What's for dinner, Gina?

Fun, Simple, Healthy Homemade Food and Drink

  • Home
  • Piggy Back Meals
    • This Week’s Piggy Back Meals
    • Previous Menus
  • Festive Fun
    • Valentine’s Day
    • Winter Warmers
    • Spring Goodness
    • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Easter
    • Fall Deliciousness
    • Football Party
    • Holiday Goodness
  • Cocktails
  • Categories
    • Easy dinner
    • Meatless
    • Mexican
    • Soup
    • Homemade Sauces
    • Chicken
    • Ground beef/turkey
    • Casserole
    • Crock pot
    • Fish
    • Gluten free
    • On the grill
    • Pasta
    • Pizza
    • Pork
    • Salads
    • Sandwiches
    • Soup
    • Sausage
    • Lunch ideas
    • What’s for Breakfast?
  • Recipes
  • About

Cook at Home

If you’re reading this, give yourself a pat on the back!!  Because, that means that you are already making the effort to cook at home.  Hopefully that’s the reason you come to my blog…looking for simple, fun recipes that you can make at home.  Be proud of yourself because we are learning more and more about how much healthier it is to do just that.

When we are cooking at home, we control what and how much we’re serving.  Restaurant meals tend to be higher in fat, sugar and sodium.  Not to mention the portion sizes!  At home, people are more likely to serve themselves only what they think they can eat.

Mark Bittman, famous food writer and chef, says every time we eat a meal at home we are saving 200 calories.

Today I’m hoping to inspire those that eat out, much of the time, to cook more at home.  And for those that already make the efforts to cook at home, I want to support those efforts by adding to your repertoire of ideas.  I want to share with all of you my thoughts on making it fun, keeping it simple, using healthy ingredients and having balance.  Hopefully as you browse my recipes, you’ll find each of those themes throughout.

Many times, merely coming up with WHAT to cook is the biggest challenge.  I like to have a general theme to help in my planning.  For example, Tuesdays have become “Taco Tuesdays.”  (Thanks Nicki for that great idea years ago!)  Then when I search for recipes, it narrows my choices.  Having a theme also helps keep it simple and fun.  It would be boring if we had tacos every Tuesday.  So, each week I take the theme to create something different.  Here are a few Taco Tuesday meals to get you started:

Taco Cupcakes

Taco Salad

Taco Salad

Taco Salad

Taco Soup

Fajitas

Soft Tacos

Burrito Bowls

Classic Bean and Cheese Burrito

For more Taco Tuesday ideas, you can search “Taco Tuesday” in my search menu.  Items to have on hand for Taco Tuesdays include:  a variety of canned beans (pinto, black, refried, kidney);  frozen corn, lettuce, tomatoes, avocadoes, rice, flour tortillas, taco shells, shredded cheddar cheese, salsas or hot sauces, diced green chilies and homemade taco seasoning (chili powder, onion powder,  garlic powder, salt and paprika.)  I make many of my Taco Tuesday meals meatless (it’s about balance, read more here…)  However, it is easy to add meat to any of these recipes.

On many Fridays, I go with a pizza theme.  For awhile, we were having homemade pizza night every week.  My kids would don aprons and flour their hands to roll out the dough.  We would change up their topping choices and let them create masterpieces.

French Bread Pizza

French Bread Pizza

Now we mix it up a bit more with some of the following ideas:

French Bread Pizza

Zucchini Pizza Bites

Spinach, Garlic and Ricotta Pizza

Pepperoni Pizza Rolls

Search “pizza” in my menu bar for more ideas.  Whipping up a pizza is faster than you think, especially if it is a french bread pizza.  Douse on some sauce, mozzarella and toppings and bake.  A simple dinner is served!  Items to keep on hand for pizza night on the fly include:  flour, olive oil, yeast, pizza or marinara sauce, meat and/or veggies for toppings and shredded mozzarella.  I keep a loaf of healthy french bread (read the label! 🙂 some breads have way too many ingredients…find one with a short, healthy list and keep it in the freezer for a night that you need a fast meal.)

There are lots of ways to make cooking fun as well!IMG_1948  Whether, shaping your pancakes into numbers or making your tacos into “cupcakes,” keeping it interesting helps add to your enjoyment of the whole process and makes it fun for your kids too!

One more help, when cooking at home, is to keep it fast and simple.  I’ll be adding more crock pot ideas and other ways to help you be efficient.

I hope this post has given you a few ideas to inspire some more cooking at home!

Happy Cooking!

~ Gena

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hi, I’m Gena!

I love snow, kids and pure maple syrup!

More importantly, I am the happy mom of three, with a busy weekday schedule. I believe in balance, good ingredients and fun! I spend a lot of time planning our weekly menus and want to share my efforts with you!

Read More…

Let's be friends!

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

A Few of My Favorites…

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Molten Cakes

Molten Chocolate Cakes

Maple Cupcakes

Maple Frosted Cupcakes

Orange Crush-sicle

Orange Crush-sicle

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

Blood Orange Cocktail

Blood Moon Cocktail

Night Before Cinnamon Rolls

Night Before Cinnamon Rolls

Mexican Skillet

Mexican Skillet

Tortellini Soup

Tortellini Soup

Penne Pasta with Vodka Cream Sauce

Penne Pasta with Tomato Vodka Cream Sauce

Sweet Potato Burgers

Sweet Potato Burgers

New year's Resolution week

New Year’s Resolution Week

Roasted Red Pepper and Parmesan Pasta

Roasted Red Pepper and Parmesan Pasta

Homemade Fireball

Homemade Fireball

One Pot Tortellini and Sausage in Tomato Cream Sauce

One Pot Sausage and Tortellini in Tomato Cream Sauce

Chicken Pot Pie Crumble

Chicken Pot Pie Crumble

Bacon and Avocado Grilled Cheese

Bacon and Avocado Grilled Cheese

Best Ever Margarita

Best Ever Margarita

Ginger Peanut Sauce

Homemade Sauces

Tags

apple cider avocado basil beans black beans breakfast broccoli carrots casserole chicken christmas cocktail comfort food cottage cheese crock pot easy breakfast easy dinner easy soup fish football party ground beef happy hour healthy dinner homemade simple syrup homemade taco seasoning homemade whipped cream Italian lasagna meatless mexican mushrooms pancakes parmesan pasta peas pizza pumpkin refried beans slow cooker soup spinach Taco Tuesday This week's menu tomatoes tuna zucchini
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Archives

  • April 2019
  • December 2017
  • February 2017
  • October 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014

Recent Posts

  • One Pot Veggie Pasta
  • Peppermint Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies
  • Molten Chocolate Cakes
  • Sinister Cider
  • Maple Frosted Cupcakes

Copyright © 2025 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress