It’s Taco Tuesday! I actually just had to check the calendar to confirm it is in fact Tuesday, since this week seems to be dragging. Confirmed: we haven’t quite yet made it to Wednesday, so we will reward ourselves with the one redeeming quality of Tuesday: taco night. Tacos are the most-requested meal in my household, and I’m always on board with that suggestion. This week I decided to mix up our standard taco fillings with a few new ingredients! These tasty tacos are loaded with flavorful bites of chorizo sausage crumbles, black beans and corn with lots of spices, and crispy little potatoes underneath queso fresco and taco toppings. I’ve been dreaming of this recipe since I last tested them, and think I’ll double the batch next time so we have lots of leftovers for lunch too! Get the full recipe below: read more

I’m constantly brainstorming new recipes that can be prepped in big batches and reheated throughout the week. It’s the best way to keep us on track with healthy eating choices, especially during lunch time. One of our all time favorite meal-prep recipes that we have for both lunch and dinner is a spicy chicken thigh recipe that we grill over high heat for a tasty charred flavor. We have made it so often though, that I needed to think of a way to refresh it and prevent lunch boredom. I decided to take the same flavors from the marinade and turn it into a spicy lime peanut sauce that would glaze baked turkey meatballs, and serve them over white rice with some diced carrots, onions and scallions. One of the things I love about this recipe is you can be prepping all of the elements simultaneously; the sauce can cook on the stove while the meatballs are in the oven, and I use my Instant Pot to cook rice while I chop up the veggie toppings. It makes enough for a few dinner portions or a whole work week of lunches broken down into some microwaveable glass containers! Get the full recipe below:
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I’m really excited to share this recipe with you today because it’s one I’ve been working on for a bit! I love a corn chowder. While most young adults gain the freshman 15 at college from drinking too much beer, I gained it because I used to eat corn chowder for lunch 3x a week at the Au Bon Pain (ironically) located underneath our campus gym. I debated with someone recently about corn chowder being a summer dish — it is, after all, the season when corn is at peak-tastiness. And I find it to be a delicious thing to eat on a cool summer night by the beach. I made a batch of it when we were on the Cape a few weeks ago, and decided to tweak the recipe a bit more another night last week. This spin has lots of spiced flavor from the cumin and chili powder, balancing out the sweetness of the corn. One of my favorite local restaurants serves a version of this dish with a potato crusted haddock, which inspired me to give my own recipe a seafood addition. I served it with a piece of blackened cod on top, and it was a hit. Even Jane got in on the action and had a piece of the fish and some corn — yum! Get the recipe below. read more

Dinnertime can be hectic around here. The clock strikes 5pm and I know that I have to get a meal started at just about the exact moment that toddler-meltdown-hour is also about to begin. I almost think that there should be a cooking competition show where chefs have to make a dinner out of a mystery basket of ingredients while a toddler is pulling on their pant leg asking for some snacks – now that would be a cooking competition worth watching! read more

As soon as the weather turns warm, we are on an all-grilling-all-the-time dinner kick! I’ve been making grilled chicken, charring up steaks, skewering shrimp, and kabob-ing just about every vegetable under the sun for the past few weeks. After all of these delicious grilled meals, I’ve been thinking of ways to push myself outside my comfort zone and experiment with some new dishes that are packed with flavor from this cooking method.  Every time I pass the fish counter at my grocery store, I notice a display of cedar planks and finally decided to give them a try with this new dish: cedar grilled salmon and potatoes with creamy lemon Dijon. read more

I have been singing the praises of grilling season now for a few weeks. For good reason: there is no better way to quickly pull together a tasty dinner. In fact, I haven’t turned on our oven since we pulled our grill out of winter storage and onto the patio! One recipe that has been on near-constant rotation at our house recently is a simple grilled shrimp dish with a garlic basil marinade. I serve it with grilled veggie skewers of zucchini, red onions and tomatoes (brushed with the same flavorful dressing) and some warm couscous and fresh herbs. read more

I realized this weekend, as I was making a double batch of mac and cheese to bring Easter dinner, that I’ve never shared my go-to classic recipe for this cheesy, family favorite dish. It’s one of those dishes that I make so often (for nearly every holiday occasion) that I’ve never actually taken the time to measure everything out and write it down — until now! A combination of rich gruyere cheese, sharp cheddar, and savory parmesan cheese make the perfect coating for al dente pasta. read more

I was reading a magazine the other day when saw a mention of a classic chicken marsala recipe, and I have been thinking about (and craving) chicken marsala ever since. It’s one of those dishes that I order at restaurants, but rarely think to make at home. To fix up my insatiable craving, I got to work on making my own spin on this rather simple chicken dish. My version gets tossed with al dente campanelle pasta, sautéed mushrooms and shallots, lots of parmesan cheese and fresh parsley, and baked for just a few minutes in individual serving bowls. I’m happy to report there were lots of leftovers that I’ve been cheerily chipping away at for lunch this week! Get the full recipe below: read more

Dinnertime can be a straight up struggle around my house these days. The hour when food needs to be prepped for our evening mealtime seems to align perfectly with official toddler meltdown hour. In an effort to avoid a matching mom-meltdown, I keep a few tricks up my sleeve for speedy dinners. One of them, is adding a cooked rotisserie chicken to my grocery order from Peapod, and repurposing it in a few different meals throughout the week. I thought I’d share a few of my favorite quick-fix ideas for using up leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge today, as well as a brand new recipe I added to the mix recently while we’re on our New Year’s healthy eating kick. Each one of these ideas uses up about half a chicken, so you can pick two to mix and match for your weekly meal plan: read more

That healthy eating momentum is still going strong in our household (minus a few boxes of Girl Scout cookies that seem to be disappearing alarmingly fast from our freezer). I am so used to defaulting to carb-heavy sides like rice or pasta or potatoes to pair with dinner proteins, so coming up with low-carb veggie side dishes has been a challenge — but a fun one to experiment with. read more