5 Super Easy Dinners

I can't tell you how many times I've wished I could just put a frozen pizza in the oven! Let's face it, there are just days when that would be NICE! Eating "Paleo" style usually means so much prep work and planning ahead, it can be difficult to know what to do when those kinds of days happen. So I've come up with 5 basic meal ideas that are almost as easy as frozen pizza, but much healthier! Our pace of life lately has been a little hectic, so I've been basing my weekly menu off of these ideas a lot. I'm going to have to come up with more easy recipes soon so my family doesn't get sick of these! :)

1. Baked chicken. I usually freeze my meats and chicken, so the biggest pre-planning I have to do is to remember to take the chicken out of the freezer the night before. I usually use chicken thighs or legs. Once thawed, place them on an ungreased baking dish, sprinkle all over with your favorite seasonings. (You can vary between a seasoned salt, or lemon pepper, or really any spice combination that sounds good to you.) Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes to an hour. Serve with a salad or bake some sweet potatoes alongside the chicken.

2. Baked fish. Same idea as the chicken. Once thawed, sprinkle generously with spices. Do grease the baking dish and if you love lemon like I do, squeeze a couple lemons worth of juice over it before and after baking. With fish though, whether it's tilapia or flounder or even salmon, the baking time will be much less, about 10 minutes depending on the amount and thickness. Most store-bought packages include baking directions, so follow those. Serve with steamed veggies (which also just take a few minutes).

3. Burger spread. Burgers without buns or cheese sound boring, until you spread your table full of delicious topping options! Try any of these: tomatoes, onions, pickles, bacon, avocado, cucumber, hummus, olives, peppers, goat cheese and/or large leaf lettuce to wrap them in. I'm sure you can come up with more great toppings too!

4. Slow-cooker meal. Nothing like throwing something in that crock-pot that will smell delicious all day and be ready to eat for dinner! My mom taught me to put a whole chicken in there and pour about 1/4 cup of cooking wine over it. In just a few hours, it will be the most tender chicken you've ever had. Great to use for shredded chicken tacos (with lettuce for wraps again) or to add to a salad. There are also really easy recipes that won't require the somewhat tedious job of taking the chicken off the bones. A couple favorites of ours are Crockpot Chicken Tomatillo and Crockpot BBQ Chicken.

5. Breakfast for Dinner. In our house, I'm kind of an "Awesome Wife" if I make breakfast for dinner. :) It's my husband's favorite meal of the day, so it's a winner any time of the day. And the kids just think it's fun...pancakes for dinner? Maybe we're just weird, but it's become one of my favorite last minute quick dinner ideas ever since I've found so many great recipes for pancakes, dutch babies, breakfast cookies, etc (see other posts on this blog).

So that's a normal week of dinners at our house these days. I'll usually throw in a new recipe about once a week and I always try to make enough so that there's leftovers for my husband to take to work and for me and the kids to have for lunch the next day...therefore lunch is usually taken care of at the same time!

Summer Yumminess: Strawberry Shortcake with Strawberry Coconut Whipped Frosting

I promise we don't just eat sweet things at our house! :) I have a list of awesome dinners waiting to be blogged about, but last night, this was on our table and I have to share about it:

I found this Basic Shortcake Recipe through Pinterest and loved how simple and versatile it sounded! You can make this cake with any kind of berry, even mixed into the batter. There's an apple version with apple slices baked on the top of the cake which sounds perfect for the cold months! And as always, it's completely dairy, grain and sugar-free.

Then I found this Strawberry Whipped Frosting Recipe that also sounded super easy, and not being a huge fan of plain whipped cream, I decided to use this for my shortcake instead. Mine didn't firm up as much as the photos on that site look, but perhaps I didn't beat it long enough. I had a hungry bunch waiting for me to finish making the cake but even in it's runny consistency, it tasted amazing! (Note: they add beet juice for color, but even without it, mine still had a pinkish tint to it.)

It was a great success! And the best thing about Paleo desserts is that with all those good, healthy ingredients, the kids (and the mom) ate the leftovers for lunch the next day! :) Shhh!

So easy, even my 3-year-old helped!

Dutch Babies!

My babies are not Dutch at all, but they love these "fluffy pancakes"! I'm not really sure where the name came from and I think people call these different things, but basically, this is a fluffy type of pancake that is baked in the oven. This paleo version is SO quick and easy, I've made it probably close to ten times in the past month! Even on some Sunday mornings before church...that means it's easy, people!

Here's the link to my new favorite breakfast: Grain-Free Dutch Babies

Sorry, I don't have a picture, but click on the link for a great photo by one of my favorite recipe sources, The Unrefined Kitchen.

Yum, enjoy!

Going crazy over Breakfast Cookies!

This is the second day in a row that I have made these cookies. Before 9 a.m. They are that good and that easy to make! Which is why I have to post the link to this wonderful recipe: Breakfast Cookies
They are full of healthy almonds, nuts, dried fruit, coconut oil and honey! I used almond meal and added a few (or maybe a little more than a few) dark chocolate chips. :) I made them yesterday for a mom's group and both moms and kids loved them! Also, most Paleo-friendly recipes I've found yield ridiculously small amounts but this one actually yields about 2 dozen!

Enjoy!

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

With our decision to change to a clean-eating/Paleo-style diet, it's always a treat to find recipes to replace some of the things we used to love, like pancakes! In fact, I think I love them more now than I used to.

There are many Paleo recipes for pancakes out there, but this one has become our favorite. Even our one and two-year-olds will eat 2-4 pancakes each! Just the kids and I alone can finish up an entire batch of them, so I usually double or triple the recipe, depending on how many adults are eating. It is a very simple recipe with basic ingredients (which for our diet, coconut and almond flours have become "basic"). I've always used almond meal instead of almond flour in this recipe, because it's so much cheaper and I can find it at my local Trader Joe's, whereas I would have to order almond flour online to get a good price. But if you have almond flour already, I'm sure they would be even better!

You can find these delicious Paleo Banana Pancakes by clicking: here. Many of our favorite recipes have come from Danielle at Against All Grain. Thanks Danielle!



Do not be fooled by the dainty fingers...

...this is the messy result as she asks for more. (And usually it's much worse than this!)