Easy Meals

I am all about easy meals during the week! It's hard to come home from work and spend so much time making dinner! I usually save my complicated meals for Sunday nights where I can give myself a little bit more time to make them! TIP: Use as much fresh produce as you can!  it really makes a difference! I am really bad at measurements BTW- I just don't measure.. but I am going to make it a point to be better! Here are a couple of easy meals I make for the weekdays I will try and come write some up weekly because I do have a lot! 

Seafood 

Shrimp Salads- I usually make Caesar ones but you can top any salad with shrimp! You can cook shrimp in a few ways, Grill them with your favorite seasonings! There's a lemon pepper one that I love! You can boil them- I usually boil them in some low sodium chicken broth, and half of an onion to give it some flavor! Or you can bake them- toss them in a little olive oil and a good seasons Italian packet (that's my favorite way to bake shrimp) Shrimp does not take long to cook at all! 

Baked Salmon - Rinse the fish and blot dry with a paper towel Brush olive oil on all sides (except the bottom) I typically like to season my fish pretty simple garlic powder, dill weed, salt and pepper, and a good squeeze of lemon juice. I bake mine at 450 for like 15 minutes. Serve with your favorite sides!  I like asparagus with my salmon!

Chicken

My boyfriends aunt gave me this recipe.. I was never a huge fan of baked chicken but this one I seemed to like :) 

Please note she didn't give me measurements so I guessed but do enough to coat all the chicken! 

Cory's Chicken 

3-4 boneless chicken

Place in LARGE glad Ziploc bag 

Olive oil, couple squeezes of fresh lime and lemon juice

salt, pepper and basil. 

Shake it all up in the bag and you can marinate that for as long as you want I usually only do 20 min. 

Bake 350 for 35- 40ish min TILL DONE!

Serve on top of salads or whatever sides you enjoy! 

SKILLET CHEESY CHICKEN AND VEGGIE “RICE”

 I got this recipe from SkinnyTaste it's great for weeknights and I make it a lot! 

Here is the recipe

Burgers 

I have been making a lot of turkey burgers and chicken burgers. You can use whatever burger you prefer. I am not a huge fan of ground beef and I do try and stay away from red meat as much as I can (I can't deny a good steak or steak tips sometimes) I forgot how creative you can get with burger toppings too so I've been experimenting! Also if you switch up toppings you can't really get sick of making them! Sometimes I will have mine bun-less depending on how my food day went!!! 

Here are a couple of my favorites 

Burger topped with cheese and coleslaw 

I'll buy the bag coleslaw (I don't use the whole bag, just enough to top our burgers!) mix a little mayo, apple cider vinegar, half a packet of splenda, salt pepper and lime juice!

Top on your choice of burger! It's really good! 

Burger with Red onion and Feta

Pretty self explanatory- Ground Turkey Burger, chopped half of a small red onion, half a cup of feta... more if you like! mix it all up in a large bowl, form the patties and grill up! 

Other Toppings I've done- cook up some onions in some garlic & olive oil, homemade pickled onions, avocado, cook up some mushrooms in a pan- its endless! 

Pasta

Pasta is one of my favorite things to make! Honestly, I know it's bad for you but YOLO in moderation!

Spaghetti with Zucchini and Squash

I've made this dish a couple of times & we enjoyed it! I caught it on an episode off the food network! It just looked so appetizing to me at the time & I wasn't wrong!!! There isn't any meat but I am sure it would be really good with shrimp or chicken!  Theres a video too! 

RECIPE HERE

One Pot Spaghetti 

I've always been curious about this one pot cooking so I finally did it and found a recipe that was fool proof! I used my non-stick skillet It worked! Here is what I tried... 

Olive oil 

1 small onion 

Minced garlic FRESH

1 lb Fresh tomatoes chopped 

2 cups of low sodium chicken broth 

Chopped Basil 

8oz spaghetti

Salt & Pepper (if you need it) 

Heat up olive oil in your pan  Add the onion and garlic, saute until they start to brown. Add fresh chopped tomatoes, chicken broth, basil and pasta! ( I broke my spaghetti in half so it would fit in the skillet) Push the pasta down so its submerged in the liquid- cover and switch to medium low to cook for about 8 minutes or until the pasta reaches what you like! The liquid will go down a little bit so add a little bit more broth cover and cook for another couple of minutes.. then done! It was honestly amazing! 

Do you have fast weeknight meal? I wanna know what it is!