Tuscan Smothered Pork Chops

Pan fried pork chops with a delicious cheesy tomato and spinach sauce.

I've gotten a little off track with my Monday postings, but I'm still here and will hopefully have a little more time next week to work on blogging. End of the school year always seems as busy as the beginning. Even with one teenager now able to drive (what the what - how do I have a kid with a license?!), there's still so much going on!

This recipe is fantastic. I mean I really don't need much convincing if the recipe includes garlic, tomato, and spinach. It's definitely something new to do with pork than I typically make. It's absolutely wonderful with roasted potatoes for a side!

Best Tuna Melt Sandwich

Tuna melts with a zing of Dijon and the crunch of celery and red onion!

I've made plenty of tuna melts over the years and I am not sure if I've ever made any with red onion. I think it's a fantastic addition to tuna salad and goes along really well with the Dijon instead of yellow mustard in the recipe. I'd love to try this particular recipe with bagels - years ago, I tried a recipe for chicken salad on a bagel and fell in love. It's my favorite vessel for chicken salad.

Smothered Baked Chicken Burritos

Burritos got that much better smothered in a cheesy green chile sauce and loaded with toppings.

Occasionally, I like to make something that is maybe a little more involved and this recipe is that. The shredded chicken for the burritos, I'm sure, could be made ahead before the day you make the actual burritos. But they are also fine for the day of. The chicken is in the crockpot - so set it and forget it. Then you assemble the burritos for baking and prepare the cheese sauce while they bake. It's a lot of ingredients, but not as much work as much as prep.

Greek Chicken Gyros

Flatbreads topped with fresh vegetables, Greek-marinated chicken, and tzatziki

I cannot get enough of anything that includes naan or pita, fresh vegetables, feta, and tzatziki. There is a local food place where I get chicken shwarma and gyro plates all the time and it's my obsession at the moment. I really liked the ease of this recipe where it's really just marinate the chicken and then cook it. Everything else is just chop or scoop and you're good to go. It's such a fresh and bright meal.

Buffalo Cheeseburger Tatortot Casserole

A spicy version of a childhood favorite!

Tatortot hotdish was a staple in my childhood and food bloggers have created some amazing variations that I was so happy to collect and try. This one doesn't have any veggies and there is some buffalo sauce and cheddar cheese mixed into it versus the cream of chicken/mushroom and green beans of the traditional version that I'm used to. We all really loved it but it's got buffalo sauce in it, so what's not to love.

Asian Style Sloppy Joes

Sloppy joes with a twist!

Although I don't think I'm quite done sharing recipes that may have been made in the old house, this is the last recipe I made in the old house. We brought the leftovers over to our new house (a whopping 2 miles away) and ate it while we were trying to unpack everything. I'm actually really glad that we had leftovers because it's so difficult to unpack a kitchen and try and find anything for at least the first week. Not to mention, this was in mid-April 2020, so still in the very major disruption of COVID and it was hard to find some foods because of supply chain issues. I was lucky to be able to make this recipe and to have it tide us over during our move!

Also as a note, I'm still not really on a good schedule where I can fit in blogging. I'm in the midst of my first tax season as a new accountant and even though I'm not a tax accountant...there is still plenty to do for prepping things for clients to do their taxes.

Easy Taco Salad with Homemade Cilantro Lime Dressing

Find the recipe on The Recipe Jackpot

Beef, Bean, & Cheese Burritos

Classic beef and bean burritos with all the fixings - perfect quick weeknight meal!

I love a good easy recipe like this one! I also have to mention that the blog I got it from is one of my favorites. I went to plan the recipes I was sharing this week and realized all three came from the same blog - so this must have been when I had first found it and saved a ton of their recipes. So if you want to find a ton of great recipes, check out Carlsbad Cravings!

Steak Gyros with Tzatziki Sauce

Fantastic marinated flank steak with homemade cucumber tzatziki sauce that I dare you to not eat by the spoonful!

We had a German fast food restaurant locally for many years and we went every few months to get doner because it's sooo good. Unfortunately, before COVID even struck, the restaurant closed down and we lost our doner supplier. My understanding is that there a lot of things in the Europe area that are similar, including gyros. I am the only person in my family who likes lamb, so I thought this recipe would be great for sating the doner cravings but also not having my entire family complain about lamb. Also I don't have a rotisserie spit thing to throw a big bunch of lamb and beef on, so flank steak will have to do. I definitely want to try pita flatbread next time instead of pockets. I think it'd be way easier to serve.

Easy Low Carb Big Mac Salad

A lower carb version of a McDonald's staple!

I love Big Macs, but I try not to eat fast food because I find myself constantly disappointed by the quality. I'll crave a Big Mac and get it and feel like crap afterwards. I don't know if that's a "I'm in my 30s" thing or just because I don't eat a lot of fast food or if it's because fast food quality really is subpar nowadays. I digress. I love making copycat recipes at home and have made a Big Mac copycat, but I really like salad too and then I don't end up with a bunch of extra top buns. Win win!

Summer Grilled Corn Salad

The perfect summer side dish for any cookout - bright, fresh, and light!

I have some side dish recipe saved to try but I honestly usually forget about them. I tend to like to just make a couple vegetable, carb, and/or starch sides and call it a day. But I made this last summer and it is one of my favorite things ever. I love sweet corn and especially enjoy fresh sweet corn cooked on the grill. I love that this is just a ton of veggies. I did not make the avocado cilantro lime dressing but chose to use some of the elements of it so that Nick would eat it. He doesn't do dressing.

Chicken Gyro Salad

Gyros in a bowl - salad style!

I really love gyros and Mediterranean food. I also really love salads for dinner. Finding this recipe was kismet. I will say that the pita chips are such a fun addition but I prefer to mix them in right before serving and don't want extras in if there are leftovers because they will get soggy. This recipe of tzatziki sauce was really wonderful too! Just slightly different than I'm used to, but really great.

Loaded Turkey Taco Salad

Load up your taco salad with all the fixings and a homemade cilantro lime dressing!

I've been making a lot of Taco Tuesday meals with turkey lately. Part of that is due to my hereditary high cholesterol kicking in and the other part is that ground turkey doesn't taste too different from ground beef with taco seasoning mixed in, so it isn't this huge "culture shock" of a different protein. I really enjoy this particular salad recipe because there are no tortillas to fuss with and I love salads. I also love that there is corn and beans plus a homemade cilantro lime dressing that is super quick to make.

Sheet Pan Chicken Gyros

These gyros are so flavorful and we love a sheet pan recipe moment! The lemon yogurt sauce and Greek lemon rice are so good too!

Prior to this recipe, I cannot remember if I've had chicken gyros. I thought a sheet pan version sounded wonderful. I made this while Nick was in training in early 2020 and was pretty obsessed because it's very Greek and I love love love anything with lemon garlic flavors and yogurt sauces and feta and hummus. Sign me up!

Lemon Pepper Tuna Lettuce Wraps

A quick meal to throw together with just 5 ingredients!

I made these lettuce wraps forever ago when Nick was in Georgia for army training right before the lockdowns started in the U.S. in 2020. The kids are pretty good about eating salad, light meals. I adored these because you don't have to cook anything. If it weren't for tuna breath, these would be awesome for a work lunch. I got a garlic aioli from Kraft that was delicious.

Slow Cooker Chicken Alfredo Sandwiches

Rich chicken alfredo flavors served up with sundried tomatoes, parmesan, and spinach on a hamburger bun.

I really liked this recipe but I did modify it slightly because I feel like the storebought alfredo sauce got watered down with the slow cooking. I drained off the little excess liquid and tossed the cooked chicken with more alfredo sauce. You can do sundried tomatoes or roasted grape tomatoes. I think I'd prefer adding parmesan to the actual end product rather than serving it on top. All-in-all, a really good recipe that you can adjust to your liking.

Spicy Chicken Salad Wraps

When you want a quick meal with loads of flavor and a kick of heat!

Occasionally, I put wraps on the meal plan and it's often for days I know are going to be super busy. I really liked this recipe because a lot of the flavor comes from the dressing which is one of my all-time favorites: Caesar! We loaded ours up with all the fixings and they were so great. I love the croutons especially so you get a good bit of crunch!

Ratatouille Pasta

The classic French vegetable dish turned into an amazing sauce for a meatless pasta meal!

I have never had ratatouille but I really wanted to try it and I took the opportunity to try it when Nick was away for army training because it's meatless. The kids were not the biggest fans of it because they don't like eggplant and only Cami likes zucchini. I, however, enjoyed it a ton because it's a pasta dish with a bunch of fresh veggies. I definitely want to try actually ratatouille at some point, so if anyone has a tried and true recipe for it - point me to it!!

Grilled Chicken Caprese Orzo Salad

This refreshing pasta salad is way better for dinner than as a side with its grilled chicken!

Caprese is one of my all-time favorite food combinations. I don't think I've yet to try a recipe that has tomato, mozzarella, and basil (and sometimes balsamic vinegar) that I haven't liked. This one is great because it's not super heavy with a vinaigrette style dressing with lemon instead of vinegar for that acidity. I replaced agave syrup with honey because it's what I had on hand and is my go-to substitution. I loved that this was grilled chicken. I also absolutely loved that this had mozzarella pearls instead of shredded mozzarella. Mozzarella pearls are just so much better!

Caprese Fundido

Roasted tomatoes with pesto and tons of cheese make for such a fantastic and easy appetizer served with pretzel crisps or flatbread.

I love pesto, so this was a no brainer recipe to make because pesto is delicious. I did, however, not make the flatbread part of this recipe because it was NYE and I like to make a lot of different foods, so I try not to overcomplicate things. We did pretzel crisps instead of mini flatbreads. Anyways, this is such a great little cheese dip for a gathering (pre-COVID) and is honestly a really good amount of food for 5 people, like my immediate family. Since we all love cheese, it doesn't take long to absolutely obliterate an appetizer like this :)