During the holidays, our meal planning went out the window. Between all the parties, extra ballet practices, and getting ready to move, there wasn’t much meal planning going on at our place. After the start of the year, I vowed to do better planning healthy, home-cooked meals for my family. That’s where Pinterest has come in handy. Each Sunday night, I search the web for some interesting meals to make. I simply pin the recipes to my Pinterest Recipes Board, then make a grocery list with ingredients from the recipes. When I’m ready to make the meal, I can just go back to my Recipes Board to look up the recipe.
Sometimes it’s difficult to find new, easy, and healthy meals to make for dinner. By sharing our meal choices with you, I hope to start a dinner time conversation with you all. Please feel free to post a link to your favorite dinner recipe or a link to menu plan you’ve created.
Each week, we’ve been eating dinner at home between four and five nights. The other nights, usually on the weekend, are reserved for dinner out at a restaurant or a meals at friends’ and family’s houses. Below are the meals we ate a couple of weeks ago. I’ve included the links to the recipes, with notes about any changes I made.
Monday: Pasta with Sausage & Broccoli
This is a staple at our house mostly because it’s easy, healthy, and it tastes yummy! I’ve changed this recipe around quite a bit, I realized. First, we use broccoli, instead of broccoli rabe. Also, I don’t remove the sausage casings, I just cut them into round slices. Lastly, I completely omit the shallots and chicken broth. Instead of the broth, I add a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and pasta water.
Tuesday: Sesame Peanut Noodles
My daughter loves this dish. I have to shoo her out of the kitchen while I’m making the sauce or she’ll try to eat all the sauce with a spoon. For this dish, I use linguine noodles, instead of egg noodles.
Wednesday:Pretzel Crusted Chicken with Mustard Dipping Sauce
To make the sauce for this dish, I used Trader Joe’s Whole Grain Mustard. We served it with olive oil roasted new potatoes and roasted green beans. This dish would be a good choice for a dinner party where you’ll be hosting little guests. It combines crunchy chicken that kids typically love, but the sauce elevates it to something that adults will also appreciate.
Thursday: Asian Steak Salad
We enjoy Asian flavors and cook Asian inspired dishes regularly. The dressing for this steak salad was delicious. I don’t typically like steak in salads, but the flavor combination in this salad may have completely changed my mind.
Sunday: Masala Chicken with Trader Joe’s Masala Simmer Sauce
Each week, it’s crucial to have one meal that can be prepared quickly and with ingredients you have on hand. Trader Joe’s is my favorite spot to stock up on prepared ingredients that can be turned into yummy meals. For this meal, I simply added uncooked chicken to the sauce and simmered, according to the directions. Some steamed rice and raw veggies rounded out the quick meal.
What did you have for dinner recently? I’d love to know! Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments section below.
Love it! Those Sesame Noodles are going on my menu next week. I’ve started posting my weekly menu too. I linked to yours on mine from last week. http://www.danielledeskins.blogspot.com/2013/01/weekly-menu-week-2.html
I saw your beautiful daughter yesterday at church. I didn’t want to weird her out, so I didn’t speak, but I knew it was her when I hear the lady say, “Mira.” Even prettier in person 🙂
Ugh, the pictures make me hungry! Haha. Well, Pinterest is a good platform to visit when you want to get fresh and interesting recipes you wish to serve to your family and friends. Many people in line with the cooking industry have Pinterest accounts these days, so you wouldn’t have a problem finding a unique recipe.