Cooking your meals at home the majority of the time can get a little tricky﹣whether you dislike cooking, don’t have the time, or have run out of meal ideas. We’ve all been there at one point or another, and have gone out to eat despite having plenty of food at home. Although I love to go out to eat and try new places, it’s definitely not the most cost effective way of doing things. Because of this, I wanted to share some recipes/meal ideas that are easy to make at home, but are still really enjoyable!
Starting off with breakfast, some of my favorite meals to make are when I have a little bit more time in the morning. If I know I have a really busy morning, breakfast usually looks like yogurt or oatmeal. If I have the time to actually cook and not be in a rush to eat, these are my go-to breakfasts. The first consist of eggs, sautéed veggies and avocado toast. I have two variations of this meal. For the first, I scramble two eggs with a little milk and add sautéed cherry tomatoes, red onion, spinach, and minced garlic. I’ll then top the eggs with some feta cheese. On the side I’ll usually add two small pieces of avocado toast (this day I had leftover bread from dinner) with Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel seasoning, and some type of fruit that I have on hand. I know most people have tried EBB seasoning at this point, but if you haven’t yet, you NEED to. Walmart also has a really comparable version if you don't have a Trader Joe's near you!
So the other variation of this uses all of the same components, just in a different arrangement. I’ll start with making traditional avocado toast. A bread I really like to use for avocado toast is the Sara Lee Artesano bread. It's thick cut, so it definitely has more carbs than a traditional slice of bread (20g per slice), but is so worth it in my opinion. If you're watching your macros, there's tons of good options: Dave's Killer Bread or Thomas Bagel Thins are a great alternatives as more carb-conscious options! For this one, I'll add an over medium egg or two, instead of scrambled. Then I'll top with the same sautéed veggie mix and feta. For feta I usually buy the Athenos reduced fat, and I personally don't notice a major difference between that and the regular version. Other great variations to this meal would be adding sautéed mushrooms to the veggie mix and a little balsamic glaze drizzled over the top. I like to have a side of fruit with breakfast, so I just used some berries and watermelon on this day. I'll go back and forth between these two variations, just depending on what I feel like that day. Either way, both options are super easy and very filling.
Another quick breakfast idea is a smoothie bowl. Although I love acai bowls, I find that buying frozen acai gets a bit pricey, but they’re great to have as a treat and are still cheaper to make yourself than to buy out. For the smoothie bowl I typically make, I will blend together frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries, Oikos Triple Zero Greek yogurt (vanilla), and non-dairy milk with some ice. I don’t have exact measurements for this, but just always add small amounts of liquid at a time to ensure your smoothie bowl is a thick enough consistency. You can add whatever you like, but I just keep it simple with these few ingredients. I always top my bowls with fresh fruit (banana, strawberries and blueberries are my go-to). I’ll also add homemade granola if I happen to have it on hand (recipe I use linked here). However, there are plenty of great store-bought granola alternatives. I really like the Nature Valley granola (oats and honey) but I’ve heard a lot of great things about Purely Elizabeth granola, as well. I’ll finish it off by drizzling a little melted peanut butter over everything!
The next few meals could easily work for lunch or dinner, but I have typically used them as dinner recipes. The first one I want to mention is one that Anthony actually made while I was at work, but it’s super easy and delicious. When I first heard the idea of a cheeseburger bowl, I wasn’t into it whatsoever. After trying it though, I completely changed my mind! For this recipe, just cook about a pound of beef on the stove top and season as you like. We used grass fed beef, but you can definitely use any meatless alternative you want (one of my favorites is Morning Star's Spicy Black Bean Burger). Once the meat is fully cooked, just add American cheese and let it melt! You can make actual patties,
but we figured it would be easier to eat as a bowl if the meat wasn’t in a patty. For the bowl, we used shredded lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes, chopped red onion, chopped bacon, avocado, diced dill pickle spears, and I topped mine with some honey mustard dressing. I can’t wait to have this one again!
Salmon is something I love to have as a dinner, and typically don’t make enough to have leftovers since it’s just not the same reheated. We generally buy center cut salmon fillets when they are on sale, as they can be pretty expensive for the amount you’re actually getting. We have also made the recipe using a half side of salmon (I think that’s the correct term), which worked great as well. Buying salmon this way usually ends up being less expensive compared to the fillets. The recipe that I generally follow when cooking salmon is here. The honey soy glaze is fairly simple to make and is delicious. You can make the glaze ahead of time too in order to save time. We have also used Stonewall Kitchen’s sesame ginger sauce, and that’s great too if you don't want to make your own glaze! We’ve had great luck with broiling the salmon as is described in the recipe, and find that the salmon is never dry when prepared this way. I pair salmon with some form of rice and a salad, but the asparagus and green beans used in the recipe would be delicious too. No matter what you pair this recipe with, it never disappoints.
The last recipe I want to share is a thin crust barbecue chicken pizza. It’s perfect for when you’re craving pizza but are trying not to order in. We really like the Boboli pre-made thin pizza crust for this, but you can also make your own, or use a cauliflower crust for a healthier option. All you need to do is bake or poach chicken breast and then shred it. A good tip to ensure your chicken doesn’t get dry, especially if you’re baking it, is to make sure you let it rest before shredding it. Another tip is making sure you allow the chicken to come to room temperature before cooking. You don’t want to take chicken directly out of the fridge and straight into the oven. You want to let it come to room temp for 30 minutes to an hour before cooking. Okay, back to the pizza— Add a thin layer of barbecue sauce to your crust. We really like Sweet Baby Rays (sweet n’ spicy), but Stubbs barbecue is great as well. It’s also easy to make your own barbecue sauce, so that’s an option too. Add shredded monterey jack, colby jack, and/or pepper jack cheese. Next, just add your shredded chicken! We like to use thinly cut yellow bell pepper and red onion as our toppings. We just follow the directions on the crust package for cooking which is 450° for 8-10 minutes. You can cook directly on the oven rack or use a pizza stone. Make sure if you’re using a stone that you let it preheat in the oven for about an hour to ensure the bottom of the crust is crispy. About halfway through cooking, pull out the oven rack and drizzle a bit of barbecue on top, and then let it finish baking!
And there you have it — six super easy recipes that can you can make for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Feel free to comment on your favorite recipe idea, or leave a meal idea that's your go-to!