Avocado Cilantro Dip

 

Avocado Cilantro Dip

So I've been seeing versions of this all over TikTok, so I had to make my own version. My own version because I just wanted to use what I already had. It's sooooo good! Like this is company worthy. I don't have exact measurements because I kinda winged it, but you really cannot mess this up.

Ingredients:

- 1 avocado

- 1 bunch cilantro

- 1/2 jar pickled jalapenos, you could use less because it was a little spicy. Perfect for me but I wanted the baby to be able to have some.

- 1 cup sour cream

- A bunch of lime juice....maybe around a 1/4 cup? 

- 1 huge scoop of jarlic

- Salt & Pepper

Blend everything in a blender or food processor. Become obsessed.

Nashville Hot Chicken Flatbreads

 

Nashville Hot Chicken Flatbreads

So these had a really good flavor, but they were soooo salty. I didn't add the extra salt like the recipe called for, I guess my Nashville Hot Chicken seasoning was just extra salty. Kinda disappointing. But I like the idea and maybe next time I will try and make a homemade hot chicken seasoning? I mean it's something I would want to do, but who knows if I will put in that effort at this point in my life lol.

I did use some sourdough flatbreads from Walmart, Grillo's pickles and provolone cheese because I had it.

Aaaand reading through the recipe again I realized I forgot the honey. Maybe that would have helped? Not sure but it was tasty (just too salty) anyway.

Click here for the Nashville Hot Chicken Flatbread recipe from Cooks Well With Others

This was the seasoning I used because that's the only one Walmart had. Maybe I should check Kroger!

Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Pot Pie

 

Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Pot Pie

This was a mish mash of a few different recipes from TikTok that I've been seeing around. So it actually had a really good flavor, but it was super salty. I didn't add any salt but I guess just all the ingredients combined were too salty. My teenager also had a garlic breadstick.

Ingredients:

- 1 tub already pulled rotisserie chicken

- 1 16ox tub Panera broccoli cheddar soup

- 1/2 cup sour cream

- 1/2 tbs Kinders rotisserie chicken seasoning

- 1 small bag frozen mixed veggies

- 1 box frozen Red Lobster cheddar biscuits

- 4 tbs butter, for the biscuit toppings. Next time I would do 2 tbs and unsalted

- A sprinkling of grated parm. Next time I'd skip

Mix the first 5 ingredients, and bake for 15 minutes at 400, uncovered. Then add the frozen biscuits and cook for 35 minutes or until the biscuits are golden. As soon as you pull out the biscuits add the butter/seasoning sauce from the biscuit box and sprinkle with parm.

So this isn't a full fail, I'd make this again for sure with some tweaking,

Chicken Sandwiches

 

Chicken Sandwiches

Dinners have been so much easier lately now that we have a baby. I used to love to make dinners that took longer because I'd have some wine and listen to an audiobook. I can't do that right now with a 13 month old....I need quick and easy.

I just air fried a chicken sandwich patty, and added: onions, tomato, provolone (because we had some), Grillos pickles (the BEST), and Chik-fil-a sauce. The fries were some frozen beer battered ones. It was delicious, but my husband is weird and apparently didn't like the Chik-fil-a sauce so he barely ate his. I wish Raising Cane's sold their sauce at the store, it's my fav!

Loaded Baked Potatoes

 

Loaded Baked Potatoes

I love a baked potato. I usually get my groceries from Walmart just because they are super close and as much as I hate it....they are the best priced. But they never have big potatoes, all of theirs are too small. My husband ran to Kroger for some stuff and I asked him to grab a few big potatoes to use for some sort of dinner this week.

When dinner rolled around I didn't really have anything planned so I figured we could just have regular baked potatoes. What a story right? Hah. Anyways I just loaded them with what we had. Sour cream, butter, cheddar cheese, dried chives, bacon bits and some Kinders cowboy butter seasoning. For my teenagers plate I also air fried him a breaded Tyson chicken breast. They were huge potatoes so that was enough for my husband and I. 

I cooked them at 400 wrapped in foil with oil and salt for 60 minutes.

Salmon, Green Beans & Roasted Potatoes

 

Salmon, Green Beans & Roasted Potatoes

This was a mostly clean out the pantry meal. I had leftover potatoes from the soup and a few frozen salmon fillets. So I picked up some green beans to make it a meal. I just kinda randomly seasoned it. I made a marinade with some bottled Papa John's garlic sauce with Kinders seasoning and a little olive oil. Potatoes & green beans are tossed in Kinders and some parm. I roasted the potatoes at 400 for 20 minutes, and the green beans were in a steamable bag. The salmon I cooked on a hot cast iron skillet for 7 minutes (skin side down) then another 2 minutes when I flipped them.

Yummy, easy and I love using up random ingredients that we have!

Ground Beef Fajitas

 

Ground Beef Fajitas

I was looking for a recipe to use a pound of ground beef that I had in the freezer that wasn't burgers, spaghetti or meatloaf. So I of course went to BudgetBytes, that's usually my main source of recipes. I hadn't seen this one before, and we literally all the ingredients so I thought....perfect!

It's super quick and easy. Instead of making the fajita seasoning, I just used 2 1/2 tbs of the Kinders fajita seasoning that we had, and I didn't have fresh lime so I just used a little bit of the bottled stuff. Oh I also warmed the tortillas in a pan and sprinkled some Monterey Jack cheese on them after because I had it to use up.

I loved it, my son said it was good and my husband just said "it was salty". Sigh. He doesn't really like anything too different, like he loves actual fajitas, but he said he'd never heard of anyone ever using ground beef for fajitas. He says it's "too cute" to make anything a bit creative. I get it, but I want to use up some stuff we already had, so I'm seeing how much cooking I can do without buying groceries. Plus honestly, I love finding and trying new recipes. I get that from my grandma, she rarely made anything twice unless it was requested. 

I would definitely make this again, and I think it would also be super good in a rice bowl or even over greens as a salad.

Click here for the Ground Beef Fajita recipe from BudgetBytes

Zuppa Toscana

 

Zuppa Toscana

It tastes better then it looks haha. So I made this because I thought my son and husband would love these flavors, but apparently they don't like it that much. They just said it's "okay" but they don't want it again lol. Weird actually. My husband said he doesn't like cream based soups.....but he loves clam chowder soooo? He didn't like the kale in it, but I told him he needs to eat greens sometimes. My son says he doesn't really like "soups or potatoes", so I don't know what's up with these boys, eat cereal then lol.

Oh well. I think it's actually really good, even though Italian is not what I would normally choose. I guess this is technically a fail, but it does have a really good flavor. I love that this was also a lightened up version and it had some fiber and greens.

Zuppa Tuscana recipe link by BudgetBytes

Lazy Butternut Squash Chicken Lasagna

 

Lazy Butternut Squash Chicken Lasagna

This was another one of the "dumb dinners" from @itsmesaramartinez on TikTok. These are not flavors my husband would typically like, but it's been so cozy and "fall like" that I wanted a fall recipe. I really liked that it was a quick dump and go recipe!

 I tasted the sauce while I made it and it was good, so I can't wait to taste it fully! It's kinda late and I'm going to bed, so no one has actually tried it yet lol. I couldn't start cooking until a little later because of the baby, and it didn't even cross my mind that it would take like an hour to cook. So my husband just had some ramen, and my son fell asleep after school, but I'm sure he will be up in the middle of the night and will grab some. Teenagers. I will try it tomorrow. 

I did air fry the meatballs and tried one, they are so good. I will definitely try the other flavors too.

I made it almost exactly as written, but I added in some onion and thyme seasoning. Just because I was worried it could be bland, but it didn't seem to be.  Oh wait no I added canned parm to the sauce, and I added some shredded parm to the top with the mozzarella, just because I already had it. 

Ingredients:

- 9 oven ready lasagna noodles broken into big pieces

- 1 bag frozen already cooked chicken meatballs

- 3 cups butternut squash soup from a carton

- 1/2 cup heavy cream

- 1 tub 15oz ricotta

- 1/4 tsp dried sage

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper

- 2 big handfuls spinach

- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella

- 3/4 cup grated parmesan 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375

Dump the ricotta into a sprayed 9x13 pan.

Add the parm & spices

Pour in the soup and heavy cream, and stir until creamy

Break in he noodles, add the meatballs and spinach

Stir until noodles get coated, and press them as much as possible under the sauce

Cover tightly with foil, and bake for 45 minutes

Uncover, add the mozz and bake for 15 more minutes

Let sit for 10-15 minutes to solidify before cutting and serving

Update:

   It had almost an Indian type or curry flavor for some reason? Maybe it was how the butternut squash soup was seasoned? I actually really liked it, it was different. My husband never tried it and my son ate it because he was hungry lol, but he didn't really care for it.

Beef Stroganoff

 

I've been making this beef stroganoff recipe from BudgetBytes for like a decade or something, it's always easy, filling and tasty. But the last several times I made it, it was not good for some reason. Turns out the recipe was changed! Luckily she posted the old recipe too, so I saved it. It's much better then the newer one. 

Here's the link to the new beef stroganoff recipe from BudgetBytes. It's okay, it's just way thinner and more bland.

I wasn't able to get a picture because my 13 month old was not happy tonight, so I had to be quick and cook while mainly holding him lol.

Chicken Sausage Tortellini Alfredo

 

Chicken Sausage Tortellini Alfredo

I saw something similar on TikTok that was a 9x13 pan dump and bake recipe, but I was able to put a little more time into dinner tonight, so I decided to use a cast iron skillet.

Ingredients:

- 1 package chicken sausage chopped (I used 3 links)

- 1 bag frozen tortellini

- 1 small onion chopped

- 1 bottle alfredo

- a bit of olive oil, butter, Italian seasoning (1/2 tsp), jarlic (prob 2 tbs), pepper, red pepper flakes

- 1 tsp chicken Better Then Bouillon

- shredded mozz & parm. I honestly eyeballed it, maybe less then a cup of each?

While the tortellini was cooking, I just sauteed the onion and chicken sausage until it looked browned in some olive oil and like 1-2 tbs butter, it was just the end of a stick. Then I added a bunch of jarlic with the seasonings, and sauteed for a few minutes. I then added the jar of alfredo, then filled it halfway with water and added it to the skillet along with the bouillon. Then I topped it with the cheese and covered it for like 15 minutes and baked at 350. Then I broiled for 4 minutes and done! It was super good and flavorful, I'd definitely make it again. 

It was based off of @itsmesaramartinez on TikTok. She also added pumpkin to hers, which I personally would love but I know my husband would prefer no pumpkin so I left it out.