Weight Watchers Chicken Tikka Masala

 

Weight Watchers Chicken Tikka Masala

Served over brown rice. This was pretty good, it's definitely better with all the full fat milks/yogurts, but it was decent for a low calorie recipe. Not sure if I'd make it again, I might try to find a different one. I did just throw everything in the Instant Pot because the baby isn't wanting to be put down right now, so maybe that's where I went wrong.

Click here for the Weight Watchers Chicken Tikka Masala recipe from Pointed Kitchen

Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

 

Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

Oh geez this is the worst food pic I've ever taken haha. My husband grabbed his bowl and I forgot to take a picture so I quickly snapped it. I guess the lighting was bad and I moved my phone away too quickly......oh well :) 

This was a wonderful recipe! The only thing I did differently was instead of fresh carrots, I threw in a bag of frozen peas & carrots after it was cooked (while the noodles cooked) because I had one already to use. I ended up using 2 chicken breasts and it was perfect. This was great since we had all the ingredients already, and my husband loved it. Definitely rotation worthy.

Click here for the Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup recipe by Jo Cooks

Instant Pot Mississippi Meatballs

 

Mississippi Meatballs

Ingredients:

- 1 32oz bag frozen meatballs

- 1 packet au jus

- 1 small jar pepperoncini

- 1 packet ranch seasoning or 2-3 tbs of ranch seasoning

- 1 cup beef broth

- 1/2 stick butter, cut into pats

Combine everything in Instant Pot and cook for 30 minutes.

This was okay. Lincoln is 6 weeks old so I needed an easy throw together meal. My family didn't really like it though. It did taste a bit too processed and salty, so I probably wouldn't make it again. I served it with a bagged salad kit and over egg noodles.

Postpartum Meal Prep

 

Postpartum Meal Prep

 I only got a few pictures because I'm exhausted now. Here's what I made:

- Instant Pot Pinto Beans by BudgetBytes. I made bean and cheese burritos with them, and a few of them I filled with a microwaveable Spanish rice packet so they are bean/cheese/rice. 5 cups of beef broth for 49 minutes in the Instant Pot.

- Slow Cooker Sesame Honey Chicken by Skinnytaste. I left out the cornstarch because I read it doesn't freeze well. So I'll just throw it in the crockpot or Instant pot and serve over rice. 

- Mandarin Teriyaki Chicken. This was just using up ingredients of what I had. I had a half bottle of Panda Express Mandarin sauce and a half bottle of Lawry's Pineapple Teriyaki Marinade. So I threw that in a bag with sriracha, sesame seeds and some squeeze ginger with jarlic along with some chicken.

- Freezer breakfast sausage burritos. I cooked up a pound of breakfast sausage along with scrambling 18 eggs with heavy cream (only because I had some, if I didn't I would have just used milk), salt and pepper. Then I made burritos with the sausage, eggs, and cheddar cheese wrapped in a tortilla.

- Freezer breakfast sandwiches recipe by Tastes Better from Scratch

- Slow cooker Pesto Ranch Chicken recipe by She's In Her Apron. I did add some garlic and pepper and I'll probably serve it over mashed potatoes with a side of frozen veggies.

- Veggie & Beef Lentil Chili. This was another clean out the pantry meal. 1 lb ground beef, 1 can lentils, 1 can corn, 1 can white beans, 1 can chili beans, 1 can Rotel. I also added bell peppers, zucchini, celery, onions, garlic, 1 can tomato paste, 2 cups beef broth. Spices I used were (about 1 & 1/2 tsp of each): chili powder (2 tbs), garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne, salt/pepper, 1 tsp sugar. I just warmed it up on the stove then transferred it into 2 freezer safe Ziploc bags. I could serve it with frozen Texas Toast, cornbread or even like a small quesadilla. I'll see how I feel when the baby is here lol.

- Mini lasagna's. The pans were a little too small, but I didn't want to make a huge 9x13 pan because that's too much. I just grabbed a generic lasagna recipe, I based it off of this one by About A Mom. I used 1lb ground beef & 1lb Italian sausage. I only had 1 container of ricotta so that was kind of lacking, and only 1 & 1/2 24oz jars of marinara, so I also added a bottle of pizza squeeze lol. I also added a zucchini since we have so much from the garden. 

Here's some of the dinners plated that I made post partum!

Instant Pot Beef Gyros

 

Instant Pot Beef Gyros

I liked how easy this was but it was a bit bland, even though I added extra seasoning. As I put the leftovers away I added even MORE seasoning lol. The tzatziki I also added shredded cucumber and pretty much tripled the spices. I still would make it again because I love gyros.

Click here for the Instant Pot Beef Gyros recipe by Tastes Better From Scratch

Cafe Rio Smothered Burritos

 

Cafe Rio Smothered Burritos

This was excellent and I even got high praises from my husband. I followed the Cafe Rio Instant Pot recipe exactly. Then I filled the burritos with the pork, microwaveable cilantro lime rice, Bush's southwest beans, and shredded Mexican cheese. I baked uncovered at 350 for 20 minutes. I then topped it with some of the leftover sauce, monterey jack cheese, cilantro, hot sauce, onion and avocado. Super good!

Click here for the copycat Cafe Rio Pork recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Healthy Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala with Turmeric Rice

 

Healthy Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala with Turmeric Rice

    Indian food as been sounding so good lately, but I need something quick to make after work. This was amazing! There was a little too much sauce even though I followed the directions, so I'm going to look up any sort of ideas for the sauce....I'd hate to toss it.  I wanted to make turmeric rice with it instead of the brown rice like what the recipe called for. I used to make "Golden Rice Bowls" for my son when he was little and he loved it, so I thought I'd make it again. He said doesn't remember them lol. Oh well. Definitely going in our rotation!

Click here for the Healthy Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala Recipe

Click here for the Turmeric Rice recipe

Click here for the Golden Rice Bowls recipe

Chili on a Baked Potato

 

Chili on a Baked Potato

   This was just a quick clean out the pantry what do we have to make dinner meal. It's supposed to be chili but I think it's more like soup lol. Oh well it's still good. I served it on a baked potato with shredded cheese, sour cream and onions. Delicious!

   The "chili" was just pinto beans, chickpeas, canned lentils, frozen corn, frozen bell pepper, rotel, tomato sauce, chili seasonings (chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, garlic and maybe something else), Frank's red hot sauce, veggie broth, and an onion. I think that was it. I just put it in the instant pot for 12 minutes and microwaved the potatoes. 

Instant Pot Pinto Beans with Chorizo and Cornbread Muffins

 

  I love chorizo and eggs for breakfast, but unfortunately no one else in my family does. So I had some chorizo left and I was searching for recipes to use it up and came across the Instant Pot Pinto Beans with Chorizo recipe by Budget Bytes. I always keep dried pinto beans around because if all else fails, it's easy to make homemade bean and cheese burritos for dinner. 

  I wasn't super impressed with this recipe, I probably wouldn't make it again. It was a little dry and you could barely taste the chorizo. But I doctored it up with cheese, onions, sour cream and jalapenos. We also had some plain 'ol boxed cornbread muffins which are always delicious.

Sweet Potato Salmon Cakes and Mashed Instant Pot Potatoes with Cauliflower

 

  This was a really delicious veggie filled dinner! I don't know how many points it is, right now I'm focusing on veggie loading dinners without counting points to see how that goes.

  I used this 15 Minute Sweet Potato Salmon Cakes recipe from Ambitious Kitchen. Mine came out a little crumbly, I don't know if I over mixed it or maybe my sweet potato was huge....so I added another egg and then more panko and it was fine. We dipped it in srirancha which is just ranch and sriracha mixed together. My husband dipped his in tarter sauce since he loves it and we don't get to use it enough. I will definitely be making this again! It's very budget friendly, a can of salmon is under $4 and sweet potatoes are about .70 cents right now. 

  For the side I made Mashed Instant Pot Potatoes with Cauliflower by The Natural Nurturer. They weren't my favorite, but they weren't bad or anything...I just need to mess with the recipe I think. It was very heavy on the cauliflower flavor, but I didn't weigh my potatoes, I just used the last few up that I had so maybe it wasn't enough. I did add garlic/salt/pepper but next time I might add some rosemary or dill and more sour cream so it would be creamier. I liked how fast, easy and veggie filled it is! Even though cauliflower is about $3 a head, with the potatoes it makes a lot.....enough for at least 2 meals for all 3 of us. So it's also a budget friendly recipe.