Howdy, friends! How was your weekend? Ours was productive and pretty low key. Travis built this new fence and planters in our front yard, while I did a bunch of cooking and meal prep. 
(We are going to plant some ivy or a climbing plan of some sort to help give us some privacy from the neighbors 🙂 )
I don’t typically spend a lot of time meal prepping on the weekends, but I have a friend from work that asked me to teach her how to cook! I am by no means an expert, but I have been at it for a while and was excited to share some tips and encouragement. I started learning how to cook when I was a senior in high school and let me tell you, had some pretty major fails there at the beginning! And I totally still do, but that is part of the fun! 🙂
It has been so fun planning and deciding what we were going to make for our first “lesson”, and yesterday we put our plan into action. We made a pesto/spaghetti squash casserole (which I plan to share here this week!), a big breakfast casserole (basically used my Everday Frittata recipe), made Date and Nut Bites, and a super simple balsamic dressing to serve over salads.  It was a lot of fun talking about one of my favorite subjects (food) for most of the afternoon, and I look forward to more Sundays spent meal prepping together.
The extra good news about working with my friend was that it got me thinking about what I wanted to make for the week. After talking with her, it made me realize 2 of the most important elements to consider when trying to eat healthy, wholesome food: Plan ahead, and make quick, simple, and easy meals so you aren’t turned off by a long ingredient list or lots of hands-on cooking time.
Speaking of simple and delicious dinners, here are the easy and yummy meals we will be eating this week! Although the forecast is boasting temps in the 70’s all week long, I am still craving hearty wintery meals. Hello casseroles and crock pot meals!
Monday:
Chicken Pesto Spaghetti Squash Casserole
This is one of the meals I made with my coworker! We kinda made it up as we were talking about things she knows she likes, and so I figured I better write down the recipe as we went in case it turned out well. And that it did! Can’t wait to share the full recipe here later this week!
Tuesday
Instant Pot Beef Stew
I was really craving a Pot Roast (a quintessential winter dinner!), but Trader Joe’s doesn’t carry any sort of “chuck” cut of beef. And I was on a one-stop-shop kind of schedule this weekend! So, I grabbed a couple pounds of stew beef instead. I have a stovetop version of this recipe here on the blog already, but I decided to try an Instant Pot version. One of the things I love about the instant pot is that you can brown meat in the pot itself with the “saute” function. That helps cut down on dishes, plus you don’t lose all the yummy brown bits at the bottom of the pan as you would if you transferred the meat from a pan to a crockpot. So, I basically followed the stovetop version, but the IP is doing all the work!
Wednesday
Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore
Don’t ask me how to pronounce this word or even spell it without the help of google..but aside from that, I am really excited for this new recipe! It is a super simple, throw everything into the crockpot kind of meal. I have a similar recipe  (Italian Sausages and Peppers) here on the blog, but this one is slightly different and made with chicken (obviously). We love a good crockpot dinner, and Italian food always tastes better the longer is simmers! Stay tuned for this recipe as well!
Thursday
Dill and Lemon Salmon
For the sake of variety, I wanted to throw some healthy salmon into the mix this week. We easily eat this meal once a month, if not more because it is just so tasty! It’s one of the first recipes I posted because it is such a wonderful way to eat salmon and such a staple around here! (Here’s the recipe)
Friday
When I headed to the grocery store, I wasn’t quite sure what we would be doing about dinner on Friday (we usually eat out or get take-out Friday or Saturday) but after some more thought, I am pretty sure we will be making Paleo Running Momma’s Pizza Crust. We made it around Christmas and it was SO perfect…I almost decided right then and there that I wouldn’t bother with take-out “gluten-free” pizza anymore! This version is super easy to make, I can control all of the ingredients, and the texture was the perfect thin crust crunch I love. Check it out if you are looking for a delicious “Paleo” crust!
Hope this helps inspire you to cook some delicious, healthy, and easy meals this week! I know I will be really looking forward to getting home for dinner every night this week!
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