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Pan Seared NY Strip Steak

August 16, 2021 by Lindsay 2 Comments

The easiest way to make steak in a cast iron skillet! NY Strip Steak with easy, buttery shallot sauce is the most delicious date night at home steak method. Pair this with your favorite sides for a delicious, easy steakhouse dinner at home!

close up cast iron skillet with cooked sliced steak and shallot sauce over steak

Hi! How is your week going? I think the older we get the more we say it, but what a week. We're struggling to stay afloat in a very busy season, and with a lot of in and out, dinners together to reconnect are definitely part of that plan.

I love a Nice But Very Easy mid-week meal when we're super busy, and this is by far our favorite way to eat steak. We eat it with some kind of roasted veggie that can cook while the steak works, and dinner is DONE in 30 minutes, maybe less.

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14 Back-To-School Dinner Ideas (with meal prep tips)

August 5, 2021 by Lindsay 11 Comments

How are we feeling this week? Or whenever you and yours start back to school (if you do)?

Our district starts in just two weeks, but we're deep in prep for the big day. Beck has asked weekly when school is starting back since it let OUT in May, and now is up to asking about three times per day if tomorrow is the first day of school. She can't wait to start in her new class with new friends, and I'm SO excited for her.

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Corn Risotto with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes

July 14, 2021 by Lindsay 1 Comment

Super easy corn risotto recipe that is perfect for using up summer produce! This version features roasted cherry tomatoes that get a little charred, a lot sweet, and are the perfect topping. This is a vegetarian and gluten free main dish or side option. Pair it with some cast iron skillet salmon for a yummy gluten free pescatarian dinner.

bowl of corn risotto topped with tomatoes on blue napkin

Because everything should have corn and tomatoes in it right now, you know? It's true.

Where we are, produce is so perfect this time of year, zucchini and squash and herbs and corn just everywhere. This corn risotto cozy from the creamy rice and fresh with corn and tomatoes that are amazing right now.

I love this recipe for summer, but it's for sure delicious year round with frozen corn and storebought cherry tomatoes. It's also really nice for late summer when the produce is still there but the temperatures mercifully dip a little bit.

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Vegan Tabouli Salad

July 6, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Delicious, easy vegan tabouli salad with marinated chickpeas that is the perfect light lunch! We serve this often as a side dish for grilled chicken or baked tofu, or take it to summer potlucks for a yummy vegan side dish.

gray pottery bowl of vegan tabouli salad topped with parsley and marinated garbanzo beans with blue napkins

I. Love. Summer.

I love the feeling of school being out. I love the heat and humidity, even when I bitch about it. I love the longer days, the smell of gardenias, going to hear music downtown, the whole cliché shebang.

I especially LOVE summer-feeling food. Grilled meat with fresh or raw side dishes, that great mix of healthy and decadent, salads so fresh and crisp that they somehow quench your thirst, you know?

This tabouli is one of those salads for our family, and I can't get enough. My mom used to make picnics of hummus and tabouli and pita long before those things were cool, and bring them to the pool late swim practices in the summer. She made both with a heavy hand of lemon, one of my favorite flavors for dishes like this.

This version of tabouli is a teensy bit jazzed up with marinating the chick peas, but that's super hands off and can be done way in advance - the longer in advance the better, actually. The garbanzos end up creamy but still with texture and so much flavor from the lemon juice, garlic, and crushed red pepper. I honestly can't even.

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Spicy Grilled Firecracker Shrimp

June 29, 2021 by Lindsay 15 Comments

Spicy grilled shrimp at its finest with TWO kinds of hot sauce! Just 5 ingredients and 10 minutes are all you need for this spicy, buttery take on firecracker shrimp.

cooked grilled shrimp on grill pan with lemon slices

Hello and welcome to our favorite 15 minute appetizer! When we're having grilling parties I'm always into a little snack right at the beginning - something delicious that can be thrown on the grill or in the oven while we wait for the main event, you know?

Fake-out focaccia is an example of this.

Now, don't confuse this Firecracker Shrimp with the dish by the same name from Panda Express. This is not that, although I'm sure that's delicious too. I've called this spicy grilled shrimp Firecracker Shrimp for YEARS, mainly because it is a very fun summery nibble to add to a grilling party at one of the American summer holidays. Hence, Firecracker Shrimp.

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Vegan Pasta Salad with Roasted Veggies

June 24, 2021 by Lindsay 2 Comments

Yummy vegan pasta salad is the perfect summer side dish! I make this with any seasonal veggies I have on hand, pine nuts, and lots of fresh herbs and lemon vinaigrette for brightness. Change up the veggies, pasta shape, and herbs each time for a fresh take on this yummy, healthy side dish!

large serving bowl of vegan pasta salad with asparagus and tomatoes

I just finished the book Hello, Summer and tbh want to start all recipes like this with OH, HELLO SUMMER, but it feels kind of redundant.

Know that I'm thinking it, though.

This is, to me, the pasta salad to end all pasta salads. It's light, fresh, and full of summery flavors. I love that it's vegan because lots of different types of eaters can eat it, and almost every aspect of it can be switched up based on what you have on hand. Different nuts, veggies, fresh herbs, it all works.

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Easy Shrimp Curry

June 14, 2021 by Lindsay 2 Comments

This delicious shrimp curry features coconut milk, fish sauce, and lots of lime juice for brightness. This is a curry shrimp recipe that's done in just 30 minutes, aka the perfect weeknight seafood dinner! Pair this with plain white rice or naan for dipping and sopping up all the creamy curry sauce.

large skillet of shrimp with creamy curry sauce, napkin, and cilantro

Ohhhh curry, how I love you. It's no secret that we are highly obsessed with all kinds of curry, and a yellow curry with coconut milk appears a few times per month on our dinner rotation.

I often see curry recipes with a bunch of chopping, starting with garlic, ginger, jalapeno, and green onion. I LOVE starting curries with that flavor combination, but wanted to do a quick version using dried and jarred flavors to save time and effort.

This shrimp curry recipe is super easy thanks to coconut milk and yellow curry, and the result is a 15-20 minute curry that tastes like tons of effort without any actual effort. Shrimp cooks in 3 minutes or less, and with some storebought naan this can truly be dinner in under half an hour.

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Connecticut Lobster Rolls

June 3, 2021 by Lindsay 9 Comments

The most delicious warm lobster roll recipe, Connecticut Lobster Rolls! These easy lobster rolls are served WARM and have just six ingredients including tons of melty butter. These are the perfect recipe for all summer long!

Hello and HI, welcome to our summer of all the lobster.

I think in this post-but-still-kinda pandemic era, it's gotten more meaningful to make really fun foods at home. We still maybe aren't traveling or eating out as much, but we still want our favorite restaurant-style foods, right?

RIGHT.

Enter, Connecticut lobster rolls, or the deliciously-named butter lobster roll. SERIOUSLY, friends, how does one even choose a favorite type of lobster roll? There's the New England style, cold with flavors of celery, lemon and mayo, or these warm lobster rolls that are drenched in butter, lemon juice, and served in buttery toasted buns.

Probably both types of lobster rolls is what we need to make this summer count.

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Easy Crockpot Butter Chicken

May 12, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Indian butter chicken in a slow cooker! This super delicious crockpot chicken curry has just 10 ingredients and no searing or extra chopping. The end result is luscious, creamy, delicious butter chicken with hardly any effort.

Hello, HELLO. I have been dying to tell you about this, 90s-sitcom-drama style.

The thing about Indian curry dishes is that they are not known for their ease of making. The really good ones have lots of ingredients, whole spices, hours of simmering, and generally lots of things that making cooking really fun, in my opinion.

BUT. Sometimes we want curry tonight. Now. Fast. Not a lot of fuss. The crockpot is an ideal cooking vessel for long-cooked stuff that needs time to develop flavors, and I love it because it can (probably, mostly) be left on while we leave the house or wander off to do other things. No checking, stirring, adjusting liquid levels, just easy crockpot chicken curry with 10 ingredients.

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Quick 1-Skillet Lemon Pepper Pasta

May 10, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Vegetarian one pot pasta, yes please! This one pan lemon pepper pasta comes together in under half an hour with just 7 ingredients. Classic lemon pepper seasoning flavor meets creamy, buttery pasta in this easy one pot pasta method. Pair this with an easy lemon vinaigrette green salad for a complete vegetarian meal.

Quick like....20 minutes tops, no chopping of any kind unless you count zesting a lemon, which you could fully skip if you'd like.

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Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs

April 28, 2021 by Lindsay 2 Comments

Favorite chicken cordon bleu flavors in these utterly delicious and simple Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs! Lean ground chicken and a little Swiss cheese get blended quickly with some ham (leftover glazed ham or deli ham!) and easy pantry spices for major flavor in this tender ground chicken meatball. There's an easy sour cream dip with mustard for dipping + extra credit.

low carb ground chicken meatballs healthy with dipping sauce

These are chicken balls with ham and cheese.

They were, as all good ideas on this blog are, Jay's idea, and they were a fantastic one. I love the nostalgic flavors of chicken cordon bleu, crispy exterior, gooey interior, but the process is pretty arduous and a meatball is just so friendly and celebratory, right?

For the sake of holidays or parties, you can totally make these in advance, bake them, then reheat them in the oven until the cheese melts again so all the mess + raw meat nonsense can happen well in advance of serving these.

The ingredients are simple, and you can use deli ham or leftover holiday ham from Easter or Thanksgiving if you ever have any lying around.

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Easy Mexican Ground Beef

April 26, 2021 by Lindsay 3 Comments

Delicious Mexican ground beef that can be used in tacos, burritos, or over nachos! This is one of those foolproof recipes that is delicious, and features your own homemade taco seasoning, hard shell tacos with no seasoning packet! This ground beef is extra delicious with sour cream guacamole.

For Taco Tuesday hard-shell tacos, DUH.

We are a week away from Cinco de Mayo! This is excellent news because MEXICAN FOOD OBVS. Mexican and Indian are my true all the time, tried and true, even love the leftovers, favorite cuisines of all time. We eat a variation of each at least once per week, and I love that Mexican food specifically lends itself to so many different types of foods, uses for extra veggies, all of the good stuff. Plus: flavor. condiments. cilantro.

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Easy Chili Lime Salmon

April 19, 2021 by Lindsay 2 Comments

Chili lime salmon with honey is a DELICIOUS version of my best ever cast iron skillet salmon. Just 6 ingredients, 15 minutes, and gluten free, dairy free salmon dinner can be yours!

It's 6 ingredients of love, basically. How are we feeling about a 20 minute salmon dinner that feels slightly Mexican, slightly fine for any side dish you like, slightly practically perfect in every way?

We feel great about it, right?

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Pan Fried Tofu with Thai Peanut Sauce

April 8, 2021 by Lindsay 2 Comments

Our 100% favorite plant-based weeknight dinner that we eat at least every other week! Perfect spicy peanut sauce (make it in advance!), crispy pan fried tofu, and slaw with whatever greens you have make for the most delicious vegan rice bowl dinner that is healthy and comforting.

I don't think I've ever said this about anything before (I probably have), but this is hands down our favorite dinner.

We have other things that we love, other things that are in regular rotation, for sure, but this is our dinner. One that we've tweaked and crafted over the years and every time we have it we kind of sink into this "it's healthy but comforting" haze of joy.

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5-Ingredient Ham and Cheese Quiche

April 1, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Easy ham and cheese quiche recipe with my favorite basic quiche recipe! Use your favorite melty cheese, some savory ham, and enjoy this brunch recipe that is done in just about an hour (mostly hands off). I serve this with my favorite green salad, but this is also a great addition to a Mother's Day Brunch or Easter Brunch spread!

Ooohhhh I'm loving this spring, friends.

Spring is a really nice time for a pandemic to think about ending, you know? We're still in it, for sure, but we're also seeing signs of life. A little more color, a little more vibrancy, all around.

Spring is a great time to bring out some new brunch recipes because Easter and Mother's Day just really go great with a nice brunch, you know? I LOVE a quiche for any kind of brunch (or lunch, or dinner), but ham and cheese quiche may very well be one of my favorite flavors.

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Lentil Bowls with Cauliflower and Tahini

March 22, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

The best buddha bowls with cauliflower and tahini sauce! These are so delicious for a make ahead lunch, and the pickled onions and tahini sauce can be made in advance for a quick throw-together meal. These bowls are vegetarian, gluten free, and can be served hot, cold, or at room temperature.

lentil bowl topped with pickled red onions

When it comes to "healthy" food, I'm careful to not use words like "cheat, guilt, good, bad," and so on. I think that thought pattern surrounding food can be so damaging, but also I agree that in terms of physical health there are foods that are better for our bodies than others, if we're talking lentils vs cheetos.

I love lentils for the cheap + toothsome + nutrition-packed punch they pack in a bowl like this. They are SO flavorful (because salt) and honestly I could eat a bowl of them on their own.

We made this into a fun bowl with bright pink pickled onions, a shortcut gremolata, and toasty roasty cauliflower, one of my favorite substitutes for meat because when roasted it has just the best texture.

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Crispy Chicken Cutlets

March 16, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Homemade chicken cutlets for the feezer! These thin-sliced chicken breasts are breaded then cooked right from frozen for the best meal prep entree ever. These can be pan-fried OR baked, and both cooking methods result in crispy, juicy chicken that is absolutely delicious. Think of this as a grown up version of my baked breaded chicken tenders.

Let us make ourselves some chicken cutlets, keep them in the freezer, and call it good. I am so, so into freshly fried or baked crispy chicken without any effort.

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Crock Pot Tortellini Chicken Soup

March 9, 2021 by Lindsay 10 Comments

One of our favorite all-the-time slow cooker soups, tortellini chicken soup! This is a super easy, all-in-one dish with pasta, chicken, and spinach. There's no searing, hardly any chopping, just one Crock Pot, a few hours of waiting, and dinner is done! This is not terrible at ALL with some homemade focaccia with pizza dough for dunking.

Hello and hi and here's dinner!

I absolutely can't believe it, but almost exactly one year ago my sister and brother in law came over and brought dinner, a slow cooker tortellini situation with chicken and tomatoes and cream. It was delicious.

We joked about how school would probably be cancelled starting that Monday (they're both teachers), joked about handwashing, joked about...everything.

About 36 hours later the entire world shut down and we didn't see each other for months.

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Meal Prep Chicken Grain Bowls

February 16, 2021 by Lindsay 7 Comments

Meal prep chicken grain bowls with all of your favorite toppings! We're going super easy for meal prep with one dressing for the chicken marinade and salad, a few chopped veggies, and lots and lots of time saved during the week now that your meal prep lunches are made!

Mmmmmmm meal prep ideas for lunch, aka something I think about almost every week. It's been one of the hardest things about quarantine for me; very few opportunities to leave the house for lunch and very little desire to have leftovers since we cook 7 dinners per week now too.

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Eight Valentine's Day Pasta Recipes

February 8, 2021 by Lindsay 7 Comments

The best Valentine's Day date night starts with pasta! Here are my favorite Valentine's Day Pasta Recipes to make at home.

Are you celebrating Valentine's Day this week? Weekend? Ever? Never?

We technically celebrate our dating anniversary on V-day, but after a gazillion years together we....I have no idea...anymore. Mainly because I travel a lot this time of year (well, in a regular year, which this is not) and two times we had a newborn at Valentine's Day, and while I'm cool with a dating anniversary and a wedding anniversary as an excuse to hang out, it's definitely nothing mandatory for us anymore.

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