3 "Go To" Meals

Despite the fact that I don't particularly enjoy cooking dinner, I still do so 5 to 6 times a week.  That number does decrease during the summer when we're on the Cape, but when we're at home, I'm cooking.  Meal planning saves us money and is overall more healthy than constantly eating out.  That's why I do it.

There are some dinners that I cannot make too frequently or the girls get sick of them, so I need to mix it up.  The dinners below, however, are 3 of our "go to" meals that we keep in the rotation.

1.  Breakfast for dinner

A few weeks ago, the girls and I arrived home from the Cape on a Monday right before lunch.  During the summer, we've been grocery shopping as a family here and there.  It goes by quicker because we split up the list.  On that day, I really did not want to go the store before dinner, but if we wanted to go with Rich, we would have to wait until after dinner.

I try to keep the following items on hand:  eggs, pancake mix and frozen hash browns.  For dinner that night, I made scrambled eggs with pancakes and hash browns.  If I have potatoes in the pantry, I'll use those instead of frozen.  Sometimes I mix diced tomatoes into the scrambled eggs.  (Saute them for a couple of minutes on their own before adding the eggs to the pan.)

If we have stale bread, I'll make french toast.  Often with a side of bacon.  Give turkey bacon a try!

2.  Quiche

This is along the same lines as breakfast for dinner, but the quiche is usually savory.  I have a basic quiche recipe and you can make any kind of quiche you want.  We usually do goat cheese and baby spinach.  (I cook down the spinach before adding it to the quiche.)



Tomato, mozzarella cheese and basil is another good one.



I made chicken cacciatore a few weeks ago and we ended up with leftover sauce of diced tomatoes and red peppers.  I drained the sauce and used the tomatoes and peppers in a quiche.

3.  Veggie Tacos      

I absolutely love Mexican food, but around here, our choices are blah.  For example, "Mexican" cheese at our local grocery store is a joke.  I'll eat a burger here and there but red meat (followed by ground turkey) are not really favorites of mine at all.  We've been making veggie tacos instead with cauliflower.

Basically, you cut up a head of cauliflower.  Drizzle it with oil olive.  Spread the oil around with your hands.  (I do that step right on the baking sheet.)  I then sprinkle taco seasoning all over the cauliflower.  I've found that this works better than mixing it up in a bowl before dumping on a sheet.  Roast at 425 degrees for, I don't know exactly, maybe 30 minutes.  You'll want to flip it around with a spatula every so often.



We use the cauliflower as the base for our tacos and add lettuce, tomatoes, sliced avocado, cheese, and taco sauce.  I've been cooking up some black beans for protein.  Again with the poor selection at the store, but I have found some with a mild jalapeno sauce that most everyone seems to like.