what's cookin'

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Not working has given me more time to think about dinners and more time to make them. It feels SO good to be back in the kitchen! I've been switching back and forth between recipes I'm familiar with and ones I've never tried.

When we first moved Andy was craving wings, which I had never made before. I found some pre-seasoned ones at the co-op and grabbed a bag of salad and voila! I hardly had to do anything. I bought three different kinds of wings and we ate every single one. :-/

I think about the following when meal planning - what do I have on hand, do I want leftovers, how expensive will it be, how unhealthy will it be, have we had something similar recently, etc. I made potato soup when I was going out of town so that Andy could have lots of leftovers. I made black bean quesadillas b/c I had a lot of ingredients leftover from tacos, and then later that week I wanted to use up the cilantro so I made burritos with cilantro lime chicken (I added black beans and green chilies). Yes, in the course of a week and a half we had three "Mexican" style meals, but they were different enough for us to not feel like we were eating the same thing over and over. Tonight I'm using up our frozen tilapia to make fish sticks.

Last summer I raved to ya'll about chicken and zucchini casserole. I'm so excited for summer veggies and already whipped up one (without sour cream). We scarfed it down in two nights. It's been almost a month... I think it's time to make it again.

I've also made chili, grilled sandwiches, breakfast for dinner, broiled tilapia...hm, what else? Thanks to leftovers and the occasional soup and sandwich night, I'm only making meals 3-4 times a week. 

Since we've been eating a lot of hearty dinners, I'm trying to be more aware of what I eat for breakfast and lunch. We leave for Hawaii in a month and I'm so not bikini ready! Please send suggestions my way - I'm especially in need of some fuss-free healthful lunches. 

I've been eating a lot of 0% Fage yogurt for breakfast. The plain stuff tastes exactly like sour cream, so I jazz it up - lately I've been doing about a 1/2 cup yogurt with a lil drizzle of honey and about 2 teaspoons of peanut butter, topped with 1/8 cup of Bear Naked plain granola. It's got healthy fats, natural sweetener, fiber, etc... and I loove it. I was adding banana too but I get sick of bananas fast. 

Now that I've hopefully given you a few dinner ideas, how about you tell me what you've been making for dinner?