Egg Bites Recipe
Easy copycat egg bites recipe for weekday breakfast meal prep.
Here is my version of the popular copycat egg bites recipe that everyone loves.
My kids and I love those Starbucks egg bites as much as anyone, but they get expensive fast. There are other brands of egg bites too that you can buy at the store and are great for easy school day breakfasts, but those also get expensive when you are feeding a family of six. Once you figure out how to make them from scratch at home you will never have to be without a quick grab and go school day or work day breakfast again.
The secret to the texture is the cottage cheese all blended in with the eggs. That’s how you get that light, fluffy, creamy texture. I know you think you don’t like cottage cheese, but I can guarantee that you would never know it’s in these if I hadn’t told you.
I make up big batches of these for my teens for school mornings. They are a great protein packed easy breakfast. I usually put half in the fridge and then package up the other half two at at time in little snack bags and freeze, then they can just grab a single serving out the freezer and pop in the microwave for about 45 seconds for a quick weekday breakfast.
My version here is adapted from several different recipes and adjusted to suit our tastes and needs. This one probably makes more than a lot of other recipes you’ll find, because I always like to make lots of things that can be frozen for easy meal. You can use any combination of cheese, meat, and veggies you like. I’ve tried lots of combinations but our favorite is gruyere cheese (like the Starbucks ones), with a little bacon and spinach. So that’s how I’ve written the recipe, but you can easily customize with any combinations you like.
To make this egg bites recipe you will need:
Scroll down for the recipe card with the exact quantities.
eggs
cottage cheese
cheese (gruyere or sharp cheddar or other cheese you like)
bacon
salt & pepper
cooked chopped bacon (optional)
spinach or other veggies (optional)
spray oil
muffin pans, ideally silicone
If you haven’t already cooked the bacon you will want to do that first. Chop it up and cook until crispy. I like to buy big packs of bacon and dice and cook it all at once, then I have bacon to use for this recipe and lots extra for salads and topping in other recipes.
How to make these easy meal prep egg bites:
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees convection (or 325 regular bake). Place your silicone muffin pan in a deep sheet pan, and spray the muffin pan with cooking oil.
Put all of the ingredients except the bacon & spinach in the blender and blend until well combined.
Fill each muffin cup with a little spinach and bacon, or whatever other meat or veggies you are using. Then label the egg mixture into each one, to about 3/4 full.
Put the pan in the oven and fill the sheet pan with hot water to about half way up the muffin pan.
Cook for 25 minutes, and then I dare you to try not to eat several before you can get them put away for breakfast.
Egg Bites
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
You can do this without the water bath in the pans if you prefer, I just think it gets you a slightly nicer, creamier texture that more closely mimics the Starbucks sous-vide egg bites texture that we all love. And this is especially useful if you don't have a convection oven, for more even cooking.
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Recipe
A super quick and simple weeknight teriyaki sauce recipe.
(recipe card is below, just scroll down)
This a super simple and fast base recipe for an easy homemade teriyaki sauce that you can use on all kinds of easy weeknight dinners.
I lived in Seattle for 25 years, and my kids were born and grew up there. And it turns out that Seattle is the birthplace of American style teriyaki! Who knew?!? We think of teriyaki as Japanese food, but the version we know of it is actually an American invention, created by Japanese immigrants in Seattle and evolved over the years to suit American tastes.
In Seattle we were surrounded by teriyaki restaurants, it was actually the type of fast food restaurant that there were the most of. We got accustomed to eating a lot of teriyaki, it was the easiest default weeknight thing to pick up after busy days when we didn’t feel like cooking. But when we left Seattle we were a little surprised to realize that not every town had a teriyaki restaurant on every corner! So now it’s become one of my go-to easy weeknight dinners to cook for the family. It’s really just as simple as slapping some teriyaki sauce on pieces of chicken or slices of tofu, and sticking it in a hot oven for 15 - 30 minutes, just long enough to cook some rice and maybe microwave a bag of frozen broccoli.
It really had never occurred to me to make my own teriyaki sauce until one day I had promised teriyaki chicken to a kid for dinner, and realized I didn’t have any teriyaki sauce in my pantry. So I looked up some recipes for how to make it and it turns out that it’s very simple and fast. Seriously this can come together in like five minutes. If you do any amount of Asian cooking you likely already have all the ingredients you need. I do still buy bottled sauce occasionally because it is very nice to have around (this brand is my all time favorite), but more often these days I just whip up my own because it’s so fast and easy.
What you need for this easy homemade teriyaki sauce recipe:
The recipe card is below.
pineapple juice
soy sauce
brown sugar
honey
ginger (ground or fresh)
garlic (ground or fresh)
sesame oil (optional)
corn starch
sesame seeds (optional)
hoisin sauce (optional)
The recipe card is below with the specific measurements, but really they are all approximate and very flexible. My favorite combination of flavors is meant to imitate a combination of two of the flavors of that bottled sauce brand that I love (the island version with pineapple juice and sesame, and the hoisin garlic version)
Once you have everything together, you basically just chuck it all in a saucepan and whisk a bit as it heats up. Once the mixture gets up to a simmering temperature the corn starch will thicken up and then you’re done. It takes really like five minutes. Unlike flour, when you thicken a sauce with corn starch it’s done as soon as it starts to thicken, so it’s a very fast method.
Once you realize how easy it is to make your own teriyaki sauce you might never buy it from a store again.
This is not a traditional Japanese recipe. More traditional Japanese teriyaki sauces are not thickened or flavored as much as this, they really are much more of a simple light marinade. This version is adapted to our American tastes and is meant to be closer to what you’ll find in a neighborhood street corner teriyaki joint in Seattle. We like a more sweet and thick sauce to coat our teriyaki chicken.
A lot of the ingredients are listed as optional, because the great thing about this recipe is that it's really flexible. I’ve given you the basic way that I do it most of the time, and you can customize yours from there. So you can add more or less sweetness with the honey and sugar, more or less garlic or ginger, swap out the juice, leave out the sesame, etc. There’s no wrong way as long as you like how it tastes.
A few other notes about this recipe:
Most recipes have water instead of juice, and more sugar added. But I like the extra splash of flavor from the pineapple juice, and that it adds sweetness without as much processed sugar. But if you don't like pineapple you can just swap that out for water, and then you'll probably want to add a bit more sugar or honey. You could also use all brown sugar or all honey instead of a mix of both. I like the depth of flavor that the two different sweeteners add, but it’s not mandatory.
The corn start is for thickening, so feel free to adjust that amount if you like your sauce more or less thick. If you’ve not cooked with corn starch much, you need to know that it does need to be dissolved in cold liquid before adding to a hot sauce, otherwise you will get lumps. So if you decide you want your sauce thicker after it's simmering you will need to make a slurry with a couple tablespoons of liquid (water, juice, soy sauce, etc.) and then pour that into the simmering sauce while whisking to avoid lumps.
The optional hoisin adds a bit of extra depth of flavor and is intended to imitate the flavor in my personal favorite bottled sauce, but again, optional. You could try adding a little Chinese oyster sauce instead, I love that flavor too, and it’s especially great if you want to make a teriyaki salmon or other fish.
The sesame seeds don't add much flavor but they give a nice bit of texture. Feel free to leave them out if you don’t have them.
If you use fresh ginger you will need to let this simmer long enough to cook and break that down a bit, otherwise the enzymes in the fresh ginger will affect the texture of your meat.
Easy Pineapple Teriyaki Sauce
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
The great thing about this recipe is that it's really flexible, so you can add more or less sweetness with the honey and sugar, more or less garlic or ginger, swap out the juice, etc.
- The corn start is for thickening, so feel free to adjust that amount if you like your sauce more or less thick. It does need to be dissolved in cold liquid before adding to a hot sauce though, so if you decide you want your sauce thicker after it's simmering you will need to make a slurry with some water (or juice, soy sauce, etc.) and then pour that into the simmering sauce while whisking to avoid lumps
- The optional hoisin adds a bit of extra depth of flavor and is intended to imitate the flavor in my personal favorite bottled sauce.
- If you don't like pineapple you can just swap that out for water, and then you'll probably want to add a bit more sugar or honey.
- The sesame seeds don't add much flavor but they give a nice bit of texture. Feel free to leave them out.
- If you use fresh ginger you will need to let this simmer long enough to cook and break that down a bit, otherwise the enzymes in the fresh ginger will affect the texture of your meat.
Moroccan Spiced Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder
A super easy recipe for a slow roasted pork with amazing Moroccan flavors, that will wow your guests.
A big pork shoulder (or pork butt) is one of my favorite things for feeding a crowd. It’s a great way to cook up a large pile of food for a reasonable price, and even though they are very easy to cook it always seems impressive and gets rave reviews. I usually get them at Costco, although occasionally my local store has them on sale for a great price.
One of my favorite ways to cook a pork shoulder for a crowd is with a Moroccan inspired spice rub. It takes just a few minutes of work to season the pork and then it’s entirely hands off for many hours. Throw in some roughly diced veggies for the last hour or two of cooking, I think it’s great with more firm veggies that hold up to roasting like potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, califlower. Throwing some onions and garlic cloves in there can also add an extra flavor boost. Serve the roasted meat and veggies with couscous, flat bread, and maybe some sauces like tzatziki.
It’s a great complete meal to feed a crowd, with amazing flavors, that doesn’t have you in the kitchen for hours.
One of these days I will actually take a picture of this meal before we devour it. But this is real family cooking I’m sharing here, I’m not cooking food just to stage photos of it. Having a house full of hungry people isn’t always conducive to photography, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.
What you need to make Moroccan Spiced Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder:
One large pork shoulder roast, or sometimes called pork butt, usually 6-8 pounds
Several cups of chopped veggies (sweet potatoes, squash, cauliflower, onions, garlic, etc.)
How to make it:
Put the pork roast in a large and deep oven safe baking dish and season on all sides with the Moroccan seasoning mix. You want to get it really well coated. It’s best if you do this the day before and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Cover with foil and put in a 300 degree oven for at least 6 hours. The cooking time is going to vary depending on the size of your roast, but I’ve found that at least 6 hours is needed for that really falling apart melt-in-your-mouth to your meat. If your roast is on the bigger side you might want closer to 7 or 8 hours. Plan to put it in the oven by 11:00 in the morning to have it ready by dinner time.
Meanwhile, chop up all your veggies and toss with a little olive oil, more of the Moroccan seasoning, and a little salt.
If you are roasting veggies with the meat you can do this two ways: The first way is to put all your chopped veggies in the pan around the meat for the last hour or more of cooking. The time is going to depend on what veggies you are cooking and what size pieces you like. Firmer vegetables like sweet potatoes or winter squashes will take a little longer than an hour at 300 degrees. The second option is to take the meat out of the pan when it is cooked to your liking, put it in a separate dish covered with foil to keep warm, and then put your veggies in dish the meat was cooked in, with all the meat juices and spices, and turn your oven up to 375 or 400 to roast the veggies a little faster. Then when the veggies are mostly cooked you can add the meat back in to heat back up and brown a bit. You can of course also roast the vegetables separately, but there’s nothing like cooking veggies in a pan full of pork fat for amazing flavor.
Moroccan Spiced Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder
Ingredients
Instructions
Moroccan Spice Blend
Here is my recipe for an easy Moroccan inspired spice mix that you can use in so many ways. I love to use this on all kinds of meat and roasted veggies, but one of my favorites is this Slow Roasted Moroccan Spiced Pork Shoulder. It adds an amazing amount of flavor to any dish.
Moroccan Seasoning Recipe
A printable recipe card is below.
I’ve written out a recipe for my Moroccan spice rub that makes a lot. I love this spice mix to generously season a large piece of meat, plus veggies for roasting, and still have extra for another time. It’s so good on pork, beef, and chicken, and on roasted veggies. These are all ground spices, and the quantities don’t have to be exact. If you like more or less of any of these, feel free to adjust.
This recipe is made of a mix of ground spices, most of which you probably already have in your kitchen. Here are the ground spices you will need. A recipe card is below with the exact quantities.
black pepper
ginger
cinnamon
turmeric
cumin
paprika
cloves
nutmeg
kosher salt
Measure out all the spices into a jar and combine. I like to do it in a pint jar with a shaker lid.
Use this spice rub to season just about any kind of meat. If you have a jar of it already mixed up it can be a really quick and simple way to make a delicious weeknight meal with some chicken thighs or pork chops. Or use it on larger pieces of meat for smoking or slow roasting.
Moroccan Inspired Seasoning Rub
Ingredients
Instructions
Family Meal Plan #22
Welcome to our family meal plan!
This is a real reflection of what my family actually eats—some weeks I’ve got recipes to share, sometimes there are photos, and other times it’s just me giving you the rundown of what I made. I hope these menus give you some fresh ideas or inspire you as you’re planning your own meals. Feel free to adapt or follow along however it works for you—because meal planning should make life easier, not harder!
From one busy home cook to another, let’s make dinner a little less stressful together.
And don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter, Notes from the Kitchen Table, to get the latest weekly meal plan delivered straight to your inbox!
On the menu this week:
(see below for a notes about some of the meals)
Sunday: Big meatballs, pasta, spinach
Monday: Teriyaki chicken and broccoli, teriyaki tofu, brown rice
Tuesday: Chicken tacos
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Thai inspired lemongrass soup with steamed rice
Friday: Homemade pizza and a big salad with my lemon vinaigrette.
Saturday: Chicken shawarma, flatbread, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, tahini dressing, tzatziki, carrot hummus (so good! see below)
Sunday: Moroccan spiced pork shoulder, roasted veggies, couscous, kale salad with tahini dressing
Lunch: Moroccan spiced roasted veggie soup with the leftover veggies
A bit more detail about some of the meals:
Big Meatballs were just a combination of ground beef, pork, and chicken, seasoned with garlic salt and held together with egg and almond flour. I cooked them on a sheet pan in a 350 degree oven for a half hour, then I poured tomato sauce over them and cooked for another half hour. They were quite simple and really delicious.
Teriyaki is one of our favorite meals and one of the easiest to make. I seasoned thin sliced chicken breasts with a little garlic salt and let them sit for a couple hours, then cooked them in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes, then put teriyaki sauce over the top, added broccoli to the sheet pan, and cooked for another 15 minutes. The tofu is literally just sliced extra firm tofu with teriyaki sauce and cooked in a hot oven until it’s bubbly and a little browned, it’s the easiest thing in the world and one of our favorites. I used a homemade teriyaki sauce for this but only because I was out of my favorite bottled sauce so I whipped on up to imitate it. It was pretty good.
Chicken Tacos: Monday night when I cooked the chicken for teriyaki I cooked a bunch extra that was just seasoned with garlic salt. For tacos I chopped up that chicken and seasoned it with a little cumin and chili powder and just warmed that up in the microwave. Super easy, and served with the usual taco fixings.
“Thai inspired” soup was really one I just made up as I went along. I was thinking of the tangy coconut lemongrass soup you can get in a Thai restaurant, but wanted it to be a whole meal. No recipe here, just a little of this and a little of that until I liked how it tasted. I seasoned chicken broth with fish sauce, soy sauce, white pepper, ginger, garlic, coconut milk, and lime juice, and I added pork, lots of mushrooms, frozen spinach, and some riced cauliflower.
Chicken Shawarma: The schawarma recipe from The Mediterranean Dish is one of the few that I come back to regularly. It’s easy and delicious. I usually try to make a lot extra, but I leave out the cayenne to make it not spicy. The tahini dressing is from Love and Lemons and I follow it pretty closely but this time I used some coconut aminos instead of maple syrup because I wanted the hint of sweet without the sugar.
I make a tzatziki inspired cucumber yogurt sauce that is not so traditional but I love it - grated cucumber, plain yogurt, a bit of cumin, salt, and some finely diced preserved lemon with a little of the brine from the jar. The preserved lemon gives it a really unique flavor. Sometimes I make this with a dairy free plain cashew yogurt and honestly my family can’t tell the difference between the dairy version and the non dairy version.
Carrot Hummus was the new superstar here. I had seen a mention of it somewhere and wanted to try it, I looked at several recipes but didn’t really find one I liked so I just made it up. Basically you make it like any favorite hummus recipe (with tahini, salt, lots of lemon juice and fresh garlic) but instead of chickpeas I used roasted carrots and garlic. I tossed the carrots and whole garlic cloves with olive oil and a bit of salt and roasted them until golden and soft, and the pureed everything together in the food processor like I would with any other hummus. I will make this again and try to write out a recipe because it was amazing.
Moroccan Pork Shoulder: We had guests for dinner so I wanted to make something that felt special without a lot of work. A big roasted pork shoulder is often my go-to in these situations. This time I did it Moroccan flavored, using this recipe that I have made many times and adapted over the years. These are the kinds of meals that I love to make for a crowd, because it tastes amazing and is always really impressive, but is super simple and mostly hands off. The star of the show is this Moroccan inspired spice rub that I’ve adapted from a few other recipes and put my own spin on. I’ve made this many times over the years and it never disappoints. For veggies this time I did sweet potatoes and cauliflower, with some onions and garlic. I served all this with more of all the sauces that I made extra of the night before.
Moroccan Spiced Roasted Veggie Soup: I took all the leftover roasted sweet potatoes, cauliflower, onions, and garlic and put that in a pot with chicken broth and more of the moroccan seasoning and let it simmer for a bit and then pureed. We had this for lunch two days in a row and it was amazing. I think I’ll be roasting more veggies with that seasoning soon so I can make soup again.
Have a Question?
Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.
Reply to the newsletter email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media. I’ll do my best to answer, and your question could be featured in my newsletter.
Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads for daily tips and inspiration, and subscribe to the newsletter to get my weekly updates right in your inbox.
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Wishing you a delicious and stress-free week ahead!
– Lisa
Favorite Whole Chicken Recipes
A great list of reader favorite budget friendly whole chicken recipes.
As I talked about in my last post about the cost of meat - and I shared a great list of budget friendly ground beef recipes - it’s just getting more and more expensive to feed a family. So we have to come up with ways to get more for our money. I think that the whole chicken is one of the absolute best budget friendly cooking tips there is. Chicken is by far the least expensive meat right now, and buying whole chickens are the lest expensive way to buy chicken.
I love the whole Costco roast chicken as much as the next person, but sometimes it’s nice to skip the store bought convenience and cook your own from scratch.
So once again I reached out to my followers to ask for new ideas. I asked everyone for their favorite ways to cook a whole chicken. And once again my friends did not disappoint with all of their amazing ideas and suggestions for healthy and easy whole chicken recipes.
This isn’t a food editor’s list, this is real people commenting on the recipes they actually make and use to feed their families. I definitely got some new ideas to try from these suggestions, and you can expect to see some these in my meal plans in the future. I hope you find this list helpful too.
Reader favorite whole chicken recipes:
Marcella Hazan’s Roast Chicken With Lemons - if you’ve ever cooked any of Marcella Hazan’s recipes, you’ll know that they are always sure winners.
Whole Soy Sauce Chicken from Tiffy Cooks - an Instant Pot recipe for a delicious Asian flavor spin on the whole chicken.
Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken - from Samran Nosrat (of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat). This is probably the simplest recipe you will ever make. It has literally 3 ingredients - chicken, buttermilk, and salt - and yet makes for some of the most delicious chicken you will ever eat.
Chicken in Coconut Milk with Lemongrass - from the kitchn - this is my personal favorite on this list. Moist and juicy chicken with a unique blend of flavors that you might not initially think would be good but they make the chicken and resulting broth taste amazing.
Jaime Oliver’s Chicken in Milk This one is the original inspiration for the coconut milk recipe above. And again from a well loved cook whose recipes never disappoint.
Zuni Cafe’s Roasted Chicken + Bread Salad - recipe from Smitten Kitchen - Deb at Smitten Kitchen is known for her adaptations of other famous recipes, and this is her version of a well loved restaurant dish.
Do you have other favorites?
I would love to know if you have tried any of these, or if you have any other favorite whole chicken recipes that you love. Let me know in the comments here, or jump on over to that Threads post and add to the conversation.
Family Meal Plan #20
Easy one week family dinner menu.
My weekly family meal plans are the actual menus I have used for our family dinners. I hope you find them helpful. Feel free to borrow our menu or use these ideas as inspiration for your own meal planning.
I’ve included links to pictures and recipes where I have them, but a lot of my cooking is just figuring it out as I go, based on many years of cooking experience. If you ever have a question about anything you see here, please reach out (lots of ways to contact me below).
The menu for the week:
I don’t usually make totally separate dinners for adults and kids, but were planning for guests and the timing was going to be challenging so I needed to be flexible.
Monday: Gumbo
Tuesday: Ground beef tacos (are we calling these white people tacos now??)
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: chicken & tofu stir fry
Friday: frozen pizza for kids, Costco street taco kit for adults
Saturday: Costco chicken pot pie for kids, dinner out for adults
Sunday: Salmon, rice, green salad with berries & lemon vinaigrette.
Monday: Chicken thighs with basil & garlic, zucchini patties, sliced tomatoes, white pasta.
Have a Question?
Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.
Reply to the newsletter email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media. I’ll do my best to answer, and your question could be featured in my newsletter.
Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads for daily tips and inspiration, and subscribe to the newsletter to get my weekly updates right in your inbox.
➡️ Follow Me on Instagram | ➡️ Follow Me on Facebook | ➡️ Follow Me on Threads
Wishing you a delicious and stress-free week ahead!
– Lisa
Family Meal Plan #21
I’m doing Whole30 this month, which means I’m not having any grain or dairy or sugar or alcohol, and a few other things. But I still have a family to feed so I just have to get a little extra creative with my meal planning.
If you’ve planned ahead it’s pretty easy to adapt your meals to work. My biggest meal planning tip for when one member of the family is trying to eat a little different from the family is the same as my first tip in my latest Ask Lisa post about how to meal plan for a picky eater - it’s deconstructed meals. Click over to read that post for a little more explanation of how I approach this type of meal planning.
I’m planning meals for this month that are easy to take apart into components. So the family can still have spaghetti and meatballs, and I am very content with my bowl of spinach and meatballs.
I’ve included links to pictures and recipes where I have them.
Here is the menu:
Sunday: Salmon, pasta, green salad with berries & lemon vinaigrette.
Monday: Chicken with basil and garlic, zucchini patties, sliced tomatoes
Tuesday: Fish tacos (fish sticks for kids, leftover salmon for adults, I had mine as a salad)
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Baked pasta with cheese sauce, chicken, tomatoes & basil; Cobb salad
Friday: A frozen pizza for the boy, a salad for me (the others were camping)
Saturday: Leftovers for the boy, a salad for me
Have a Question?
Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.
Reply to the newsletter email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media, and your question could be featured in next week’s newsletter.
Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads for daily tips and inspiration.
➡️ Follow Me on Instagram | ➡️ Follow Me on Facebook | ➡️ Follow Me on Threads
Wishing you a delicious and stress-free week ahead!
– Lisa
Family Meal Plan #19
Quick one week meal plan.
On the menu this week:
Sunday: oven roasted salmon and veggie fried rice
Monday: pasta with bolognese sauce, garlic bread
Tuesday: enchiladas - chicken, and black bean (two separate kinds, not combined)
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: lasagna, made with the bolognese and a béchamel and roasted eggplant and squash
Friday: frozen pizza and bagged caesar salad
Saturday: leftovers again because we are swimming in them and we don’t waste food here
Family Meal Plan #18
Two weeks of family dinner menus in this one, plus some school day meal prep, and a bonus ice cream recipe.
Two weeks of meal plans, plus some update on school day meal prep, and a bonus ice cream recipe.
First week menu:
Sunday: burgers
Monday: budget paella
Tuesday: carnitas taco bar
Wednesday: oven fried chicken, potato salad, kale salad
Thursday: takeout Chinese
Friday: frozen pizza
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: carbonara
School day breakfast and lunch prep:
Smoothie packs: bags of of frozen fruit & greens, just the right amount to dump in a bullet blender and combine with a yogurt and a juice for two servings of smoothie.
Egg bites: I’ll share my recipe for these soon, but you can google plenty if you want.
Burritos: When I make Mexican rice and black beans I always make extra and then I can make up a stack of bean burritos. They freeze great so the kids can just take one out of the freezer to defrost before School.
Tuna salad: Easy to make quick sandwiches for a few days if the tuna is already made.
Boiled eggs: Great for snacks or quick egg salad.
Rice crispy treats: A first week of school treat!
Second week meal plan:
Monday: baked potato bar
Tuesday: chicken taco bar
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: egg roll in a bowl stir fry
Friday: homemade pizza
Saturday: Mac & cheese & nuggets
Sunday: roasted salmon and veggie fried rice, and homemade ice cream
More detail about the meals:
Paella:
I called this budget paella because I kinda did it on the cheap and took some shortcuts. I asked for ideas on Threads about meals to feed a crowd and someone suggested they made paella with packaged yellow rice. Well I had just happened to buy some so I thought I would try it. It was super easy and turned out great. I made the yellow rice per the package, with some chicken broth and diced veggies, and I added pieces of Costco rotisserie chicken and cut up polish sausage. I kept it not spicy because I was feeding kids, and served it with a bottle of hot sauce on the side.
Carnitas taco bar:
This is my favorite thing to make for a crowd. It’s so easy to make and everyone always loves it. To make carnitas I use pork butt or shoulder. I usually by the whole big ones, but lately I have been getting what is called country style pork ribs, which aren’t actually ribs but are just thick cut strips of the pork butt. It's nice because it just shortens a step and the pieces cook faster. I season the pork well with cumin, chili powder, garlic, onion, salt, and pepper. Sometimes I throw in a cut up onion and a cut up orange, and then I cook until the pork is falling apart. Low and slow in the oven is my favorite way, 300 for 5-6 hours. I keep it covered for most of the time and then uncovered for about the last hour to let the juices concentrate. If you like some little crispy bits you can turn up the heat for the last little bit. Shred it up with tongs and serve with all your favorite taco fixings.
Oven fried chicken, potato salad, kale salad:
I had actually intended to actually fry this chicken, but I got lazy at the last minute and stuck it in the oven instead. I did you classic buttermilk overnight marinade, which makes it so tender and juicy. You can find plenty of recipes for this online, but I just did buttermilk with a little salt and pepper, and then I made a mixture of flour, seasoned bread crumbs, salt to coat the chicken pieces in. On the side was my classic potato salad for which no recipe exists but maybe someday I’ll write it. The secret is the juice from a jar of dill pickles. I mixed that with mayo, chopped up boiled egg, chopped celery, some dill, salt, pepper, and a little celery salt. I cannot abide sweet potato salad, it must be tangy and salty. I also strongly recommend you cook the potatoes in very salty water, it adds so much flavor. Some famous chef said salt should be IN the food, not just ON the food and I totally agree.
Carbonara:
I think I’ve written about this before, so just a quick recap. I use my one pot pasta method for this, and add about a half cup extra water because the carbonara sauce is made with starchy pasta water. Cook the bacon ahead of time, leave a little bacon grease in the pan, and add the pasta and water. When the pasta is mostly done I take out a half a cup or so of that starchy water and whisk it with several eggs and a generous handful of shredded parmesan or Romano, some salt and pepper. Turn off the burner and then pour that “sauce” back into the hot pasta, along with chopped bacon, and toss it around with tongs to cook the eggs and coat the pasta. Top with a little more cheese and fresh ground pepper. Some people add cream to this, but I don’t think it’s strictly necessary.
Baked potato bar:
There are plenty of ways to cook baked potatoes, but I’ll keep coming back to the old school oven method. Perfect potatoes that are creamy on the inside with flavorful and slightly crisped skin. I wash the potatoes, dry them, poke with a fork, rub all over with olive oil and then generously season with kosher salt. Baked on a parchment lined baking sheet for one hour. I do 350 for small/medium potatoes and 375 if I get the really big ones. I try to get all the potatoes about the same size so the cooking time is the same for all. I serve these with a variety of toppings to suit everyone’s taste. I made extra bacon the night before to have on the potatoes, and I had some extra polish sausage to use. My husband and I like cheesy broccoli on ours, I used to buy frozen broccoli in cheese sauce, but really it’s just as easy to microwave plain broccoli and then stir in a little American cheese to melt and become the cheese sauce.
Chicken taco bar:
Easiest dinner ever - frozen pieces of chicken and a can of enchilada sauce. This time was boneless thighs and red enchilada sauce, but I do it with all kinds. You can do this in the instant pot, in a pot on the stove, slow cooker, or in the oven. Just cook until the chicken is falling apart.
Egg roll in a bowl:
Another one that’s always a hit and so easy. You can google recipes, but I don’t use one. It’s a great way to make an asian rice bowl type meal when you have ground meat you want to use. I use the food processor to chop up whatever veggies I’ve got - this one had broccoli, carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, onions. Saute it all together in sesame oil and season generously with ginger, garlic, soy sauce, white pepper, sometimes a little fish sauce and lime juice is nice.
Roasted salmon:
People do too much to salmon, in my opinion. I don’t need elaborate recipes or lots of seasoning. I want to taste the salmon. I season with just salt. I pretty much always cook whole filets. I like to start with the fish at room temp, it cooks more evenly. Take it out of the fridge about an hour before you want to cook, put in on a baking sheet on a piece of foil or parchment, and season generously with salt. To cook in the oven I do it very hot, like 500 degrees or as hot as your oven will go. This gets you as close to grilling as you can get in the oven. Put the pan in the upper third of the oven, for about 7 minutes for a thinner piece and maybe 9-10 minutes if it’s very thick.
Ice cream:
We really should be making more homemade ice cream. It actually is quite easy. And ice cream maker is one of the few single use gadgets I keep in my kitchen. I’ve kinda perfected my recipe over the years and my technique is a bit unconventional. I make a custard style ice cream but I’ve figure out how to not fuss with having to temper the eggs yolks. I make this base and usually divide it into three containers for three flavors.
Lisa’s Easy Custard Ice Cream Base
Ingredients:
4 cups of heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 large egg yolks
Instructions:
My technique is a little different but I think it’s much easier than having to add hot liquid a tiny bit at a time to temper the eggs.
Combine milk, sugar, and salt in a pot and heat over low heat just enough to get the sugar and salt fully dissolved.
Turn off the heat and stir in your cold cream.
Add the egg yolks directly to this mixture and whisk well to combine.
Turn the burner back on to medium/low and whisk / stir constantly as this heats up and begins to thicken, to about 175 degrees.
Turn off heat and continue to stir for a few minutes as it starts to cool.
Transfer to containers and let cool completely in the fridge before freezing in your ice cream maker.
Now you have your cooked ice cream custard base that you can add flavors to. Of course you need an ice cream maker. I have had mine for 20 years and it’s still going strong, here is the current model of the one I have.
Until next week!
Phew, I think that’s all for this time. Lots of pictures!
Family Meal Plan #17
Simple meal plan for the week.
A quick post with a simple family menu for the week.
On the menu this week:
Sunday: pasta with bolognese sauce, salad with berries & lemon vinaigrette
Monday: chicken & thai basil stir fry, coconut rice, crispy salt and pepper tofu
Tuesday: fish tacos
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: lasagna with béchamel and leftover bolognese
Friday: pizza
Saturday: salmon
Ask Lisa: #02
This week's reader question is about how to manage family meal planning with a picky eater.
Real answers to your questions, from one busy mom to another.
This week’s question:
Q: How do I plan family meals when one of my kids is such a picky eater?
A: I see this question so much in social media and parenting groups.
It can be really hard to manage family meal planning when some of you like a wide variety of foods and some of you have a very limited list of what feels safe to eat, but I have figured out several ways to navigate this that work for my diverse family.
Here are my top suggestions:
1) Make deconstructed meals.
Plan to make the foods you like to eat and cook, but figure out how to deconstruct the components of that meal and serve it as a make-your-own bar style of dinner.
The easiest example of this is instead of a loaded one pot pasta with the noodles and sauce and meatballs and veggies all mixed together and topped with cheese, serve all of those components separate. If someone just wants pasta with cheese, they can do that. If someone wants just meatballs and sauce and veggies but no pasta they can do that. But if the meal you wanted was all of it together, then you still get to have that.
Everyone is happy.
Other ideas for this type of meal include taco bar, baked potato bar, ramen soup bar, rice bowl bar. Make a list of all the meals you like and see how many you can figure out how to separate into a deconstructed bar. You’ll probably be surprised at how many you come up with.
Cooking this way is also awesome for meal prep, because if you’ve made extra of the separate components each night, then you can easily combine those things in new ways for probably several more different meals. You can even incorporate this strategy into your meal planning, so that you are planning ahead to cook extra of some basic components.
2) Have an available safe food for the picky eater.
I always try to make sure there is something available for the meal that my pickiest eater will eat.
If I really wanted to make that one pot pasta or a loaded casserole or spicy gumbo, then I will always have something available that is separate. This brings us back to my tip above about making extra.
Did you know that plain pasta and rice freeze really well?
Make extra when you’re cooking and freeze some in single serving portions. Then you can always pull out a bag of cooked pasta for that one kid who is going through their “nothing but buttered noodles” phase. I also recently discovered these pouches of single serving pre-cooked pasta and I always make sure I have some in my pantry. My picky eater makes this for herself often, just a minute in the microwave and a little butter and she has a dinner she is happy with.
3) Let them eat cereal.
There. I said it. Maybe an unpopular opinion? But I don’t care what your mother-in-law says, a bowl of Cheerios is not an unhealthy dinner. I don’t buy cereal that I’m not ok with my kids eating, so super sugared cereals aren’t an option here, but a healthier whole grain cereal is always an available meal choice.
Teach them how to slice a banana, or have some cut fruit or a container of blueberries available. Have them set their place and bring their cereal bowl and a pitcher of milk and their fruit to the dinner table and eat it with the rest of the family. They are getting a balanced meal, and they are still learning about healthy eating by seeing what you serve and what the family is eating. Nobody is feeling shamed for their food choices, and you’re not feeling guilty about them not getting a healthy meal.
I can almost guarantee you that eventually they will feel brave enough to try what the family is eating because you are leading by example and without pressure or shaming.
Have a Question?
Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.
Reply to this email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media, and your question could be featured in next week’s newsletter.
Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads for daily tips and inspiration.
➡️ Follow Me on Instagram | ➡️ Follow Me on Facebook | ➡️ Follow Me on Threads
Wishing you a delicious and stress-free week ahead!
– Lisa
Tip of the week #02
Double the recipe. Future you will be very happy to have an extra prepped meal in the freezer.
Tip of the Week:
This weeks tip seems like an obvious one at first, so let’s unpack this because there’s so much more to it than you might think.
Always Double The Recipe.
I know, doesn’t sound like much of a tip, right? But I’m a busy mom, and any time I can take a shortcut that saves me time in the kitchen, I’m definitely going to do it. Cooking extra is one of those shortcuts, and for me it is the foundation of a lot of good things.
First, I think leftovers are what makes the world go ‘round.
We often eat leftovers for breakfast and lunch, I love having healthy homemade foods in the fridge that my family just needs to heat up. Some of my kids prefer having warmed up leftovers for breakfast instead of more traditional breakfast foods. My husband works from home, and I’m still here homeschooling one kid, so it’s really nice to not have to make lunch every day. And we do a clean-out-the-fridge leftover night once a week. It gives me a night off from cooking.
Second, some of our favorite home cooked meals take a bit of mess and time to make.
But it’s not twice as messy or twice as time consuming to make twice as much. So double that recipe. Make enough meatballs for two dinners and stick half in the freezer. Prep an extra bag of marinated chicken. Make an extra meatloaf. Cut up extra meat for that sheet pan dinner. Freeze all these things and so many more.
Future you will be so happy to already have some prepped meals in the freezer during those weeks when the family schedule gets out of control, If you prep extra at the same time that you’re cooking that dinner then you can fill your freezer one meal at a time without having to spend a whole weekend afternoon on meal prep.
Third, making extra is one of my keys to lunch packing success.
When I say double the recipe, I’m not just talking about dinner. I’m talking about everything.
If you’ve browsed my lunches you’ll see that a lot of them are based on homemade items - I pack muffins, pancakes, pasta, meatballs, quesadillas, pizza, even cheeseburgers, and so much more. All of these things can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge or freezer.
Lunch packing is quick and easy if you have healthy homemade items ready to just grab and go. I even pack just straight up dinner leftovers directly into lunch containers instead of putting them away in bigger storage containers. I make several dozen muffins at a time, mountains of pancakes and waffles. I make extra sandwiches if I’m making them for lunch at home, also extra quesadillas.
Especially as kids get older, having a stack of pre-made sandwiches in the fridge is great. Now that I’ve got a mix of kids at school and at home, when I’m making a sandwich for my homeschooler I always make a few extra for my high schoolers for lunch the next day.
Fourth - Cooking extra of popular kids foods is really helpful if you have a picky eater. I talk more about this in my post about meal planning with a picky eater, so you’ll definitely want to click on over to read that post.
You will never regret having extra sandwiches in the fridge, especially if you have teenagers.
Have a Question?
Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.
Reply to this email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media, and your question could be featured in next week’s newsletter.
Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads for daily tips and inspiration.
➡️ Follow Me on Instagram | ➡️ Follow Me on Facebook | ➡️ Follow Me on Threads
Wishing you a delicious and stress-free week ahead!
– Lisa
Family Meal Plan #16
Weekly thoughts and updates, plus our meal plan for the week.
One week family menu.
My meal plans are real - this is what my family is actually eating every week.
Here’s the menu for this week (plus a couple extra days):
Thursday: Chicken & vegetable stir fry, with crispy salt and pepper tofu
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Salmon, mixed green salad with strawberries
Sunday: Carnitas taco bar
Monday: Salmon patties (with leftover salmon)
Tuesday: Green enchiladas (with leftover carnitas)
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: pasta with pork & veggies
Friday: Pizza again
Extra: We also made beignets for a treat.
Make sure you are subscribed to my weekly newsletter so you never miss a meal plan update.
A bit more about each meal:
I don’t always have this extra, but this week I’ve described each of these meals for you in a lot more detail. I hope you enjoy!
Thursday: stir fry and crispy tofu.
I don’t have a recipe for stir fry, you can find plenty on google or pinterest, but I think it’s one of those things that once you’ve made it a couple times you really don’t need a recipe. I cut up whatever meat I’m using into bit size pieces, and then I season that with a bit of salt and pepper, a little sesame oil, sometimes a little soy sauce, and then I add a couple spoons of corn starch to coat it - and here’s the real trick: baking soda. There’s chemistry here that I don’t bother to get into, but I think it changes the pH of the meat and tenderizes it. The amount I use depends on the type of meat. For chicken that’s already pretty tender, I use just a little, maybe a teaspoon. For beef or pork I will use a bit more. Mix it all well to coat and refrigerate for a few hours until ready to cook. Then I just brown all those bites of meat in batches in a little oil. Meanwhile I’ve chopped all my veggies, and the selection is a little different every time. This week I had onions, celery, carrots, cabbage, a little zucchini, some broccoli, and always plenty of garlic and ginger. After the meat is done I dump all the chopped veggies in the pan and saute them until they are starting to get tender. Then add the meat back in and a little something for sauce. Sometimes I just use a little bottle oyster or hoison or black bean sauce. This week I mixed about a cup of chicken broth with a little cornstarch, some soy sauce, white pepper, and a little oyster sauce and stirred that all in to coat everything. Easy and pretty fast. Although I always make a mess of the stove.
Crispy salt and pepper tofu is one of our current favorite things. It seems like no matter how much I make, it always gets devoured. I’ve written up my recipe and that will be posted soon.
Friday is pizza day.
Always and forever. My people expect pizza on friday. Sometimes it’s delivery, sometimes it’s frozen, but most of the time it’s homemade. I make a lot, usually 4 or 5 pizzas, because we love leftover pizza. We have a mix of preferences here so I usually make two thicker crust, and two or three thin crust. The thicker crust are usually cheese, or sometimes one will be half cheese and half with other toppings. Most of the time these days I am using my sourdough for the crust which is just done by feel and no recipe, but my basic yeast bread and pizza dough recipe can be found here. This is my tried and true basic recipe that never fails. The toppings are a bit different each time, there’s always some pepperoni and onion and tomatoes in the mix, and then it’s whatever else I have that I sounds edible on a pizza. My sauce is a simple one: crushed tomatoes, a little olive oil, salt, thyme, rosemary, garlic. I’ll post an actual recipe one of these days.
Saturday: salmon and salad
I’ve cooked salmon a million ways and I will always come back to my stance that simplest is best. I like to actually taste the fish. Lately my seasoning is just salt, nothing else. I usually get whole filets, season them well with salt, and then cook in a very hot oven (like 550 convection) for 5-10 minutes depending on how thick the fish is.
The salad is one I’m obsessed with this summer. Spring mix greens, blueberries, strawberries, pickled red onion, salted pistachios, bacon crumbles, and a lemon vinaigrette dressing.
I also made a simple white pasta for the kids. My one-pot pasta method, with some butter, cream, and salt. Never fails to please the kids, and I’ve found that even though they don’t like to admit it, most adults love this pasta too.
Sunday: carnitas
Tuesday is usually taco day at our house and my kids were a little stressed that I was serving tacos on a sunday. But our guest was leaving monday and I knew he wanted some mexican so I did it anyway.
Don’t leave me nasty comments about how any of this is not traditional, I never pretend to be Mexican or to make anything the traditional way. I cook what tastes good to me.
So anyway, my latest method for carnitas is to buy the pork country style ribs at costco. They’re not actually ribs - it’s just cut strips of the pork shoulder. I used to always buy the whole shoulder, but it’s a mountain of meat and I don’t always want that much. The ribs cut is usually the same cost per pound and it’s a more manageable quantity. I season these pretty simply - salt, pepper, cumin, a little chili powder, sometimes a bit of garlic and onion. Sometimes I cut up an onion to throw in there, sometimes I quarter an orange. I use all kinds of different cooking methods, but this time it was in a deep casserole dish, covered well with foil, and in the oven at 300 degrees for several hours, until the meat was falling apart. Then uncover and turn up the oven to about 375, use tongs to break up the meat, and cook another half hour or so to let the juices evaporate and the meat brown a bit.
We serve this with a selection of usual taco fixings - tortillas, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, chips - as a taco bar and everyone makes their own. It’s one of my favorite meals to make for a crowd.
Monday: salmon patties
I know some will scoff at the idea of even having leftover fish, but I always buy a little extra salmon and cook more than we will eat that night because I want to make salmon patties. I keep them simple, the fish, a little diced onion, egg, breadcrumbs, a bit of garlic salt.
We had these with a kale & quinoa salad and the leftover pasta from the salmon dinner, reheated with a bit of cream.
Tuesday: enchiladas
Another meal made with the leftovers - the extra meat from the carnitas dinner, mixed with chopped onion and shredded jack cheese, and layered with green enchilada sauce, tortillas, and more jack cheese, cooked until browned and bubbling. This is a very easy meal to make if you have extra cooked meat of any kind. Sometimes I roll them into ‘real’ enchiladas, but sometimes I just layer it all like a casserole because it’s much faster and tastes just as good. Just go easy on the cheese. I know as Americans we love our cheese, and I love to drape everything in cheese just as much as the rest of you, but meat enchiladas really should be mostly about the meat and sauce and tortilla, with just a little cheese at each layer.
Wednesday is always leftover night here. We have scout meetings that night and need to eat fast and get going, so it’s nice to have lots of options we can easily heat up. I always make extra of everything so we have plenty.
Thursday: pasta with pork & veggies
This was an accidental dinner once that my family loved so much that it’s now become something that is regularly requested. It’s a great one to make when you need to clean the veggies out of your fridge and you don’t have a whole lot of other stuff. I brown some kind of ground meat, usually pork, or a pork sausage is best. This week I had a package of breakfast sausage so I used that. After the meat is browned I add a variety of chopped veggies. The first iteration of this had just onions and cabbage, and that is a really great combo with pork. These days I find it a fun challenge to see just how much veggies I can pack in here and have the kids still love it. This week I had onions, cabbage, zucchini, baby kale, mushrooms. I feel like there was more but I’m not remembering now. Get all the veggies sautéed until soft, sometimes I add a little butter, and then the real secret is canned soup. I don’t use a whole lot of this stuff but this is one occasion where I love it. It’s a quick way to make a yummy meal. My choice for this is Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic. It’s all about the roasted garlic flavor here, so try to find that one and always keep some in your pantry. I usually don’t add any salt until after I’ve added the soup, because the sausage + canned soup is often all the salt you need. After the sauce (aka, soup) is in, then it’s time for the pasta and there are two ways I do this. You can either just cook pasta separately (or it’s a great way to use up leftover pasta), or you can now do my one pot pasta method - just add it all right in the pan: one pound of pasta and four cups of water. It soaks up the flavor of the meat and veggies and soup as it cooks and it’s delicious and always a crowd pleaser.
That brings us back to friday and pizza again.
Extra treat: beignets
This is a fun one that we’ve made a few times now. My kids love the beignets that we get in New Orleans Square at Disneyland, so when we found the recipe in the Unofficial Disney Parks Cookbook we definitely had to make them. While this isn’t a fast recipe to make, it isn’t hard. And it makes a lot. We made the mistake of doubling the recipe the first time and we ended up delivering beignets to all our neighbors because there was no way we could eat them all. Sometimes we even make them Mickey shaped using a Mickey cutter, sometimes we just cut them in squares. They all taste great no matter what. This dough also holds well in the fridge for a couple days, which I recommend because they really are best when they are fresh, so don’t cook more than you plan to eat while hot. We made the dough and cooked half on Thursday, and then cooked the second half on Sunday. Deep frying can be intimidating at first, but if you have a good thermometer that makes it easier. I don’t have a deep fryer, I just use a pot on the stove.
Tip of the week #01
The genius tip for tuna melts that kids will love.
Genius tips from my kitchen to yours.
This weeks tip: My easy trick for tuna melts that kids will love.
I love a good tuna melt, but the problem with a lot of them is that the tuna kinda falls all over the place. This can make them a little challenging for a lot of kids to eat.
Many years ago I figured out the easiest hack to make perfect tuna melts for kids - with just the right amount of melty, gooey, cheesiness, in a format that won’t have the tuna falling all over them.
So here’s the secret:
Instead of using a slice of cheese on top of the tuna, mix in shredded cheese with the tuna.
It seems so simple but I’m telling you it’s brilliant. Now when you grill your sandwich the cheese melts all throughout the tuna.
Not only does this taste amazing, because you get a much more even mix of tuna and melted cheese in every bite, but it actually makes the sandwich less messy. It’s less messy because the melted cheese holds the whole thing together. This works especially well if you let the sandwich and melted cheese cool just a bit before serving, so it firms up a little and holds together really nicely.
Kids love tuna this way, something about melted cheese just makes everything more kid friendly. But we like it so much that this is how I make tuna melts for my husband and I now as well. You can do this with just about any kind of cheese, for kids I usually use whatever bag of shredded cheese I’ve got. For adults I sometimes use a nice sharp cheddar or something with a little more flavor.
As far as the tuna mix itself, just make it however you normally do. We like our tuna very simple most of the time, just a good mayo and a little garlic salt. I usually cut back on the salt a bit when I’m adding cheese because cheese is already pretty salty.
And if you don’t already know the secret for really crispy grilled sandwiches, I’m about to blow your mind…
It’s mayonnaise.
On the outside of the bread.
My readers seem to be split about 50/50 on this one - you’ve either never heard of this in your life, or you know it and love it. There’s no in between. Mayo instead of butter or oil on the bread or in the pan will give the outside of your grilled sandwich that crunch that you think only restaurant melts can achieve. Now you know.
I hope you enjoy this quick tip - let me know if you try it!
Favorite Ground Beef Recipes
Family - and budget - friendly ground beef dinner ideas and recipes.
Stressed about the price of meat these days?
You’re not alone.
Meat has gotten so expensive, I hardly ever buy big pieces of beef any more. When I buy beef these days it’s usually ground beef, so I needed more ideas for budget friendly meals using ground beef.
I got a little tired of my usual ground beef dinner recipes, and I suspect you probably do too.
So I did my new favorite thing - I reached out to my followers on Threads and asked for their favorite ground beef recipes. My friends did not disappoint with suggestions for ways to use ground beef, I got so many suggestions for budget friendly ground beef dinner recipes.
Are you following me on social media? Click on over to follow me and join the conversations.
What follows below is the list of all the ground beef ideas my crowdsourcing came up with. This list includes so many favorites, quick and simple ground beef recipes, comfort food ground beef recipes, one pot ground beef recipes, and so many more family friend ground beef dinner ideas.
I’m linking recipes where I have them, and keep checking back to see if there’s more.
Ground beef dinner ideas:
Chili: chili with ground beef is actually my favorite kind. It’s somehow just more comforting. I have a recipe here on the blog that we love. I’ve made this for years so this one isn’t new to me, but it’s at the top of my list to recommend to you. This is a family friendly chili that my kids, and anyone else I have ever made it for, absolutely love. It’s full of flavor but not spicy. Try serving it in bread bowls, or with hot dogs. I’m on team no beans in chili, but feel free to add beans if you like them.
Stuffed eggplant: This recipe with spiced beef and pine nuts sounds amazing. Based on Yotam Ottolenghi’s lamb-stuffed eggplants.
Meatloaf: so many amazing recipes out there! Here is a great recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen. You can also take any favorite meatballs recipe and cook it as a loaf as well. I’ve done that many times when I wanted the flavor of my favorite meatball recipe but didn’t feel like taking the time to make the balls.
Meatballs: another one with practically limitless options. Our family favorite meatball recipe is from an old Moroccan cookbook that I’ve had for years. It’s no longer in print but you can find used copies of it. I highly recommend this book anyway, it’s got so many amazing recipes. I also have another favorite meatball recipe here on the blog, it’s a very basic recipe that’s super easy to adapt. You can also generally take any favorite meatloaf recipe and make it into meatballs instead.
Meat sauce / Bolognese / Ragu: these sauces are another favorite of ours and they are so versatile. I usually make a huge batch of it and we will have it one night on pasta and then later in the week I will make lasagna with it. A lot of recipes call for a variety of ground meats, but you can use just ground beef and it will still be delicious. My favorite bolognese recipe is in another of my favorite cookbooks - How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman
Hamburgers - need no explanation! There are so many options, I don’t think my kids could ever get tired of them. You can get creative with toppings to keep it interesting.
Picadillo - this is a new one to me, so I am looking forward to trying it. It’s a Latin dish with ground beef and spices and olives, some versions have potato too. In my brief searching, it seems like Cuban versions don’t have potatoes, while the Mexican style includes potatoes. Here’s one that looks delicious without potatoes, and here’s another that has potatoes. We’re going to have to try it both ways I think.
Shepherds pie: always a favorite. I think a lot of families have their own recipes for this, I’ve made it a lot and don’t usually follow a recipe. But if you’ve never had it, or never made it - you must give it a try. It’s basically a savory mixture of ground beef, veggies, and gravy - like a thick stew - topped with seasoned mashed potatoes and baked. Classic comfort food. Some will say that with beef it’s technically cottage pie, and shepherds pie is lamb. I say call it whatever you like. Here’s a great recipe from The Wholesome Dish.
Stuffed peppers: ground beef, rice, spices, cheese - what’s not to love? You can find a million recipes if you do a quick search, here’s one that looks great to me, from WellPlated.com.
Homemade crunch wrap supremes: Ok this was a new one to me. It’s a Taco Bell thing and I don’t eat at Taco Bell, but a homemade version sounds amazing. A loaded ground beef taco in a crispy taco shell, then wrapped in a flour tortilla and fried. Sounds too good to be true! Here’s a recipe that sounds amazing, from Spend With Pennies.
Tacos: obviously, the possibilities are endless. You can season up your ground beef really well, or you can keep it super simple. I do it all ways - sometimes with lots of chili powder and cumin and garlic, but sometimes with just a little salt and pepper and I let the toppings and salsa add the extra flavor. You can of course use packaged taco seasoning, but I stopped buying that years ago when I realized it was just as easy to season it myself.
Nachos with seasoned ground beef topping: anything you can put in a taco, you can put on top of nachos instead. It’s a fun way to mix it up.
Tamale pie: believe or not, I’ve actually never made this! But I’ve had it and it’s delish. Kinda like a tex-mix Shepards pie - a spiced ground beef and veggie mixture, with corn bread on top. Here’s a recipe that sounds fun.
Goulash (the American kind): I had to specify this because Hungarian goulash is a whole other kind of thing. But American goulash is a more eastern US regional thing, so I’ve actually never had it but it sounds amazing. It’s like a spiced tomatoey ground beef sauce with elbow macaroni pasta and it sounds like the kind of thing my family would love. Here’s a one pot version from Rachel Cooks, where the pasta cooks in the sauce, and you know that’s right up my alley.
Lasagna: the ground beef lasagna I grew up with was very American, which I didn’t realize until well into adulthood. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious. I mentioned above that I make a lasagna sometimes with bolognese, and it is amazing. But you can also do the more classic American style with browned ground beef layered in between the layers of pasta, sauce and cheese. Or you can make a simple ground beef tomato sauce. Here’s a great simple recipe for a ground beef lasagna from Jo Cooks.
Unstuffed peppers: all the goodness of the stuffed versions, but maybe a bit easier cooked together in one pot. Here’s a recipe that sounds simple and easy.
Stuffed cabbage rolls: I love these but I haven’t made them in years, I really need to do it again. Here’s a recipe that sounds very easy and budget friendly from Spend with Pennies. There are also “unstuffed” versions of recipes like this, a quick google search will bring you several options.
Lettuce wraps: lettuce wraps of all kinds are among my favorite things. I love all the flavors in these, and how versatile they can be. You can search and find dozens of recipes, but here’s one that sounds particularly delicious.
Japanese curry: My kids love the flavors of Japanese curry. You can buy the sauce in cubes that you melt into a sauce. It’s so versatile, you can use the sauce with any combination of protein and veggies that you like. We buy the mild version, my grocery store usually carries it, but you can order it online if you can’t find it. This is a staple that I always keep in my kitchen because it’s such an easy weeknight dinner. The recipe is on the box - you just brown your meat and veggies, and add the sauce and liquid. I love to also add coconut milk to give it an extra creamy flavor.
Bibimbap / Korean beef bowl: oh another favorite. Spiced ground beef served with a variety of sides and toppings, on a bowl of rice. Another that is really flexible and great for weeknights, you can cook it up very fast or make ahead. Here’s just one recipe, but there are so many more if you search.
Stroganoff: a family classic. Typically this is made with strips of beef but I think it’s just as good with ground beef. I used to make this all the time while camping, it’s an easy one pot camping meal that everyone loves.
Salisbury steak: I have fond memories of having this in TV dinners as a kid (I’ve just dated myself), but I’ve never tried making it, and why not? A seasoned beef patty, browned and served with mushroom gravy and probably some mashed potatoes. This is going on my list for a winter comfort food meal. Here’s a great recipe from Recipe Tin Eats.
Sloppy joes: an old school school cafeteria classic that can be made so much better at home. Ground beef in a hearty tomato sauce served on a toasted hamburger bun. Natasha’s Kitchen is one of my favorite food blogs and I’m sure her version is amazing.
Loco moco: I may have accidentally saved the best for last. If you’ve never had loco moco, you’re in for a treat. This is a Hawaiian classic comfort food - a ground beef patty, served over a scoop of rice, with a mushroom gravy and a fried egg. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Here’s a simple classic version that you need to try.
I hope this has given you lots of great ideas for your weeknight budget meal planning.
Happy cooking!
Everyone’s Favorite Cookbooks
I recently asked my followers on social media to tell me their favorite cookbooks of all time. More specifically - if you could only have one cookbook, what would it be?
The result was a very fun conversation about cookbooks and so many great recommendations. Lots of folks even showed me pictures of their cookbook shelves.
I compiled the results of all the cookbooks recommended into one list here for you. This is a great one to save and share, full of ideas to add to your own wish list. I personally already have a lot of the books on this list, but not all, so I’ve added quite a few to my own wish list as well.
If you want to see them all in one place - you can click here to get my amazon store list with all the books in one place. Otherwise keep scrolling to see all the books.
There you go! You reached the end. I hope you enjoy this list and have found a few to add to your personal wish lists. Bookmark this page and come back, I’ll add more as I get new recommendations.
Ask Lisa: #01
A super simple tip to keep apples from turning brown.
Real answers to your questions, from one busy mom to another.
Since I've started sharing the lunches I pack for my kids, I get a lot of questions about how I do things. One of these days I will write a post with all of the frequently asked questions. There is one question that I get more often than any other, by far...
What do you do to keep the apples from turning brown?
It's a funny thing, it's not something I ever thought about until people starting asking. Brown apples was something I had never had a problem with. But it seems to be a pretty common problem, so I wanted to try to figure out why.
My first answer was: I do nothing.
I assumed it was maybe the type of apples I was buying.
I buy only organic apples, and I tend to go for the more tart varieties, like Fuji or Gala. But then I heard from folks that they purchase those kinds too, and they turn brown.
I can literally cut apples and store them in the fridge for days without them turning brown.
Why do my apples not turn brown?
Then one day I quickly cut up an apple with a regular table knife. And the apple turned brown very quickly. It occurred to me, maybe the knife had something to do with it. I almost always cut them with a very sharp knife, but that day I hadn't.
So I did a little experiment.
These two apples were both cut 24 hours before the picture was taken.
The one on the left was cut with the table knife. The one on the right was cut with a very sharp chef's knife. I think it's a pretty big difference between the two.
So there you have it - maybe the knife is the difference.
Because really, there is nothing else I do to them other than cut with a good sharp knife.
The apple on the left was cut three days before, the one on the right was cut just before the picture was taken. Not much difference.
Get yourself a good knife and a good sharpener, and maybe you'll never have to hassle with brown apples again.
Pizza Rolls
Recipe for easy homemade pizza rolls. A homemade spin on a kid food favorite that the whole family will love. Easy and fast to make.
Easy homemade pizza rolls are a family favorite.
This post was updated Sept 2024.
Pizza rolls are easy to make, kids love them, adults love them, and the possibilities for customizing are practically endless. I shared a picture on my Instagram and Facebook pages of my kids lunches with these pizza rolls and I got so many requests for the recipe!
Pizza rolls are one of my favorite things to pack for lunch - really anything in the pizza for lunch category is always a hit with the kids.
The full pizza rolls recipe is at the end of this post, so keep reading because I’ve got lots of handy tips for you about how to make these. But if you really want to just skip to this easy recipe, you can click the button below.
You can make these with as little 3 items from your fridge, only a few minutes to put together.
You could totally go make some of these now and be eating them in 20 minutes - that's how fast! And as with most of my favorite recipes - the ingredients here are very flexible.
I think these might be one of the perfect kid foods.
They're small enough for little hands, they are not messy, they seem to travel and keep well, and - best of all - they taste like pizza!
A few tips about how I make these pizza rolls.
Because my goal with this recipe is to have something that comes together super fast and easy, I go with a packaged dough most of the time. Usually I use a can of crescent roll dough from Trader Joe's. But use any quick and easy dough you like.You could also use biscuit dough, or certainly if you have homemade dough, go for it!
If I'm buying pre-made dough I try to look for one that's not got too much nasty stuff in it. The TJ's brand is not too bad. It's not as easy to handle as some others (maybe because it's missing some of the chemical dough conditioners and junk), but for this recipe that's ok. You're not actually making crescent rolls with it.
For the sauce I used a canned pizza sauce or sometimes just plain tomato sauce. Any kind you like will do. I use traditional mozzarella for ours most of the time, but any flavor if cheese you like would be great too.
The amounts of the sauce and cheese are also flexible - it's really about your personal taste. Just don't add too much - you don't want to squish it all out when you cut.
These are such great kid food, my kids scarf them up.
But the husband and I eat our fair share too. I think they are a perfect make-ahead item for kids lunches.
Everybody loves homemade pizza rolls!
Let's be honest - a big green salad with a few of these on the side, doesn't that sound like a perfect weeknight dinner? These freeze great. Whenever I make them I always at least double the recipe and I put a bunch in the freezer.
It doesn't get any easier for packing a school lunch - to pull out a few of these, throw in a few carrots and a little fruit, and lunch is done.
Pizza Rolls Recipe
Easy Homemade Pizza Rolls
A crowd pleasing favorite!
ingredients:
- Dough - 1 can of prepared crescent roll dough. Or any other dough of your choice.
- A little flour (any kind will do - it's just for rolling the dough)
- A few tablespoons of pizza sauce (or just plain tomato sauce)
- About 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, or whatever cheese you like.
- Other fillings of your choice - cut into small pieces (pepperoni, ham, veggies, etc.)
instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Take the dough out of the can, sprinkle both sides with a little flour
- Fold it over on itself once or twice (otherwise it's trying to come apart at the seams)
- Roll out into a rectangle until it's about 1/4 inch thick
- Spread pizza sauce or tomato sauce thinly and evenly across the whole piece of dough
- Sprinkle cheese evenly
- Add other toppings as desired
Start rolling from the long edge, you want your final roll to be long and narrow. Try to get it as tight as you can without feeling like you're squishing it.
- At this point if you've handled it a lot and you feel like your dough is getting too soft to slice, stick it in the fridge for 20 minutes or so to firm up.
- Slice into 3/4 inch pieces with a very sharp knife.
- Lay your cut rolls out evenly on a baking sheet - either spray with a bit of cooking spray or line with parchment
- Bake at 350 for about 12-14 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and dough is golden brown.
NOTES:
Double or triple or quadruple this recipe and make lots extra. These freeze great and are perfect for the lunch box.
Easy lemon vinaigrette
Easy lemon vinaigrette salad dressing. A must have staple of a dressing for all your every day salads. This is bright and tangy and tastes like summer freshness in a jar.
This lemon vinaigrette is a must have staple in my kitchen. I make a jar of this easy lemon salad dressing almost every week and I use it for many meals. As with everything I do, it’s a very versatile recipe that can be customized to your own tastes. I love the lemony tartness of it on all kinds of salads.
I’ve written out this recipe in a reasonable size quantity for you as I think most people probably won’t use quite as much as I do. But if we’re being honest I usually triple or quadruple this amount in a quart sized jar because I use so much of it.
I use this on a wide variety of salads, but it also makes a great marinade. I also love to marinade chicken in it or use it to baste on chicken or fish as it cooks. It’s also really great on grilled or roasted veggies.
Lemon Vinaigrette Ingredients:
Oil
Olive oil is my usual pick for this but of course even olive oil has a large variation in flavor. Pick one that you like the flavor of. I really don’t think there’s a wrong answer here. You can also experiment with other oils, avocado oil is a nice neutral oil if what you really want to taste is lemon, or a combination of oils is nice too.
Lemon juice
Fresh squeezed is where it’s at. I wouldn’t recommend making salad dressing with bottle lemon juice. This dressing is all about that fresh lemon flavor and you won’t get that out of a bottle. You can freeze fresh lemon juice though, and that will always give you better flavor than bottled. I’ve also made this with Meyer lemons which is really nice, and I’ve mixed in just a little bit of other citrus juice like tangerine a couple of times too. This kind of recipe is all about customizing to your personal tastes.
Garlic & Shallots
Fresh is best! I wouldn’t recommend using jarred garlic for this, but if you can find the little frozen cubes those are great, or my store recently has had a tube of crushed garlic that really seems like the next best thing to fresh. Shallots are lovely finely chopped, if you don’t have them I would just skip this rather than substitute with onion.
Worchestershire sauce
This gives a nice bit of extra depth of flavor that you really don’t obviously notice is there but I do notice that something is lacking when I leave it out. I sometimes substitute with Bragg’s Aminos instead for just a slightly different flavor.
Dijon mustard
Really needs no introduction, a little mustard adds such a nice flavor. Usually it’s just enough that you don’t obviously taste it, but every now and then I add extra, especially if I’m using this as a marinade instead of on a salad.
Salt and pepper
To taste, of course. There’s no right or wrong here. I like mine salty but you might not. My usual go-to is kosher salt, but any kind you like will do. I’m partial to white pepper lately, I think it’s a richer and yet somehow also milder flavor.
How to make it:
The simplest way is to just dump everything in a jar and whisk or stir with a fork. This is how I do it most of the time. But if you prefer a more emulsified dressing, you can add the oil last so it sits on top and then use an immersion blender to mix. If you start with the blender at the bottom and move very slowly up the jar it will emulsify without having to add the oil a little at a time.
I think the dressing is fine out on the counter for a day or two, but since I make a large quantity at once I usually store this in the fridge. If you’ve used an extra virgin olive oil your dressing will probably solidify in the refrigerator, so I just try to remember to set it out on the counter about an hour before I intend to use it.
Every Day Simple Lemon Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
As with all of my recipes, this one is very versatile and you can adjust any of the ingredients to your liking. More or less garlic, substitute vinegar of your choice for some of the lemon juice, use avocado oil instead of olive oil, or a combination of oils, etc. Sometimes I swap out the worchestershire sauce and use Bragg's Aminos instead. It gives a nicely different little umami flavor.
I especially love this on a salad of spring mix greens with strawberries, crispy prosciutto, and pistachios.
