Quick and Easy Dinners

My best quick and easy recipes when you need to get dinner on the table fast. Most are healthy, too!

10 Minute Dinner: Gnocchi and Gorgonzola Salad

June 10, 2016

It’s been one of those weeks where I’m spinning what feels like 73 plates, and even this food blogger ain’t got no time to plan dinner. I’ve been improvising, and while I did create a weekly meal plan spreadsheet, as I’ve done every week for the last two years, I’m filling it in as I go. My strategy has been this: pick one or two main pantry/fridge staples to use up, and work around them. Here’s what the week in dinners looked like:

Dinner party leftovers of vegan Spanish potatoes, grilled steak and veggies, and chimichurri sauce
Delivery veggie pizza
Grilled veggie and steak tostadas with creamy black beans and peach salsa
Tomato salad with pasta and garbanzo beans added
And…toasted gnocchi and copious amounts of blue cheese over arugula

Last night was not looking promising, and I thought we would end up with takeout. [Read more…]

Spanish Tomato Salad with Almond Herb Dressing

June 7, 2016

All winter (okay, not all winter) I preach my hatred of salads, then come summertime, it’s salad everywhere. Pasta salad, potato salad, and now? TOMATO salad! Spanish tomato salad to be precise.

I know caprese-style summer salads of fresh tomatoes and burrata and a few basil leaves and a little glug of olive oil are all the rage, but they have never been my thing. Slowly growing on me, maybe, but I’ve always found mozzarella in any form much too mild for my taste buds.

Plus, when you’re planning dinner around a Spanish theme (that you didn’t tell your guests about), the caprese action isn’t going to work. We must stick to the theme! I realized last week, though, I have no idea if the Spaniards even eat salads. [Read more…]

Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Salad (Vegan and Gluten Free)

June 2, 2016

My, how things change: I used to think sun dried tomatoes were among the world’s grossest foods, and today I’m writing you with a recipe for sun dried tomato pasta salad, which contains everything I love about pasta salad (creamy dressing, plenty of veggies, lots of seasoning) and TONS (okay, half a cup) of tender, oil-packed sun dried tomatoes.

Come to think of it, my relationship with pasta salad has also been tumultuous. By age 13, I might have been the nation’s leading expert on assembling Suddenly Salad; you know, the box mix with the pasta shells and dehydrated vegetables that are perhaps more fit for an astronaut? Basically all that was required was to boil the pasta and mix the seasoning packet with mayo and voila! Instant pasta salad. I won’t lie: I would still eat it if I happened to come across it at a picnic.
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Garlic Quinoa Buffalo Bean Bowls

May 24, 2016

In homemade how-to number 8, I showed you how to cook your own beans for a huge savings over the good canned beans. Today it’s time to put beans–black, white, or otherwise–into some spicy meatless make-ahead buffalo bowls!

What are we making with all those tender, perfect, homemade beans you just cooked from scratch? Garlic quinoa buffalo bean bowls! There are a few lingering meat recipes on NCK, like the buffalo chicken and garlic quinoa bowls, and it’s time to start converting them over to meatless versions. Today’s spicy buffalo bowl is a marriage of the recipe I just mentioned, and the sad, pictureless post about spicy black beans. The recipe for the beans is to die for, but it doesn’t get much love because I still haven’t taken any pictures of it. We’re making all that right today, with a bowl involving quick cook times that also does really well made ahead and is full of unique buffalo flavor that, personally, I crave even more in the summer.

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Berry Basil Lemonade Smoothie (Whole 30)

May 16, 2016

Against my usual food blogging beliefs, I’m slapping the Whole 30 label on this super summery post-workout smoothie. Personally, Whole 30 isn’t an approach that works with my food philosophy, but I recognize its value in reducing your intake of sugar and processed “food”, two goals that I can fully support. More importantly, though? I have to support my people! Some friends at Connect Community have taken on the Whole 30 plan with various goals in mind, so I think it’s only fitting that I give them a few recipe ideas this month!

As I said, I’m not a huge proponent of the diet myself, so hopefully I got things right and this smoothie actually fits into the diet (conclusion: it does).
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Artichoke Stir Fry and Whipped White Beans

May 12, 2016

This is how I enjoy cooking. Not for the internet; for people. So that my husband has a dinner that’s not takeout for the night or two that I’m away this weekend (sinncccceeee I ate all the enchilada pie I was planning to leave for him).

I love cooking. I love helping people cook. That’s why I have a food blog. But sometimes the internet just goes and sucks all the fun out of cooking, and the pressure of how many people are reading or pinning my recipes leave me a grumpy, stressed mess doing late night cooking and photography that reflects my crappy mood. I used to think it was a little weird when people said you can taste when a chef is angry, but now I understand. Things start to unravel quickly when I’m in a bad mood: I forget to season, I undercook vegetables, I even miss ingredients entirely.
[Read more…]

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