Dinner at the Hasel House
I will fully admit that I love to eat out. With the plethora of fantastic restaurants in Las Vegas, I could eat out every night. We don’t of course because of the expense, and Nick prefers eating at home. I do enjoy cooking and learning new recipes and techniques, but most days I don’t have the energy for it after a long day of work, so I take the easy way out. In attempt to change my ways, I’ve decided to start planning out our meals weekly again.
Last year before wedding and moving madness took over our lives, I freelanced exclusively and enjoyed planning a weekly meal plan. Nick and I would grocery shopping for the majority of our meals on Sunday before or after mass and I’d pick up perishable (or forgotten) items every other day or so. I used the What to Eat notepad from KnockKnockthat I purchased from Anthropologie for a while, and I’ll be breaking it out again.
Image from KnockKnock
To keep myself interested in cooking, I like trying a new recipe or two each week. Weeknight dinners have to be quick, easy, and somewhat healthy. My current sources for recipes that meet these requirements are:
- Everyday Food and the Everyday Food editors’ blog, Dinner Tonight
- The Pioneer Woman Cooks (Okay, I’ll admit not always healthy, but almost always easy – I love Ree’s photos that show every detail, leaving no room for error!)
- Back issues of Every Day with Rachael Ray (I am somewhat over these. I have my go-to recipes, but after a while all of the recipes seem to be the same. I’ve stopped buying this magazine because of that.)
- Better Homes and Gardens (The quick, easy meals section is great.)
On the weekends, I enjoy busting out my Martha Stewart cookbooks and creating a feast or making more complicated recipes from Smitten Kitchen and other food blogs. While I like the blogs and/or magazines I currently use for weekly meal planning, I’m always searching for more sources so I have more recipes in my repertoire.
So now I want to know – what are you favorite resources for easy, delicious weeknight recipes?
i too love smitten kitchen and pioneer woman! another good one is the taste of home magazine and cookbooks. my mom had a subscription for years and i have all the old issues and can be guaranteed to find something there in a pinch. also, have you checked out pioneer woman’s tasty kitchen website… it’s got everything! happy cooking!
Cooking Light magazine! I’m obsessed. Every month I wait for the new issue to come, and they have a bunch of quick, easy weeknight meals. They’re all healthy, too!
Have you visited Annie over at Annie Eats? Her blog is amazing! The chicken gyros are a MUST! Seriously, they are wonderful.
For baking I love the King Arthur cookbooks, and, as mentioned above, I think Cooking Light has great recipes (though not always as light as I’d expect!)
Gina’s Weight Watcher Recipes are fantastic! I’m not on Weight Watchers, but the recipes are healthy so I tend to seek them out and just ignore the points suggestions. I’ve already made 2 of her recipes in the past week, and both have been awesome, easy, and don’t require a huge list of ingredients.
I really like this website… it’s not American but the meals are super easy and fast and even better really good. http://www.kraftcanada.com ! Great blog posts!
