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Daily Eats, Favorite Things, Recipe, Weekly Eats

My Favorite Go To Quick & Easy Recipes

March 9, 2018 By Robyn 25 Comments

We got another round of snow yesterday and I loved it! I’m in no rush for spring and could stay cozied in sweaters with endless cups of hot drinks for several more months. And yes, I’m very lucid right now 🙂

I’m always looking for new recipe inspiration and a way to mix up meals in a simple, easy way. It’s a continuous back and forth between wanting to eat satisfying + nourishing food but also not spend a lot of time in the kitchen or thinking about food. I do enjoy cooking, but not everyday. And when life is busy, cooking feels like another thing on the to do list, not something I get to do. You feels me?

So in an effort to mix things up and keep it easy + simple, here are some of my go to recipes! Some I haven’t made in a while and need to bring back into the rotation. And some are recipes that look uncomplicated and quick and I want to make soon.

breakfasts

Breakfast is usually always a rotation of toast + eggs, toast (or bagel) + yogurt, and oatmeal during the week. Hot oatmeal during the winter and overnight oats during the summer. On the weekends I like to make pancakes or make some bacon egg sandwiches. Breakfast is my favorite meal, so for me it needs to be exciting. A bar and a piece of fruit would never fly with my tastebuds and hunger level in the morning.

These banana blender pancakes are one of my go to recipes because they are so easy and all I do is throw everything into the blender. Then I add in chocolate chips or blueberries (or both) depending on what we’re feeling and top with more banana + nut butter or butter and maple syrup. Usually a combo of both. If there are extra, I freeze them for snacks. Smear on some pb + j and you have a satisfying snack with protein + carbs + fats.

Baked oatmeal is something I use to make but got out of the habit with and I keep telling myself to get back to it! It makes breakfast in the morning so easy. Make a batch on Sunday and then slice out a big square for breakfast throughout the week. I usually top with nut butter and greek yogurt or scramble a couple eggs on the side. This blueberry recipe from Cookie + Kate is an old favorite.

I think I’m going to start making these breakfast muffin cups to make breakfast even easier during the week. I could make a dozen on Sunday and then just toast up some bread for some carbs and breakfast is made without dirtying any pans on a Tuesday morning. Sounds pretty great I think. This recipe looks delish.

lunches

Right now I’m either throwing together salads for lunch with lots of roasted veggies, goat cheese and cranberries or making some sort of soup or stew.

This lentil soup recipe from Cookie and Kate (I love her blog for recipes) paired with some bread or crackers and dark chocolate.

I also love this roasted veggie salad recipe because the dressing is SO EASY. You can really roast whatever you want or is on sale at the grocery. I bought these plastic squirt bottles from Amazon and just throw all the dressing ingredients in one of those and shake until it’s blended up. Then I store the bottle in the fridge (it will last a couple weeks) and squirt on the dressing each day for lunch. You could obviously used bottled but I think homemade dressing tastes infinitely better and it takes 2 minutes.

I’ve also done this same salad dressing with spinach, goat cheese, cranberries, toasted walnuts and rotisserie chicken. That was really easy and involved zero chopping! Eat with some crackers and a piece of fruit for carbs to round out the meal.

Lastly, I’ll make some sort of pasta bowl with veggies for quick lunches. Here’s a pesto pasta idea in this blog post from this month or one of my go to recipes is this one from Hummusapien. I use whatever pasta I have on hand – sometimes that’s some regular ole penne or rotini or TJ’s red lentil or brown rice pasta. I have to be in the mood for lentil pasta so it’s whatever I’m feeling that week.

dinners

Dinner totally depends on the weather and how much time I have that week to cook. I like a one pot wonder vs cooking a protein, a starch and a veggie and making a square meal. My tastebuds just like lots of flavor and things all mixed up.

This is my go to chili recipe because it’s basic, no frills. I like my chili classic. Mix up the meat if you like and use ground turkey or ground beef. I prefer beef but if you use turkey don’t get turkey breast – get the thighs or your chili is going to taste like rubber shoes. If ground beef is super $$ that week I’ll do turkey since it’s usually cheaper. We eat it with baked potatoes and some sort of veggie. Also great for dinner parties.

Egg roll in a bowl is also one of our favorites. Skip reading the recipe posts and just grab the recipe – I serve it over a bowl of rice because carbs are what make a meal balanced, satisfying and satiating. Also a note for when you cook recipes. Just because it says it’s “low carb” and doesn’t include a carb, you can add a carb. That might sounds obvious to give yourself permission to do that, but if you struggle with that…know you can and should add a carb 🙂 Same thing with “vegan” recipes…you can just use real egg, cow’s milk, real butter etc. Do what is good for YOU.

Mexican lasagna is always a go to. Literally so so so easy and cheap because I make it without meat and just use black beans. What works for our grocery budget is to do either lunch or dinner with meat, but usually not both. That’s purely to save some cash. I find I’m just as satisfied and so is Nick, but do what works for you. I layer in a can of refried beans too (just dollop on after the veggies) because it makes for an extra creamy casserole and the protein from more beans adds a bit more staying power.

snacks

We have KIND and Larabars on hand. In addition to bars of dark chocolate, crackers + hummus, fruit, and greek yogurt. I eat popcorn popped on the stove for snacks too. Usually I always bake something for the week. I LOVE snacking on baked goods more than anything and find them way more satisfying than bars or other packaged stuff. If I’m out and about or traveling, I find bars and other packaged snacks really convenient and always have them with me. But if I can eat some baked bread or a cookie, I’m so happy.

This banana bread recipe is a go to always. You guys see me eat this all the time because I love how simple it is. I can spread butter on it or peanut butter or nutella or cream cheese + honey. The possibilities are endless! And the doughiness of oat flour is so dahhhhm good.

This pumpkin chocolate chip bread with some melty butter is also really fab.

I made these one bowl cookies from Oh She Glows last week because I had a bag of arrowroot starch from like centuries ago in our freezer and am now determined to use it up. After tasting one I about fell out off my chair… and then ate three more. I like this recipe because it’s a good mix between a snack cookie and more traditional cookie. For a midmorning snack I want something a little heartier than a traditional cookie (which is fab too and awesome in it’s own way) but I don’t want to chew cardboard. These were AMAZING. I hid them in the back of the freezer so Nick wouldn’t see them right when he opened the freezer because I’m selfish like that sometimes. Don’t act like you haven’t done that..

And lastly, these no bake cookie balls from Kylie are also incredible. I haven’t made them in a few months and need them back in the rotation.

What are you favorite go to recipes? Share in the comments!


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Filed Under: Daily Eats, Favorite Things, Recipe, Weekly Eats

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Comments

  1. Ally says

    March 9, 2018 at 8:31 am

    HAHAHA! I am dead over you hiding the cookies. You better believe I pull that trick.

    Reply
    • Robyn says

      March 9, 2018 at 5:40 pm

      🙂 team cookie stash

      Reply
  2. Courtney Glausi says

    March 9, 2018 at 9:08 am

    LOVE this post because honestly, quick and easy recipes are 100% my go-to. Also, I’ve definitely hid cookies from my husband. No shame.

    Reply
    • Robyn says

      March 9, 2018 at 5:41 pm

      it’s everybody for themselves when it comes to cookies

      Reply
  3. Taylor says

    March 9, 2018 at 10:07 am

    I 10000% hide snacks I am particularly covetous of haha! Usually it is a bag of chips or a stash of candy, ever since I moved in with my bf I find those go particularly quick so I have to look out for myself!! 🙂 thanks for your comment about adding a carb to a “low carb” recipe. That may seem like a no-duh but I’m a recipe follower to a T and may not even consider adding something additional to make it more satisfying.

    Reply
    • Robyn says

      March 9, 2018 at 5:43 pm

      seriously! I’m like Nick I just baked two dozen cookies 2 days ago…where are they? and he’s like, “um are you food shaming me?” in a joking way and I’m like NO, I JUST WANTED SOME OF THOSE TOO BUDDY

      Reply
  4. Cora says

    March 9, 2018 at 11:17 am

    You forgot your no bake double chocolate cookie bars! Those are SO GOOD.

    Reply
    • Robyn says

      March 9, 2018 at 5:43 pm

      I forgot about those and need to make them!!

      Reply
  5. Katie says

    March 9, 2018 at 11:50 am

    LOVE these posts!! Thanks for linking all your favorites! Easy to find when I’m recipe searching!

    Reply
  6. Katie says

    March 9, 2018 at 12:03 pm

    Ps. this oatmeal bake is Everything! I’m sure you’d love it– https://fitnessista.com/chocolate-protein-oatmeal-bake-gluten-free-vegan/ It makes 6 huge breakfasts! I top mine with Nut butter & berries– keeps me full for hours!! Bring on the fats+carbs+protein!

    Reply
    • Robyn says

      March 9, 2018 at 5:43 pm

      I’ll have to check it out!

      Reply
  7. Melissa says

    March 9, 2018 at 12:24 pm

    We made a version of those breakfast muffin cups for overnight guests and they LOVED them! It’s all about the cheese, in my humble opinion (gotta be something tangy and delicious!) they’re worth it!!

    Reply
    • Robyn says

      March 9, 2018 at 5:44 pm

      girl YES to the cheeeeez!

      Reply
  8. Ashley says

    March 9, 2018 at 2:25 pm

    Some of these look so good! I pinned three of them, and added them to my dinner menu for next week! Thanks!

    Reply
  9. Robyn says

    March 9, 2018 at 5:44 pm

    hope you enjoy Ashley!

    Reply
  10. Emily Swanson says

    March 9, 2018 at 5:52 pm

    Those cookie balls from Kylie :)))) yummmm And I love a classic banana bread recipe; topping it with nut butter or cream cheese or Nutella is amazing. :))) I love how you said to add those carbs to a meal becauseI love an Asian style sauce or mixture with rice. 🙂 That egg roll in a bowl looks delish.

    Reply
  11. Rachel says

    March 10, 2018 at 12:28 am

    Oh some of these look soooo good! I actually really like these kinds of posts – so much evidence of food freedome right there and it makes me feel so inspired! I can’t get enough of salted caramel slice from Recipe Tin Eats (it’s actually just caramel slice but I load ’em up with salt – so good). I always have nutella-stuffed banana muffins in the freezer too. And I totally hide things in the back of the freezer! Especially hot cross buns 😀

    Reply
  12. Megan says

    March 11, 2018 at 2:34 am

    Thanks for including that note about carbs. I am in recovery from anorexia nervosa and I struggle particularly with carbs due to all the messages we get about them being ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’ etc. We all need reminders and gentle nudges in the bright direction. Thanks for the yummy recipes too 😊

    Reply
    • Robyn says

      March 13, 2018 at 5:45 pm

      I’m so glad the nudge was helpful – I think we all need those reminders 🙂

      Reply
  13. Joyce @ The Hungry Caterpillar says

    March 11, 2018 at 7:40 pm

    I’m the same. There are a lot of gluten-free recipe out there that are also low-carb, and I’m like ‘screw’ that and add rice or bread or potatoes or whatever. I’ve been meaning to try egg roll in a bowl. I adore egg rolls!
    I’m the same about bars for breakfast. My roommate often eats a Clif bar for breakfast because she’s in a hurry, but even if a Clif bar were filling enough for me, I just wouldn’t feel satisfied with that. I often do cereal, but I always add fruit and eggs or sausage.

    Reply
    • Robyn says

      March 13, 2018 at 5:45 pm

      Do what works for you!!

      Reply
  14. Meghan Dillon says

    March 13, 2018 at 5:35 pm

    All these recipes look awesome, but most important for me, are realistic! I’m never going to be cooking for an hour each night during the week, so I really appreciate you sharing realistic meal ideas! And those cookies look amazing 🙂

    Reply
    • Robyn says

      March 13, 2018 at 5:46 pm

      I hope you enjoy them Meghan!!

      Reply
  15. Emily says

    March 13, 2018 at 10:25 pm

    Ha! Thanks for sharing the cookie recipe… I made them today and they were amazingggg (just ate my third one:) I don’t know if Angela would approve of my changes—I used butter instead of coconut oil, brown sugar instead of maple syrup, and peanut butter instead of almond butter (which she specifically said not to), AND i added an egg to help them stick together. I made small cookies and they are awesome. I actually like the heartiness of the oats and almond flour better than traditional recipes, and they are plenty sweet!

    Reply

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A non-diet dietitian and nurse practitioner helping women find peace with food, accept their natural body size and heal from hormonal issues and period problems.

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