Ree Drummond's Must-Have Frozen Staple For Quick Weeknight Dinners

We all have aspirations of being perfect home cooks preparing healthy, fresh meals from scratch every night, but sometimes you need to channel your inner Ree Drummond and rely on some good frozen conveniences. Drummond made her name as The Pioneer Woman, preparing classic homestyle comfort food for her family, and she knows better than most that sometimes homestyle comes prepackaged in the frozen food aisle. After all, almost nobody has the time to cook a meal from scratch every day of the week. But that doesn't mean the meals have to be boring or bland. With just a little extra effort, you can upgrade plenty of frozen staples into appealing meals, just like she does with frozen dinner rolls.

Scroll through Drummond's recipes and social media posts, and you are going to find a lot of quick meals made with frozen rolls. While she uses some simple hacks to upgrade dinner rolls with extra flavor, like garlic butter, she also turns them into full-on meals. Drummond makes pigs in a blanket by rolling frozen roll dough out and wrapping it around hot dogs. She even has a recipe for mini calzones that involves simply rolling them flat into circles, topping with tomato sauce and cheese, and folding the dough back to go in the oven. And with a really good frozen dinner roll brand, these meals aren't just going to be quick, they're going to be tasty too.

It may seem obvious once you think about it, but frozen dinner rolls really are just pre-made frozen bread dough, so almost any meal you make with enriched bread can be made with frozen rolls. Following Drummond's calzone recipe, pizza-based ideas are an obvious choice. Frozen dinner rolls can easily be kneaded together into the bottom of a cast iron or cake pan and topped with sauce and cheese for a makeshift pan pizza, or layered with cheese and cold cuts for an easy stromboli.

Where frozen dinner rolls really shine is one of the simplest transformations: Being stuffed. Flattening frozen dinner roll dough and wrapping it around some fillings that are cooked directly inside transforms them into a delicious version of a steamed bun. Simple mixtures like ham and cheese, spinach and cheese, or browned ground beef can become full meals cooked inside a frozen dinner roll. It's particularly great for using leftovers, which cuts down on the prep even more. Try filling them with pulled pork, leftover beef stew, or chopped chicken with some extra spices.

And don't overlook the obvious. Frozen dinner rolls baked normally can easily be sliced and turned into sliders and sandwiches, whether you have some deli meat you want to use up, or toss some shredded rotisserie chicken with Buffalo sauce. There aren't too many things they won't be able to make into a quick dinner.