Weeknight dinners that don't take forever

I keep a few five-ingredient tricks that look fancy but are weeknight-fast. I do not count oil, salt, and pepper, and I lean on high heat, the broiler, and one-pan cooking.

Sheet pan honey Dijon salmon and broccolini is 5 ingredients, toss broccolini with oil and roast at 425 F for 5 minutes, stir 1 tablespoon Dijon with 1 tablespoon honey and juice of half a lemon, push broccolini aside, add salmon, brush the glaze, roast 10 to 12 more minutes until flaky. Salsa verde chicken with white beans is sear salted chicken thighs in a skillet, pour in a jar of salsa verde, simmer 8 minutes, stir in a drained can of white beans, top with thin red onion and a squeeze of lime and serve over rice. Baked gnocchi caprese takes shelf stable gnocchi, a jar of marinara, torn fresh mozzarella, a few handfuls of spinach, and a spoon of pesto tossed in a baking dish and baked at 425 F for 20 minutes until bubbly and browned. Brown butter tortellini with peas is boil cheese tortellini, melt butter in a skillet until it smells nutty, crisp a few sage leaves, toss in frozen peas to warm through, then toss with the tortellini and a shower of Parmesan. Sheet pan sausage peppers and potatoes is toss sliced Italian sausage, bell peppers, red onion, and halved baby potatoes with oil, salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary, roast at 450 F for 25 minutes and finish under the broiler for char. Apricot Dijon pork tenderloin with green beans is whisk 2 tablespoons apricot jam with 1 tablespoon Dijon and 1 teaspoon cider vinegar, sear a pork tenderloin in an oven safe skillet, brush with glaze, scatter trimmed green beans around, roast at 425 F for about 15 minutes to 145 F and rest before slicing.

Shrimp scampi without the drama. Boil spaghetti, then in the same time melt butter, sizzle minced garlic, toss in frozen shrimp, finish with lemon. I once tried to thaw the shrimp with a hair dryer and fused a breaker, so now I just cook them from frozen and it works. Toss it all, season hard, eat before the butter congeals. If the pan smokes, kill the heat and keep stirring.

Five-ingredient hype is usually bland, so keep it stupid simple. Dump chicken thighs in a pan with a jar of salsa and a hit of cumin, roast until shred-friendly. Stuff into tortillas with a fist of shredded cheese and call it dinner.

Skip meal kits. Sheet pan gnocchi that pretends to be fancy: shelf-stable gnocchi, cherry tomatoes, red onion, feta, olive oil. Toss, roast at 425 until blistered, then smash it together and act like you planned it. Costs less than a latte and the oven does the labor.

Peanut butter ramen absolutely slaps. Boil instant noodles, stir in a spoon of peanut butter, a splash of soy, and crack an egg in to poach with a handful of spinach. Creamy, salty, cheap, done in one pot in like six minutes.