I'm just a mom who needs to make dinner.

Today, I have another installment of I'm just a mom who needs to make dinner for you.  These are real meals (sorry, no fancy plating) made by a real mom (me!) who is not a fan of cooking but wants to limit how much take-out/restaurant food is consumed.  Eating meals made at home is healthier and saves money.

(These are iPhone photos but I couldn't help myself and had to edit them because the photos in my July post were absolutely horrid.)


Mini turkey meatloaves with scalloped potatoes and green beans.  If you've cooked ground turkey, you know how it can end up very dry.  To prevent these little meatloaves from drying out, I add a ton of chicken stock when I mix up the ingredients.  Like you will think it's too much, but it's not.  You want the mixture to be extremely wet - obviously not a bowl of soup - but there will be more moisture than you're used to.  These cook up beautifully and are not dry.  


Eggplant parm served over pasta, with Caesar salad and garlic bread.  I love eggplant parm but don't want to be bothered with the whole process of making it so I cheat and buy it frozen.  We usually eat this when I don't have a lot of time to cook.


Veggie tacos with mexican beans.  I make veggie tacos using roasted cauliflower.  It's pretty easy to do.

• Preheat oven to 425
• Cut up a head of cauliflower and spread across a baking sheet
• Drizzle with olive oil and mix around (I usually use my hands)
• Sprinkle taco seasoning over the cauliflower (don't mix it up again)
• Flip over a couple of times while roasting

I've tried placing the cauliflower in a mixing bowl and then adding in the olive oil and seasoning but I found that a great deal of the seasoning didn't stick and I ended up sprinkling it around on the cauliflower after I had dumped it on the baking sheet.  And then I had an extra bowl to wash.


Trader Joe's cauliflower gnocchi (service pizza style) with homemade brushetta.  Okay, so we tried the cauliflower gnocchi from Trader Joe's and, meh, it was kind of a bust.  We liked the taste but the texture was really gummy even though I roasted them in the oven after I had cooked them on the stovetop.  Granted, I didn't have a ton of time to roast them and pulled them out after 10 minutes because at that point, we needed to eat or I was never going to get out of the house.  But still, after 10 minutes in high heat, they were still the same as they had been on the stove.

For a topping, we used Trader Joe's pizza sauce and shredded Italian cheese (not Trader Joe's.)  The pizza sauce was okay but it seemed to have darkened while it was heating up in a saucepan over low heat, which I thought was a little odd.


Pulled pork (made in the crock pot) sandwiches.  I made quesadillas later in the week with the leftovers.


Buffalo chicken salad (I cut up a rotisserie chicken to make) over a bed of lettuce, topped with blue cheese dressing and diced red onion.  Rich and the girls made sandwiches but I wasn't very hungry so I went with extra lettuce instead of a roll.


Steak and cheese subs.  I know, I know.  Not the healthiest but they are homemade.  The girls and I only eat a tiny bit of steak so it's more like a veggie sub with a little steak.  There are roasted green peppers and tomato slices in there.


Sauteed chicken covered in tomato slices, served with roasted zucchini, garlic mashed potatoes and baked beans.


I obviously didn't make this, but I feel the need to include the pickle pizza from Town Spa in Stoughton.  I know it sounds weird but it is so incredibly tasty.  Town Spa serves "bar room" pizza that is popular (and somewhat unique) to this area.  This is the kind of pizza I grew up eating.  We love the pickle version!


To see my July edition of I'm just a mom who needs to make dinner, click HERE.