Menu: Week 2/21 - 2/26

So, lately I've been a little "bored" with the meals I've been making. They're good, but really easy. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that's a bad thing, but since cooking is my hobby I figured I should get better at it. Better at making healthy meals (or, at the very least, modifying them to make them healthier) and better at making more complicated meals. These aren't my own recipes - I haven't quite reached that point yet, but I read a lot of food blogs and love the varieties in difficulty and all the things I probably never would have thought to make. That was the plan for last week, but I kind of got thrown a curveball.

School was stressing me out because the Internet is acting up, so that was one meal out since I was working hard to finish what needed to be done. My brother was in the hospital, so we ended up eating out, so meal 2 out. I wasn't feeling well on Sunday when we got home from church, so that was meal 3 out the window.

I still made 4 meals and, luckily, what I had planned could all be saved for this coming week. We didn't save any money and spent more by eating out, however this week we didn't need too much. I can only remember 3 of the meals I made.

Only 1 of them was challenging. That would be:

Sour Cream Enchiladas from Centsational Girl with Green Enchilada Sauce from Our Best Bites.

Oh my goodness gracious - was that an amazing meal! And, not too expensive to make. Not very low-calorie, though I did use light sour cream and reduced fat cheese. Plus, the Sauce was homemade, so I knew what was going into it and could monitor the amount of seasonings and everything was fresh. I served it with a packaged mix of Haitian Rice & Beans and Stir Fried Green Beans (using frozen green beans since I already had a package). You do not want to miss out on this meal. AMAZING!!

Seriously, you want to make this next meal, too. It took 30 minutes MAX (including carrots and brown rice), more like 20, really. And, it's healthy - very healthy. Tilapia is very mild and, aside from salmon, it's about the only one I like. Only challenging for me, because I've only cooked fish a couple of times.

Garlic Lime Tilapia from Eat at Home Cooks

3 tbsp. butter

2-3 cloves garlic, crushed

6 Tilapia fillets

Old Bay

1/4 c. lime juice

1) Melt butter in a large skillet. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or 2.

2) Season the fish with Old Bay on both sides of each fillet.

Add to the skillet. Cook for several minutes. Flip and cook the other side for a couple minutes. Pour the lime juice into the skillet. Cover and cook the last few minutes until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

The other meal I remember making is Chicken and Carrots with Wine Sauce in the Crock-Pot from Cooking Light and Creamy Crock-Pot Risotto. Both were good and so easy. I'm not typically big on Crock-Pot meals, mainly because most of them use "cream of" soups. Not a huge fan of the taste and they're not too good for you unless you buy the reduced-fat ones which typically cost more. Definitely will make again as I often have all the ingredients in my pantry, freezer, and/or refrigerator.

This week: Gnocchi, Chicken Paninis with Roasted Garlic, Steak, Shepherd's Pie, Chicken with Apple Cream Sauce, and Chili. Nothing too complicated - it's a busy week with church activities and my final for my class.