Easy Roasted Veggies

Hey friends!  I hope you had a great weekend.  Our teams won and we enjoyed a quiet weekend at home.  I'm going to try out a new schedule for Fall.  I will be blogging Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays.  I hope that this will give me more time to reply to your comments and get into a good blog routine.  Thanks for being here and reading my blog every week.

My very favorite side dish to make is roasted veggies.

They are so easy, healthy and simple.

You just need 3 ingredients - veggies, olive oil and your favorite seasoning.

I roast everything at 400 for about 30 minutes.  

It requires no prep time.  Just grocery shopping to buy veggies and then they roast while I pull the rest of the meal together.  

I have yet to try a vegetable that doesn't taste good roasted.

We love these little potatoes!  They are called Little Duos and they come in a bag from Sams.  They are so yummy.  I make these and call them potato fries.  My kids dip them in ketchup and they are so much better for you than a bag of french fries.

Roasted to perfection.  I don't usually turn the veggies when they roast.  Just pop them in the oven and check on them 30 minutes later.  I serve these with burgers and pulled pork.  They are great with toppings like cheese, sour cream and green onions or delicious dipped in ketchup.

Roasted sweet potatoes are a family favorite.  They are more labor intensive to peel and chop, but the effort is woth it.  They are the yummiest side.  I peel the potatoes, slice them into circles and dice.

Roasted fresh asapargus.  Our house is a little divided about this veggie, but 3/5 of us love it.

This is the bag of The Little Potato Co Little Duos.  They are so good!

We grab this package of asparagus at Sams most weeks.  It's in the cold section with the berries and lettuce.  I trim off the bottom 2 inches and roast.

These are my favorite two seasonings.  They are both delicious.  I've been on a Kinder kick lately so I put that on everything I cook.

Bonus:
Roasted veggies reheat so well for really yummy lunches!

We love roasted broccoli and cauliflower (tastes better if you roast from frozen), roasted onions, roasted peppers, carrots, any kind of potato and more.

Let me know if you have any roasted vegetable questions.

Easy Roasted Asparagus

I recently had a fun conversation with my friends over on IG about asaparagus!

They gave me so many ideas of how to prepare it after I said it felt like an intimidating vegetable to get right.

I opted for the easiest recipe and it was delicious.

Directions:

Wash.  Cut off the bottom 1-2 inches of each stalk.  Put on a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake at 400 for 20--25 minutes or until tender.  Drizzle olive oil on top and season with your favorite seasoning before baking.  They'll be bright green and tender when you're done.

Other friends suggested air frying the asparagus, roasting with lemon juice or lemon pepper seasoning, cooking on a skillet and removing them once they turn bright green.  If they end up an army green they they'll be mushy.

I will be roasting veggies all Summer long.  This same method work great for red potatoes, carrots, zucchnini, sweet potatoes, onions, green beans and more.  I love when Kevin grills meat for dinner and then I make some roasted vegetable sides.

2 Tips to Make Your Salads Extra Delicious

I am trying to eat more salads.  That requires regularly buying, chopping and actually eating salads at home.  My goal is a salad a day and it happens more often than not.  I've been doing side salads with dinner, big salads for lunch or dinner or getting a salad when I'm out to eat.  

I've got two tips for you that will make salad eating so much more enjoyable for you.  It obviously helps if you have dressings you really enjoy and know your favorite salad ingredients.  If not, start small and buy a new dressing or a new veggie and discover what you love on your salads.

#1 Chop your veggies in advance.

Grab a big container with a lid (this Tupperware cupcake container works great) and put little bowls or ramekins inside.  Fill the little bowls with your favorite bite sized ingredients.  Then when you want to eat a salad, you have everything ready to go!  It will feel like your own little salad bar at home.

#2 Make extra protein at dinner time and save it for your salads.

This past week I grilled an extra chicken breast and cooked some extra bacon.  I chopped them into bite size pieces and refrigerated them.  Then when I wanted a salad for lunch, I put a serving of protein in a skillet and heated it up while I was building my salad.  It made my salad much more filling and much quicker since I just needed to reheat the fully cooked meats.  Mixing the grilled chicken and thick cut bacon was an excellent idea.

Enjoy those yummy salads!

3 Simple Homemade Salad Dressings

How was your Super Bowl weekend?  Did your team win?  We had to cancel plans because Leo wasn't feeling great so that was a bummer.  But we made the most of it.  Kevin printed out games for us to play, I made some delicious food and we had a good time.  The kids got really into it.  The older two stayed up to watch overtime and asked tons of questions.  Even though we were cheering for the under dogs, we still had fun.

Now let's talk about salads!  I told you earlier in the year that I was going to work hard to learn how to make my own salad dressings.  And I'm doing it!  I don't love the salad ingredients with tons of sugar or tons of ingredients so homemade dressings feel like the best option for this salad loving girl.

I'm trying to eat at least one salad a day - either a big salad for lunch or a side salad with dinner.

I pinned a bunch of salad dressing recipes and figured out a few of my own.  These are three dressings that I made and have really enjoyed.  I didn't buy any fancy containers for them.  Just used jars and containers I already owned with masking tape labels.  I save my Duke's mayo salad dressing lids for my mason jars and they work like a charm.

Lemon Vinaigrette:

juice of one lemon

3T olive oil

a splash of apple cider vinegar

1 t sugar

1 t you favorite seasoning (Kinder The Blend - salt, pepper & garlic - is my favorite)

Shake until well combined.  Double or triple the recipe and taste it as you go.  It's delicious on salads with fruits or veggies.

Honey Mustard Dressing:

2 T olive oil

2 T Dijon mustard

a splash of Worcestershire sauce

a splash of Apple Cider Vinegar

A sprinkle of your favorite seasoning (Kinder The Blend)

salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a jar.  Shake until well combined.

Pesto Dressing:

I shared this recipe with you last Summer BLT Pasta Salad and it's still a family favorite.  Even the kids love it!  I changed up the recipe since I didn't have fresh basil on hand.

1/4 c sour cream

1/4 c Dukes mayo

3 T pesto

1 green onion

2 t Worcestershire

a sprinkle of garlic salt

salt and pepper to taste 

Blend all ingredients until smooth and refrigerate.

We eat this on the BLT pasta salad and I think it would be delicious on any salad with vegetables.

Here's an up close of my favorite seasoning.  I use it on everything from salad dressing to baked chicken to burgers.  It's delicious!  And it is super affordable at Sams.

My very favorite veggie packed salad:

All of the dressings would be delicious on this!  I chop the cucumbers, eggs and onions fresh.  Everything else I can chop in bulk ahead of time.

The BLT pasta salad.  It doesn't look amazing, but I promise you that my kids lick their salad bowls.

Our favorite berry side salad.  I chop everything up after school, pop it in the fridge and add the dressing right before I serve it.  Kevin and I love this salad with dinner.  It's got baby spinach, strawberries, honey crisp apples, purple onion, craisins, pecans, parmesan cheese.  Then I add a drizzle of poppyseed dressing or the lemon vinaigrette recipe above before I serve it.

It's such a pretty, delicious salad.

I hope you found a salad dressing that sounds delicious to you!  I'd love to hear what salad dressings you like to make at home.  Share your favorite in the comments.

8 Delicious Dinner Ideas & Tips to Make Meals Easier

Hello, Friends!  I hope you had a great weekend.  It was cold and snowy in Indiana.  We woke up to surprise snow on Friday and no school for the kids.  It was wonderful.

I have hit my dinner making stride and have some really delicious dinner ideas to share with you. Our meals are all colorful, leave me with leftovers for lunches most days and are kid and adult approved.  I hope you leave feeling inspired to make some delicious feels for your family.  Let me know in the comments what your favorite meal idea is or if you have any questions!

1. BBQ Pulled Pork Nachos

The adults at our house love these.  We use a base layer of tortilla chips, add in leftover bbq pulled pork from having it earlier in the week, cheese and a drizzle of bbq sauce.  Heat until cheese is melted.  Top with more bbq sauce or sour cream.  Tip: Serve the kids ate a mix of leftovers or easy sandwiches on a night when you make something they don't love.

2. Zatarain's Dirty Rice Mix

My kids LOVE this boxed mix dinner.  I buy two boxes to feed us dinner and leaves us with a serving or two of leftovers.  You just add cooked ground beef to the box mix and can add shredded cheese on top.  It's the easiest meal that we've been enjoying for probably 20 years.  Tip: Add a little water to the rice when you reheat it in a saucepan on the stove.  It'll taste brand new.

3. Fish Sticks and Mac & Cheese

We like these skinny fish sticks with boxed mac and cheese.  Tip: I make the dinner a little more filling and healthy by adding roasted cauliflower/broccoli, homemade bread and fruit.  This is the easiest meal to always have ready to go on the nights that you want a fast meal.

4. Taco Night

I love to make a big taco salad plate for myself on taco night.  I made homemade guacamole this night because I had ripe avocados.  I just do avocado, lemon juice, salsa, fresh tomatoes, purple onion, fresh fresh jalapeno, salt and pepper.  The rest of my family made their own taco plates - nachos, soft tacos and a taco bowl.  Tip: I chop all our favorite toppings and then the kids pick and choose what they want to have for taco night.

5. Homemade Lasagna

I don't go to this much trouble for dinner every night, but when I have more time on a Sunday or during the week, I love lasagna.  I always make one of these recipes - Life Changing Lasagna where you don't precook your noodles.  Or this Crockpot Lasagna recipe.  They're both delicious.

Night 1:  Lasagna, side salad and fruit.

Night 2: My best leftover tip is to not serve the same meal two nights in a row.  Your family will probably enjoy leftovers more if they have a day or two in between eating them.  For the second night, I served lasagna, roasted broccoli and a different fruit.  It felt like a fresh meal on the menu.

6. Cheese Grits and BBQ

I got a recipe from a friend for cheese grits after she served them at our Christmas luncheon.  They were amazing.  Mine weren't as smooth as her so I need to work on my grits making skills, but they were still tasty.  No one else at my house would try them.  Darn melty cheese hating family of mine.  So I enjoyed them for dinner and a couple of lunches.  Next time I'll make them and take them somewhere that I can share them.

Pulled pork BBQ.  Kevin buys ours online and has it shipped to the house.  We have tried Pork Belly and a few others.  They all arrived fully cooked.  You just reheat and eat.  One pound usually gives us one dinner and leftovers for nachos or lunches during the week.  I added in roasted sweet potatoes, green beans and fruit.

Leftovers made a delicious lunch!

7. Homemade Soup

I try to always keep the ingredients on hand to make chicken noodle soup.  It's fast and easy and so much better than the canned soup.  Here's my Chicken Noodle Soup recipe.  I served it with soft pretzels and cucumbers.

Tip: If you have leftover soup... Separate the soup and the noodles/veggies when you refrigerate the leftovers.  It will prevent the noodles from absorbing all the broth and it'll taste fresh when you reheat them together.

8. Chicken Breast Bites

I mentioned these on Friday and I'm talking about them again today because they are really good!  They're so much cheaper than nuggets at Chick-Fil-A.  The chicken is great quality.  This package cost around $12.  That's obviously more than a rotisserie chicken, but you get all good quality white meat that is ready to heat and serve and you don't have to mess with bones and the yuck that comes with a rotisserie chicken.

I set up a salad bar for my family.  Tip: None of my kids love lettuce, but they love a lot of the salad toppings.  They each made their own plate and filled it with lots of veggies, chicken to dip in sauces and fruit.

They were tasty!  They had a good flavor.

Tip: If you have a busy night, serve your meal on paper plates.  It'll make clean up so fast.  I served our big salads with DOTS pretzels, cheese cubes and TGI Fridays patio skins.  It was a delicious meal and then I ate leftover salads for lunch all week.

I hope you got a few new ideas for dinners at your house!

Ham & Cheese Egg Cups

I can't wait for you to try these ham and cheese egg cups!

They are delicious.

They're so easy and they reheat so well for easy breakfast or lunches all week long.

This recipe started out with me needing to finish up a package of ham and then I just added in the rest of the ingredients I always have on hand.  They make the cutest, most filling easy meal option.  They'd also be great if you were serving breakfast or brunch to a crowd.  The cups hold their shape perfectly and look pretty on a plate.

Ingredients:

12 slices of ham

12 eggs

2 cups of your favorite shredded cheese (sharp cheddar)

Your favorite seasonings to taste

Top with green onions

Directions:

Grease a 12 cup muffin pan and start layering.  Ham, cheese, egg, seasoning and cheese on top.  Be sure to break the egg yolk in each cup so that the egg cooks evenly.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or less if you want runny eggs.

We like this Kinder's seasoning from Sams or Costco.  It's super affordable and yummy on everything.

This would be a fun recipe to make with your family.  Leo loved helping me.

In case you are curious, this is what is leftover in the muffin cups when you remove them.  It doesn't leave much of a mess at all.  They pop out easily if you grease your pan.

 

I ate several fresh and then reheated some all week long.  I love having an easy meal option for myself in the fridge.  Next time I might add in some sweet peppers or onions.  This recipe is so easy to customize for your family.  Let me know if you give these a try!

Super Chopped Salad

I talked about this super chopped salad a few weeks ago and I decided it needed its own post.  It was that GOOD.  I could eat it every week.  You know I love a salad.  I really enjoy chopping all the veggies, too.  And this salad was perfect.  It was easy to chop and then have several lunches ready to go for the week.  Let me explain.

Prep 2-3 salads at a time with all the veggies that stay crunchy (lettuce, kale, carrots, broccoli, onions, cauliflower, sweet peppers, snap peas, etc.).  Cut every veggie up into the tiniest bites.  I love match stick carrots for an easy shortcut.

Then prep the more fragile salad ingredients the day you eat the salad (hard boiled eggs, cheese, croutons, dressing, cucumbers and tomatoes).

Put everything in a bowl with a lid and they are ready for easy lunches or dinners all week long.

Grab a big bowl and stir everything up really well. 

Add your dressing (honey mustard) and toss again until everything is perfectly coated.  Enjoy!

This is the perfect salad to eat at your desk, on the go or at home when you kids are eating their lunch.  It's my favorite meal. You could easily add some rotisserie chicken or some chicken strips to make it the perfect dinner.

You've got to give this super chopped salad a try!