I recently shared with you all my Meal Planning 101 tips and I thought what better way to show how it can be done than by sharing with you my plan each week. So here goes my very first Recipe Round Up! You can get a glimpse into exactly what meals I planned for the week, how they worked out and if I would recommend them again.
First, take a look back at my Meal Planning 101 post to check out my planning process. Starting out the New Year (once we got past the holiday craziness), I began my first week of planning. I hadn’t been on one of my go-to recipe blogs for a minute, so you will see that this particular week’s plan is loaded with recipes from SkinnyTaste (and they did not disappoint!).
Two trends you will notice is that we eat a lot of leftovers and we don’t really eat out often. Most recipes that I find are 4 servings and since there are only two of us (my fiancé and me), by default we end up with lunch for the next day. It’s also because we live on a cattle ranch in a very rural area and healthy eating-out options are pretty sparse, so we tend to stick to cooking at home.
I also travel a LOT for my job, so I tend to eat at home when I can because I certainly get my fill of restaurant food on those trips.
You’ll notice in my reviews that I include whether the recipe will go in the “vault” or not. What does this even mean? It’s my way of saying, am I keeping this as a go-to dinner recipe for the future? I don’t want to make anything more than once if I don’t absolutely LURVE IT! It’s like watching a bad movie, for the second time. Noooo…
So without further ado, here are my Week 1 recipe reviews!
Breakfast Casserole with Spinach and Feta by Skinnytaste
Overall Rating: 5 stars
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Alterations: I used Mediterranean Feta blend that I had on hand and I think it added a little something extra to the dish!
Leftover Quality: 5 stars
Going in the Vault? YES
Very easy to heat up in the microwave and eat for the remainder of the week. Protein packed and a filling breakfast!
Dinner 1: Pork Chops with Mushroom and Shallots by Skinnytaste with roasted red potatoes and brussels sprouts (by me!)
Overall Rating: 5 stars
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Alterations: I didn’t have any shallots on hand so I just swapped for onion.
Leftover Quality: 4 stars (although it was so good that we barely had any leftovers!) Pork chops just never heat up the best, but still yummy.
Going in the Vault? YES
I have rarely made a dinner that my fiancé raves over but this one he wouldn’t shut up about. I overcooked my chops a smidge because I am too conservative when it comes to pork, so just be confident in following the time recommended in the original recipe. If you are wondering about the potatoes and the brussels, I just quartered all of them, tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, garlic powder and whatever other seasonings sounded yummy and roasted in the oven at 400F, about 20 minutes for the brussels and 30 for the potatoes, tossing halfway through. Then bon a petit!
Dinner 2: Chicken Pulao with Beet Raita by SkinnyTaste (seeing a trend here?)
Overall Rating: 4 stars
Level of Difficulty: Medium (mostly due to the time for the beets)
Alterations: I didn’t have any cardamom or cardamom pods so I used some nutmeg and ground cloves in its place, with a little extra cinnamon. I used ground cinnamon instead of a cinnamon stick and I refrained from the green chiles because I am a sissy, but looking back I wish that I would have used them.
Leftover Quality: 5 stars
Going in the Vault? No, but I do want to try more Indian food now!
I made this using the stovetop method because I don’t own a pressure cooker or instant pot, and it didn’t take long at all as far as dinner recipes go. The time consuming part was the beet raita. I found a simple healthy beet raita recipe to pair with this, but beets just take a long time to roast, as I learned. If I had it to do again, I would have just had diced up my roasted beets and season with the lime juice and the parsley and some salt and pepper and eaten them alongside the chicken pulao, but that is just personal preference 🙂
Dinner 3: Chicken Zucchini Stir Fry by SkinnyTaste with Asian Spicy Sesame Cucumber Salad by Melanie Cooks, with a side of quinoa
Overall Rating: 5 stars
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Alterations: I added sliced portabella mushrooms (YUM). I also used liquid aminos in place of the soy sauce. I had never even heard of “mirin” so I did a quick google search and replaced it with white cooking wine and Truvia baking blend, which I also use in place of sugar in almost all recipes.
Leftover Quality: 5 stars
Going in the vault? YES – but more as a general stir fry guide because you can literally make any meat or veggie stir fry with this recipe!
The most valuable part of this recipe from SkinnyTaste is the directions for slicing the chicken very thin and then following the process to tenderize it. It was so easy and made a huge difference. My stovetop chicken before would be a bit chewier and drier. Now it tastes like the tender and juicy little bites you get from a restaurant dish. I also have to recommend this cucumber side dish whenever you are making an Asian-inspired recipe. It is already a go-to recipe for me. It’s light and delicious, with a little kick and takes maybe 2 minutes to make. Using quinoa as your rice replacement is also something I do almost always. It really makes a big difference on calories and carbs without giving up on taste and “sauce soak up” quality, in my opinion.
Dinner 4: Mexican Shrimp Diablo and Black Beans by Skinnytaste with a side of Cilantro Lime rice
Overall Rating: 5 stars
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Alterations: I doubled the amount of chipotle in adobo, maybe even more than that because I LOVE the smoky heat of adobo. I also 1.5xed this recipe and made a separate dish with chicken instead of shrimp because one of my dinner guests didn’t like seafood and the chicken was excellent with this.
Leftover Quality: 5 stars (make sure you use fresh avocado and lime on day two!)
Going in the vault? YES – for nights when I have a little extra time and really want Mexican food, this will be a top choice.
The black beans recipe was a great side, but again I don’t have a pressure cooker so I used a can of Bush’s black beans (my favorite canned black beans) and added the pepper, onion and some bacon cooked in the microwave and crumbled, and it turned out just fine. I stuck to a pretty basic rice recipe, just added the lime and cilantro at the end and fluffing. This dinner was a big hit as I made it for my parents and a close friend of ours.
Dinner 5: Moroccan Chicken Quinoa Salad by the Bewitchin’ Kitchen
Overall Rating: 5 stars
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Alterations: First thing, I followed Gina from Skinnytaste’s direction for tenderizing the chicken ahead of time. I also left out the chickpeas and bought matchstick carrots to save time on prep. I then used the spices called for in the dressing to season and cook the chicken. I think this step really boosted the dish’s Moroccan flavors. Final changes that I made were to cook down all the veggies and assemble one large dish instead of individual bowls. I first layered the quinoa, then added the veggie mix and topped with the chicken and dressing.
Leftover Quality: 5 stars
Going in the vault? YES, but with my changes 🙂
I altered this recipe the greatest, mostly due to personal preference on a couple of things, but also because I made this for my parents and I have learned to slowly introduce them to the healthy side of life. I find that it’s easier to get people to try a veggie-heavy dish when the veggies are cooked versus raw. I also left out the chickpeas because I personally don’t like the texture, but I think they would be great to include if you like chickpeas.
These were all the recipes that I had the chance to make this week as I had a family commitment come up and needed to travel. So look for rockfish in the next week’s review!
I hope that you found this valuable. Drop any questions you might have in the comments below, or recommendations for what you want to know more about!
Happy trails,
Diana
Ranch n' Business 