Tasty Tuesday - Meal Ideas, Tips and Italian Treat

I hadn't put any recipes on here in awhile and I enjoy reading what everyone else prepares to get some new ideas.  We all get stuck in the same rut of meals so it's fun to try something different.  And yall know I have no time so the name of my game is quick meals that are reasonably healthy!  Here are some of our ideas:

1.  "Crab Chicken" - marinate overnight a few chicken breasts in apple cider vinegar, lil olive oil and lots of old bay.  Grill or bake it the next night.  That's what Mama calls Crab Chicken!  Please tell me you all know what old bay is.  I know some of you gals definitely do.  We just sauted some squash and zucchini with onion and served with a salad.  I have no clue why we had a couple of those potatoes that night because clearly it was enough without.

2.  The wedge salad.  Delish and can't go wrong.  Each head of lettuce creates 4 wedges or you could be like Kevin and not like them.  Well easy peasy, I just make his like a normal salad.  I can still have my wedge!  This one has cucumbers and tomatoes with goat cheese.  Trader Joe's has some serious deals on cheeses FYI.

3.  Another thing I made last week was a Southwest salad.  Perdue makes those shortcuts that are already cooked, sliced and pre-seasoned.  Genius.  And I had two ears of corn I needed to use so I sauted both of those on the stove.  Drained and rinsed some black beans.  Then I put it all on the salad with some tomato and a lil mexican cheese.  Delish and a 5 minute meal.

4.  Friday night I had a little more time and my sweet, sweet co-worker had brought me back some pasta and herbs straight from Italy.  She was there last month for vacation.

We used the herbs in some oil and vinegar to start with some sliced french bread.  Our Teeter bakes fresh bread daily and this is the first time I've ever bought any of it.  And they will slice it for you.  Hello super easy for any parties in the future.  Anyway, we never have bread with our meals....it's just an easy carb to cut out that isn't necessary.  This time I decided it could be a big treat since it was Friday and Italian is Kevin's favorite meal by far.  I decided to go the distance for him! :)

And yall check out this pasta.  I only cooked half the bag so we could use it for another meal but it was so.much.food. 

I did make the sauce from scratch as I couldn't ruin fabulous pasta with store bought sauce!  Basically what it consisted of was a large can of crushed tomatoes, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can of tomato sauce, parsley, garlic, a pinch of splenda and probably some other stuff I threw in there.  Also Kevin doesn't eat anything without a lil meat in it so it does have hamburger meat too. 

We honestly try to eat at home as much as possible.  It's cheaper and healthier.  Kevin is really good at figuring out meals with what we have left in the fridge and pantry which is super helpful.  I really like the fact that he has an opinion of what we eat because that does make it easier on me.  I don't have to pull it out of him every night what he wants.   Let it be known though that he is a very picky eater.  He does nothing green unless it's salad.  He will eat a spinach salad but will not eat cooked spinach.  He despises broccoli.  He'll occasionally eat squash or zucchini but it's a stretch.  Yes my friends, SO easy to cook for.  ;)

We plan our meals on Sundays.  We make a big list of what we need and I go to the Teeter or Trader Joe's.  By planning them all out on Sundays, we don't have to wonder what to make each night.  Also, it makes it easy to start meals the night before so sometimes you just have to pop things in the oven.  Like last night, we marinated the meat we're using for fajitas tonight.

Oh and I always make at least 4 servings of each dinner.  We use the extra serving for lunch the next day.  Much cheaper and healthier than spending $10 going out with your co-workers every day.  And you can get your errands done at lunch.  :)

Anyway, hope these tips and meal ideas helped some of yall.  Please share your best tip or link back to your blog on an easy weeknight meal so we can all get new ideas.