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Weekly Eats: My Tips for Stress-Free Meals

I love to cook and it’s a great stress-reliever for me at the end of the day. However, during the week I don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen. I save long, leisurely meals for Sunday night, but during the week I try to keep things quick and easy. Here are a few things I do to help myself get dinner on the table during the week:

  • Repurpose ingredients. For the chicken and potato supper I made on Sunday, I made extra chicken so that I could use it on the BBQ chicken pizza.
  • Have a few go-to meals, like burgers, that are always good and come together quickly.
  • Choose meals that will use up things you already have in the kitchen. For example, the burrito bowls below are great for using up leftover rice, beans, and veggies.
  • Use a mix of homemade and store-bought ingredients. I love homemade pizza dough, but when I don’t have any in the freezer I just let the store help me out and use refrigerated dough. It may not be quite as tasty, but it’s still pizza!

Stress Free Meals Menu

Clockwise from top left: 

 

1. Chicken and Potatoes Sheet Pan Supper from The Kitchn. This was such a nice Sunday supper. The prep is pretty easy, just make the olive oil and lemon zest rub and slather it on some bone-in chicken and cut up potatoes. Then the oven does the rest of the work. Simple and delicious.

2. Mini Greek Burgers adapted from Martha Stewart. Rather than lamb, I made these with ground beef, but they turned out delicious. Aaron said, “this tastes like something you would get at a restaurant” which certainly made me happy! I really liked them too, especially with sweet red bell peppers, cool tzatziki sauce and feta cheese. So much flavor!

3. Homemade Burrito Bowls from Iowa Girl Eats. This is a family favorite; I’ve made it many times before. This time I substituted pork for the chicken since I had a couple of pork chops I needed to use. Both taste great! This is one of those add-whatever-you’ve-got-lying-around type of dishes, and I love all the layers of flavor it has. Luckily avocados were on sale, so I made the most of it and went a little avocado-crazy on mine. (Why not? I’m the only one who eats them around here!)

4. BBQ Chicken Pizza from The Kitchn. BBQ Chicken Pizza has become a new favorite for a quick-fix midweek meal. For this one, I used chicken that I had leftover from Sunday night’s sheet pan supper. I just rolled out a can of pizza dough (which I don’t love, but it does the job), spread on a mixture of barbecue sauce and tomato sauce (great combo!), and topped with chicken and cheese. Easy, filling, and oh so good.

How do you get dinner on the table during the week?

 

Weekly Eats at Shea Lennon

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