Food We Currently Love

For most of our lives, my mom worked (and worked hard). She is a SUPERMOM (do not let me fool you) and she cooked for us often growing up, but she was not a 4-course meal kind of mom like maybe yours was. I came from a family of four kids and all of us were super involved in sports and our school activities. Between practices, games, church/youth group and seeing family, we were rarely home long enough to prepare fancy dinners. I loved a good serving of tacos, spaghetti or something simple like heating up soup (or my ALL TIME FAV – spaghetti O’s). Josh tells me that his meals growing up were similar.

We are SO thankful for our moms and how much time they spent watching our games and toting us around to practices, rather than cooking us fancy foods. They kept our bellies full and that is all you really need.

ALL THAT TO SAY, I did not come into marriage with a recipe book full of yummy foods to feed my husband. I had a few staples (moms spaghetti & manwich sloppy joes), but I have explored Pinterest a million times to find some quick and easy meals that us picky eaters can enjoy. I work as a teacher and do not get off until 3:30 (after 5:00 during cheer season with practices). Some days, I stay after school and tutor, and most other days, I head to the gym after work. Josh does not get home until after 7 most days, so I like meals that I can go home and cook and have waiting for him when he gets home. I do enjoy cooking, but am trying to find a balance for time I spend in the kitchen and the amount of time I spend cuddling my dogs.

The qualifications for my meals are the following:

1 – They must take under 30 minutes of prep time

2 – They must not include fish (unless its on the grill for Josh and I can eat something else)

3 – They must include easy-to-find ingredients

4 – They must be (mostly) wholesome and good for you foods

So without further ado, food we currently LOVE - 

• Lettuce Wrap Tacos (inspired by this wonderful blogger) with our toppings of choice
• Turkey Meatballs (sometimes with cheese & sometimes without)
• Tortilla Pepperoni Pizzas (this is my inspiration)
• Chicken Quesadillas (with my favorite clean eating tortillas)
• Pulled Pork/Chicken (literally insert pork butt & chicken broth in crock pot and cook until it shreds easily - try it on a pretzel bun, it's delicious)
• Chicken & Dumplings (hereon the stove & here in a crock pot) - pushing it on the "healthy"
• Sloppy Joes (we use this and sometimes use ground turkey) - again, not SUPER healthy
• Cabin Chicken (this is what we call it, but it is basically just chicken tenderloins cooked in a pan with a tablespoon of butter and seasoned with Lawry's seasoning salt. I don't know why the butter and Lawry's make the perfect combination, but it does. We cook them as tenderloins until cooked through, then but into bite size pieces and throw back into pan just to crisp the ends)
• Breakfast for Dinner (Kodiak Protein Pancakes - topped with blueberries or chocolate chips)

Besides this, we just grill EVERYTHING and have a side of broccoli or asparagus (which is what we eat about 4 nights out of the week). We rotate between chicken, pork chops, pork loin, steaks, burgers/turkey burgers, and sometimes beer brats or salmon for Josh. We typically have a "cheat meal" kinda meal once a week where we indulge in some pizza or hit up Duck Donuts.

Here are some sweet (healthier{ish}) treats that we like to splurge on sometimes (sorry if you hate peanut butter):

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (flourless & dairy/gluten free)
• Dark Chocolate PB Banana Bites (Josh doesn't really dig bananas, but I LOVE these)
• No Bake Peanut Butter Bars (Rice Krispie Treat Style)
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies (Can't stop. Won't Stop.)
• Protein Peanut Butter Dip (Delicious Snack)

What are your favorite meals to cook at home? Do you have any healthy substitutes that you have tried? Let us know. We love trying new things!

Josh & Hil