Tag: #Recipes

Posted in From My Kitchen

72 Quick and Healthy Weeknight Dinners

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Though we’re always the first to shout from the rooftops about wildly impressive recipes that are sure to wow guests or loved ones, making it seem like all we do is have constant elaborate dinner parties or romantic date nights, in reality… not so much. Really, most weeknights we turn to easy, healthy dinners that come together quickly and for low effort. If they don’t cost an arm and a leg, even better! We firmly believe saving money doesn’t have to mean giving up flavor or convenience. Check out our list of 72 quick and healthy meals that won’t break the bank for easy weeknight dinner inspiration.

When it comes to healthier meals, we LOVE a veggie for pasta ingredient swap. Cauliflower and zucchini are forever faves, but we’re branching out into other veggies too, like spaghetti squash and butternut squash. We swear, you’ll barely miss the pasta (and can enjoy multiple servings, no problem).

We’re a big fan of the ease of Mexican-inspired tacos, quesadillas, and tostadas for simple weeknight meals. You can fill them with pretty much anything—like we did in our fish taco bowls, our black bean tostadas, or our taco salads—and every member of your household can add as few or as many toppings as they like.

Another great option? Grain bowls and bakes. All you need is a great sauce, like our herby green goddess, our salsa verde, or our tahini sauce; some rice (brown, white, or cauliflower all work), quinoa, or even noodles; some protein; and any combination of vegetables. Add some crunchy nuts or seeds and you’ll have a solid, satisfying dinner. Bonus: They’re GREAT for cleaning leftover ingredients out of your fridge. Check out our warm tahini ramen noodles, our goddess bowls, our cheesy salsa chicken & cauliflower rice skillet, or our one-pan chicken & quinoa for variations, then get creative and make them your own.

delish

Posted in From My Kitchen

Top Healthy Meal Prep Ideas for Easy Weeknight Dinners

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree


By: Kristie Collado
Kristie has been the digital programming manager at Food Network for over six years. She’s a trained pastry chef who has been creating food content for more than fifteen years.

Healthy Meal Prep Ideas

Even though there are so many reasons to meal prep (save time, save money, eat better — the list goes on and on) we know that the thought of planning and cooking so much food all at once can be overwhelming. The good news? It’s so worth it. And, there are plenty of ways to make it easier! Learn a handful of pro meal prep tips, master a couple of shortcuts that make prep easier and gather up the right recipes and, before you know it, you’ll be settled into a routine that allows you to turn one simple ingredient into a myriad of delicious dishes. (Don’t believe us? Just check out our ideas for prepping chicken!) Whether you take a structured approach and plan out concrete meals or lean towards an ingredient-prep strategy that allows you some flexibility throughout the week, we’re confident you’ll be glad you took the time to plan ahead. All of the recipes in this roundup will come in handy but start with this versatile sesame chicken. You can just as easily toss it into a salad for lunch as you can a stir-fry for dinner.

Meal Prep Steamed Vegetables

When it comes to prepping for the week ahead, we love cooking off lots of veggies so we can reach for them instead of something less healthy in the scramble of making a weeknight meal. Blanching a vegetable in boiling water and then plunging it in an ice bath is great when you’re making just one kind. But for a large-scale production, our go-to method is steaming. You can use the same water for multiple batches, steaming one vegetable after the next. The result: a rainbow of perfectly cooked vegetables at the ready for grain bowls, pastas, salads, frittatas and more.

Food Network

Posted in From My Kitchen

Quick and Delicious Ground Beef Recipes for Any Occasion

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

When I’m looking for meals that are cheap, quick, yet still delicious, ground beef reigns supreme. It’s versatile, quick-cooking, and great for when you’ve got a crowd to feed. If you’re not careful though, it can become a little one-note. Have some on hand and not sure what to make with it? Look no further! From classics like meatloaf and burgers to creative meals like lasagnchiladas or meatball Parm orzo, we’ve got you covered. There’s something here to please any and every appetite.

Let’s start with the classics. Though we’re all for trying new things or putting spins on our favorites, you’ve gotta walk before you can run. We’ve tested our recipes for things like stuffed peppers, goulash, sloppy Joes, Salisbury steak, meatballs, chili, and more over and over again to guarantee they’re the best and the most reliable they can be. Trust us, you’re going to want to bookmark these.

Once you’ve got some of those recipes down, it’s time to have a little fun. We’ve also included twists on all your favorite flavor combinations here—you could turn them into a casserole, like we did in our our stuffed pepper casserole, our unstuffed cabbage casserole, our lasagnchiladas, or our sloppy Joe casserole; into a sandwich or burrito, like our French onion meatball sub, our copycat Taco Bell grilled cheese burritos, our roasted cabbage burgers, or our Big Mac crunchwrap; or into a soup, like our meatball sub soup or our taco soup. Feel free to get creative too, if there’s any mash-ups you’re craving, let us know in the comments below and we’ll see what we can do to make them.

delish

Posted in From My Kitchen

Zucchini Patties

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

These zucchini patties have a nice flavor and are compatible with just about any entree. My sister gave me this recipe and I, in turn, have given it to many of my friends. —Annabelle Cripe, Goshen, Indiana

Zucchini Patties Tips

Why are my zucchini patties falling apart?

Excess water can cause your zucchini patties to fall apart. Make sure to pat your shredded zucchini dry of excess water before adding it to the binding mixture. The binding mixture (biscuit mix, cheese and eggs) helps keep your zucchini patties together, too.

How do you store zucchini patties?

Store these zucchini patties in an airtight container in the fridge for about three to four days. You can also freeze them for about two months. Here’s how long other leftovers last.

How do you serve zucchini patties?

Serve zucchini patties with a dipping sauce, like ranch or garlic cucumber dip. They also pair well with many other main dishes. Try serving them with grilled salmon, lime chicken or any of these summer dinner ideas.

—Christina Herbst, Taste of Home Assistant Digital Editor

Taste of Home

Find more recipes like this on my companion blog, “Good Food, Good Meat, Good God, Let’s Eat!”

Posted in From My Kitchen

I Can’t Stop Making These Rule-Bending “Palace Potatoes” (They’re So Crispy!)

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

This is part of Destination Dinner Party, featuring impossibly delicious menus from Maine, Portugual, and Thailand. Join us as we eat our way through each dreamy locale.

I love diner food. I grew up on the East Coast of the United States, where diner culture takes on many forms. There are old-school diners that have been around forever, Greek diners that you can find in the hearts of big cities, and roadside diners with vinyl booths and gigantic menus with so many offerings you feel like you could come in every week and still never try everything. I love them all. I’ve always been a diner person, and everyone who knows me knows I’m always down to head to the local diner for lunch and dinner (or for the best meal to eat at a diner: breakfast). 

When a good friend (and Maine native) told me that her favorite diner was a new-ish (in diner years, which are measured in decades) tiny affair in an old train car in a southern Maine town, I put it on my list of diners to try. She regaled me with tales of their unique tuna sandwich and how she never ate a meal there without ordering their legendary potatoes. Breakfast potatoes are a ubiquitous dish on a diner menu, and typically fall into one of two camps: home fries or hash browns. I’m a hash brown girl myself, and feel strongly that they are the superior preparation. However, when she informed me that the potatoes at Palace Diner fall into neither camp and are, in fact, closer to a smashed potato, I knew I had to give them a try for myself.

What Makes Palace Diner Potatoes So Great

The potatoes at Palace Diner in Biddeford, Maine, are unlike potatoes I’ve been served at any diner before. Instead of shredding or chopping potatoes before frying them, they boil whole red potatoes in a flavorful broth with herbs and spices, smash them on a cutting board, and then fry them. The result is a unique, delicious dish that tastes like a cross between fluffy mashed potatoes and fried potatoes, but with so much more flavor. 

Boiling the potatoes with herbs and spices infuses them with an extra layer of flavor you just don’t get from potatoes that have just been seasoned with salt and pepper. The texture is crunchy on the outside, but still fluffy on the inside, and they’re served whole, which means they stay hotter for longer than a potato that’s cut into small pieces. 

Don’t get me wrong — I still love regular diner potatoes, but I can’t deny that since trying these for the first time I’m often thinking about when my next trip through Maine will be so I can make a stop to get some more. In service of saving myself from having to make the drive to another state every time I want great potatoes, I spoke with Chad Conley, one of the owners of Palace, who gave me advice on how to recreate them at home.

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