Category Archives: Recipes

Recipe Review: Coconut Lime Chicken

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I think I’m on to something here….sharing my recipe reviews on a Friday…just before you {I} do my weekly meal planning and shopping over the weekend!

 

Level of Difficulty: Pretty simple, really…mix up some sauce, marinate your chicken in it, cook chicken, boil sauce for serving over rice. Doesn’t get a whole lot simpler than that.

What I did Differently: I did a few things differently. First, I used already thin chicken breasts, cutting out the step of flattening {what a pain!}. I also marinated overnight because that’s what works best for my schedule…no way I’m putting this together in the morning before work. Cooking wise, I broiled it instead of pan frying it…I also think it’d be great on the grill. Instead of the chili pepper it called for, I used red pepper flakes…mostly because I forgot to pick up a pepper at the grocery store.

Serving Suggestions: I served this with jasmine rice and bell peppers I broiled alongside the chicken.

PROS: Easy to put together, the meat is thin enough it cooks pretty quickly. It’s a great weeknight meal that’s got loads of flavor and tastes like you spent hours preparing it!

CONS: It did have a bit of a kick to it…not bad for us, but some may not care for that.

Would I Make it Again?: Oh yes. Last time I made this, Andy was out with some friend for the evening. I know this is a dish he’d really enjoy. As a matter of fact…I’m going to put this on the meal plan for next week!

Recipe Review: Oven Fajitas

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In the last two weeks, I’ve tried a handful of new recipes. I’m always on the lookout for easy, tasty and healthy-ish recipes that my family loves…and I figured, hey maybe you are too! And if you’re like me, you’ve got a bunch of great looking recipes pinned on your food board on Pinterest, but you never get any further than that. Trying new recipes is scary…what if the whole family hates it…what if it takes way longer to cook then anticipated…etc, etc. So I figured when I try a new recipe, I’ll do us all a favor a write up a quick recipe review! I did this a while back with a few recipes and I’ve already looked back on it and thought,”oh yea, I forgot how good and easy that recipe was”.

This week? Oven Fajitas.

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Level of Difficulty: Um, you guys? To quote Geico…it’s so easy, a caveman could do it. I’m not even kidding. I prepped this dish the night before, including the seasonings. Tossed everything in a 9×13 baking dish, covered it in foil and put it in the fridge. When I got home from work the next day, I preheated the oven (400 F), removed the foil and popped it in the oven. I stirred once halfway through and 20 minutes later, dinner was done!

What I did Differently: Confession time…while I pinned what I can assume is an official recipe for this, I never actually looked at a recipe. I just used the picture on Pinterest as a starting point. The picture showed chicken being used, I used steak.

Serving Suggestions: While the fajitas were baking I heated up some black beans and made some guacamole. Then served it traditional fajita-style with tortillas, cheese and sour cream. Then next day for lunch, I had leftovers of steak, peppers and black beans…healthy and hearty.

PROS: I mentioned this to a couple of coworkers, I will never make fajitas any other way. Seriously…it was just too easy. It was also really good. The peppers didn’t get mushy. In fact, since it was cooked uncovered under high heat, they even got a little browned. And, it was a great way to “spice up” our Taco Tuesdays while still sticking with the general theme. Oh and double bonus? Anytime I made fajitas on the stove there were pans that had to be hand washed. Making them in the oven means less work during cleanup!

CONS: There really weren’t any. Unless you count the fact that Rylee didn’t eat them. But she’s kinda picky and I wasn’t expecting her to in the first place.

Would I make it again: ummm…YES! Absolutely. One hundred and eleventy percent. Probably sooner as opposed to later.

Now…Go forth…enjoy the revolution of oven fajitas! You’re welcome in advance.

Reviews to come: chicken enchilada pasta, peanut sauce chicken, coconut lime chicken and ranch chops.

Meal Planning Calendar {Free Printable}

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So, step two in my meal planning is monthly meal tracking. After the month is over, I transfer all our my weekly meal plans onto a month calendar.

I started doing this about 4 months ago and I’m already questioning why I hadn’t started this earlier. There have been multiple times that I’ll flip back to previous months to see what we’ve had for dinner if I need to fill a slot on my weekly plan. It’s also a tool I use for keeping track of, and rating, any new recipes I may try.

It’s also kind of a fun way to look back and notice any patterns in our eating habits. For example, based on previous months, we eat turkey burgers, spaghetti or lasagna and roast chicken at least once a month.

Anyway, since making my weekly To Do/To Make/To Buy printable, I wanted something a little bit nicer (and more coordinated) than my current system of drawing crazy non-straight lines on a piece of notebook paper. Seriously…I can’t handle the crooked lines. It also wasted a lot of space…I don’t need an entire page for one month because I only keep track of dinners. So I created my sheet with 2 months on one page. {and people say I’m not green. Ha!}

Since my first printable seemed to be a hit, I wanted to share this one with you as well…

Monthly Meal Tracking

Download it: Monthly Meal Tracking Calendar

Download it – print it – use it – share it – do your thing

And I think it’s generic enough that you could use it for things other than meal planning as well.

Weekly Meal Planning and a free printable!

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I’ve been meal planning now for…I’d say at least 3 or 4 years.

I’m a creature of habit. For a very long time I used the same pad of paper to write out our weekly meal plan, our grocery list as well as my weekend to-do list. Well, that pad of paper ran out a couple of months ago and since then I’ve been struggling with my weekend system. {see what I mean when I say I’m a creature of habit!?}

Sure, I’ve downloaded a couple of meal planning printables I’d found ala Pinterest but none of them really suited my needs. What’s that old saying? If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself? I’m guessing a fellow type-Aer like me made that up.

Anyway, my point is, I put my computer skills to work and created my own weekly meal planner! I used it for the first time this weekend and I love it. It’s got a section for a to-do list. A section for meal planning. And a section for a grocery list. And since I’m a sale shopper and almost never go to just one store I’ve got it broken up for two different lists.

See? Isn’t it pretty?

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Anyway, I kind of really love it. So much so, I thought I’d share it with you!

Weekly Menu Planner

Weekend Planner
 



Download it! Use it! Enjoy! Share with all your meal-planning friends!

If you use it, let me know what you think!

Happy Monday, Friends.

{Recipe} Taco Casserole

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In my house? Casseroles are off limits…something about Andy having a bad experience or two throughout his childhood. For a while, I was able to get around this rule by calling something a “bake”. He eventually caught on.

However, there is one casserole I can make that not only does he eat every time, he also takes seconds AND leftovers the next day. Of course, this is because all the main ingredients are his favorite things…taco fixings.

I originally got this recipe from my Aunt. Over the years, I’ve changed it up a bit. I made it last night for “TACO TUESDAY” just to keep things interesting, so I thought I’d share the recipe!

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound ground beef {ground turkey works great too!}
  • One small onion, chopped fine
  • 2 packets of taco seasoning
  • 8 oz can tomato sauce
  • 4 oz can diced green chiles
  • 1 cup 1/2 & 1/2
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped {optional}
  • 1 can of black beans, drained & rinsed
  • 1 bag of tortilla chips
  • Shredded Cheese

Directions:

Cook meat and onion on stovetop, adding 1 packet of taco seasoning. While meat is cooking, in a separate bowl, add tomato sauce, green chiles and other packet of taco seasoning and mix. Measure out 1/2 & 1/2, crack eggs and beat together. Pour that into the tomato mixture and stir. Add cilantro and mix. In a 13×9 baking dish, pour the bag of tortilla chips and crunch them down a little. Sprinkle on some cheese, then black beans over the chips. Add meat. Pour sauce mix over the top. Top with more cheese.

Cover with foil and cook at 350 degree for about 20-30 minutes, removing foil for the last 5-10 minutes.

Serve with sour cream and Pepsi (because Pepsi makes every Mexican dish taste better!) and enjoy!

P.S. Yes, we buy our taco seasoning at Costco…two containers at a time as a matter of fact. Judge away.