Dinners 4/15 - 4/25

This made me laugh out loud. Sometimes even those of us who love meal planning and cooking are just WORN OUT by the end of the week. Can anyone else relate to this?

I started snapping photos of our dinners last week and ended up with a lot! Hopefully one of these inspires you to try something new for dinner soon. Which is your favorite?

One thing to note: I've been trying my best to avoid wheat for a few weeks to see if it helps alleviate my frequent headaches. So except for maybe 1 night, everything here should be wheat-free.

MONDAY: Whole Chicken, Quinoa w/ Parmesan, Asparagus

I used the 100 Days of Real Food recipe for The Best Whole Chicken in a Crockpot. It's super easy and the chicken always turns out tender and flavorful.

The bonus is the amazing homemade chicken broth that you get the next day! Simply keep the chicken carcass in the crockpot, fill with water, and toss in whatever veggies or spices you please. I usually add carrots, celery, garlic, onion skins, etc. Cook on low overnight and wake up to this!

After our chicken dinner one of the kids had the idea to roast marshmallows in the fireplace, since it was kind of a cold rainy day.

 Andrew watched us for a few minutes, then ran to the cupboard and brought out toothpicks. He put his marshmallows on them and then asked to cook them. He is so funny.

 It was a fun experiment!

TUESDAY: Pot Roast with Potatoes and Onions, Salad

 I cooked the meal with potatoes and onions in my dutch oven for a few hours and it turned out great. On the side I had a simple salad made with iceburg lettuce. I'm trying to get my kids used to eating salad, so I'm easing them in to it with iceburg. Jenna tried it and ate it, so that's progress.

WEDNESDAY: Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole, Cobb Salad

I originally planned on doing a big breakfast for dinner but it just sounded too heavy when it came time to cook. So I made the hash brown casserole I had planned on making, but instead of doing a bunch of bacon and eggs, I made a cobb salad.

THURSDAY: Chipotle

We were out late running errands so I grudgingly let us buy dinner. I have a really hard time doing this for some reason! I got a veggie burrito bowl.

FRIDAY: Salsa Chicken Tacos, Chips, Fruit

 I cooked salsa chicken in the crockpot all day and made it into simple tacos using corn tortillas, cheese, avocado, and tomatoes. I baked the extra corn tortillas into chips and served with a chipotle bean dip I found at Sprouts. We also had some grapes. (Ryan had a friend over and between the 2 of them they ate 10 tacos!)

SATURDAY: Fish, Rice, Broccoli

 This is a breaded fish I found at Target. I wasn't sure there would be enough, so I cooked a piece of salmon for myself. Ryan loved the fish sticks! I had some leftover quinoa so I ate that, but cooked white rice for everyone else.

SUNDAY: Spaghetti

Sunday we ate Easter lunch at my sister's house. When it came time for dinner that night, it was kind of a free-for-all at our house. I had made and frozen a lasagna earlier in the week, and had a little bit of the meat sauce leftover. So I cooked some noodles and ate them with the extra sauce, plus some parmesan and fresh parsley.

MONDAY: Turkey/Quinoa Stuffed Peppers, Garlic Bread, Salad

 I made a big batch of my Turkey and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers because I was taking dinner to a friend this night. Adam made yummy garlic bread and I stole some of the garlicky butter and put it on a piece of pumpernickel bread (wheat-free). It wasn't quite the same. We had a big salad on the side.

TUESDAY: Chicken Posole Soup

I used a recipe my Mom gave me for Posole Soup in the crockpot. It was pretty simple: chicken thighs, salsa verde, carrots, cumin, broth, Mexican tomatoes, and hominy. I subbed corn for the hominy, so it wasn't a true posole, but still tasty! I topped mine with some sour cream and made some homemade corn chips for dipping.

WEDNESDAY: Mujadarra

Have you ever heard of this? Mujadarra is a very simple vegetarian dish of lentils, brown rice, paprika, olive oil and carmelized onions. Just a few ingredients but really good flavor. Plus it's very healthy and full of fiber. I topped mine with some fresh tomatoes and took it to-go to eat at Ryan's baseball game.

THURSDAY: Steak, Potatoes, Broccoli/Cauliflower

Simple dinner of BBQ'd steak, steamed veggies, and steamed potatoes. I topped the potatoes with a little parmesan and dinner was served!