bribe a kid — even if your kid’s 17. They’re still susceptible to a Crunch bar.

• My kid gets leftovers for lunch every single day. When I make dinner, I section off a part of it before we even sit down, and I put it in a container, and then all I have to do is heat it up and throw it in the Thermos.

Brett Anderson, Reporter and dad to Oscar, 11, and Julius, 9, with wife, Nathalie, New Orleans

I came up with this idiosyncratic recipe when Oscar, our oldest son, was a pescatarian. It’s so good that it remains a weeknight staple, even though Oscar eats meat again. Most of the prep can be completed while the water is coming to a boil and the oven is heating. I like to serve it with a simple coleslaw, which I often have premade in the fridge, and store-bought Mexican salsa verde.

Recipe: Halloumi and Sweet Potato Tacos
Ready in 20 minutes

Brett’s Maycember Tips

• Keep a shared grocery list. If my wife, Nathalie, says something out loud, I say, “Add it to the list!” Because I go to the grocery store a lot, and I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.

• Our lunches are not Instagram ready. I’ll do hot lunches for them, but it’s usually beans or a leftover thing. Otherwise, I actually have a position on this: I feel like they need to know that sometimes lunch is just a sandwich.

Kevin Pang, recipe developer and dad to Liam, 10, with wife, Anne, Chicago

There is such a thing as a noodle emergency — when hunger strikes at an inconvenient hour and the only remedy is a bowl of noodles. Instant ramen is an obvious solution, but most of the seasoning packets that come with those noodles can taste artificial and too salty. The solution in our house? Ditch the soup powder, keep the noodle brick and use cream cheese as the base of a luscious sauce that enrobes each strand. The result isn’t quite cacio e pepe in a Roman trattoria, but this nine-minute dish is your “break glass in case of noodle emergency” savior.

Recipe: Cream Cheese Ramen
Ready in 9 minutes

Kevin’s Maycember Tips

• I buy gift cards when my brain is still functioning in March. Instead of spending $100 on gift cards in May for the teachers, I buy them in $25 increments.

• We have a shared public calendar, and we’ve learned to incorporate our departure time, and not just when the event begins.

Pati Jinich, recipe developer and mom to Alan, 26, Sami, 24, and Juju, 19, with husband, Daniel, Chevy Chase, Md.

This salad is a take on a dish that my mom used to make when I was growing up in Mexico City. It’s soft potatoes, sweet carrots, snappy peas and satisfying bites of chicken in the most flavorful chipotle mayo dressing ever. I cook it at least a couple of times a month, and, since it keeps beautifully for up to five days, there’s almost always a batch waiting in the fridge. You can serve it alongside crackers, pile it onto a tostada, or wrap it in a flour tortilla with shredded lettuce. It’s fabulous tucked into a bolillo or baguette for a satisfying torta — but in my mind, nothing beats eating it by itself in a bowl.

Recipe: Chipotle Chicken Salad
Ready in 20 minutes

Pati’s Maycember Tips

• Batch cooking saved my three boys growing up. Like my mom, I made chicken broth on Sunday or Monday, because it gave me a full batch of cooked shredded chicken that’s cheaper than buying a whole rotisserie chicken. I would whip it into a chicken salad or use it in chicken tinga. I also like making a big batch of pinto beans or black beans, called frijoles de olla, and a bunch of rice. I also always make four batches of vinaigrette, and use it a thousand ways.

• Bread things for picky eaters. My middle one was a nightmare. From when he turned 3 or 4 until he turned 12, he would eat only hot dogs, rice and chocolate milk, but then I realized that I could bread things — chicken, shrimp, fish — and he started eating it. Now he eats everything, but it was torture for a while.

Brigid Ransome Washington, recipe developer and mom to Luke, 11, and Noel, 9, with husband, Joseph, Raleigh, N.C.

On weeknights when I’m in the weeds, a tiny can of diced green mild chiles is the key that unlocks a fast, satisfying meal for my family of four. After searing boneless, skinless chicken thighs, I deglaze the pan with those chiles, along with a can’s worth of tap water, and make a deep, bright, bracing sauce. That simmering sauce flavors and softens the kale leaves and black beans. My 9-year-old daughter prefers this recipe with shrimp — frozen or fresh — and it’s easy and affordable enough that I can make both versions on the same night. (She looks forward to the leftovers.)

Recipe: Chicken and Kale Hatch Chile Bowl
Ready in 20 minutes

Brigid’s Maycember Tips

• In May, if something comes up, I automatically say no, because I already know it will be crazy in two weeks. If I don’t get you in April, I’ll get you in June.

• Every Mother’s Day, I tell my husband that I don’t want brunch. I don’t want breakfast. Just leave. I just want to be in the house by myself for an extended period without interruptions. No distractions, no noise. “Do you want food?” Nope, I’ll feed myself. Just go. Those have been the best Mother’s Days.

Gabriel H. Sanchez, Photo editor and dad to Diego, 6, Felix, 3, and Ava, 5 months, with wife, Kelly, Woodbridge, N.J.

Keeping meals quick and fun can mean the difference between a relatively chill evening and pure chaos in my house, so these quick-cooking sliders are a great way to feed my three kids under 6. To make them, roll ground beef into small meatballs, then press them into three-inch patties and give them plenty of seasoning before cooking. A large 12-inch pan can handle an impressive number of these patties, which helps to keep cleanup to a minimum. Toasted Hawaiian rolls offer a sweet cushion for the burgers, which are finished with a melty blanket of cheese and your favorite toppings (we make caramelized onions ahead of time to garnish along with dill pickle chips). They’re great served alongside baked French fries or potato chips, a quick meal that’s always a perfect match for my little ones’ tiny hands.

Recipe: Cheeseburger Sliders
Ready in 20 minutes

Gabriel’s Maycember Tips

• Let them pick the soundtrack that transitions them to dinner. My middle kid loves the color purple, so he’ll always choose purple records, and my oldest is becoming really enthusiastic about hip-hop and rap music. He likes A Tribe Called Quest, which is a unique dinner soundtrack, but it brings them out of the screen time. Now, they’re sitting at the table and bobbing their heads and enjoying their dinner. My wife and I look at each other, and we’re like, “Is dinner happening smoothly right now?”

• Make a schedule, but allow grace for obstacles to occur, and just know that your schedule will fall apart. It is impossible with three kids under 6.

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