What’s a “dump dinner?” I’d never heard this term before—have you? It showed up in my email IN box a while ago from www.allrecipes.com.

It seems loads of people DO know what it is, though, and this dinner is super popular. There are oodles of cookbooks showing up to tell us all about it, too.

By definition, a dump dinner is a dish made by combining ingredients in a pot, casserole dish, sheet pan, or slow cooker, and then cooking with minimal effort.

The HOW-TO process is as simple as the definition:

1. You select your recipe (or general plan), select your cooking method, gather all ingredients, then do whatever prep work called for in the recipe (chopping, slicing, dicing, sauteeing, and so on).
2. Then “dump” it all into your selected cooking vessel (slow cooker, Instant Pot, casserole dish, baking sheet, etc.).
3. Lastly, let the dish cook on its own.

It’s hard to keep from laughing at this. But I guess these food websites have to come up with something to write about. So, they give this something we’ve all been doing for a hundred years a new, hipper, more happenin’ name and make a big deal out of it to garner readership.

The folks at allrecipes.com says this about this name: “While its name might sound unappetizing, the "dump dinner" is a thing of beauty.” And yes, anything easy to make as well as tasty is indeed a thing of beauty.

So where am I going with all this? No where, really. I guess I’m just pointing out how “a rose by any other name is still a rose.” Call it anything you want, the casserole, sheet-pan meal, or a soup will always be with us. Tried-and-true crowd-pleasers, they also save the day when we’re just too tired or too lazy to do any extensive meal prepping.

With this said, here’s a recipe for a “dump dinner” that happens to be a soup. (Am I the only one that sees this label as silly and maybe a little precious?) The recipe’s creator, Nicole Russell, says, “This slow cooker lasagna dump dinner has all the flavors you love from lasagna, thrown together in a slow cooker without all the work and cleanup. I like to add 1/2 pound of Italian sausage to this but it is not necessary.” SOUP or “dump dinner,” it really is a delicious meal!