My Favorite Quick Recipe’s

When life gets busy, it’s hard to find time to sit down and enjoy a meal. Let alone something homemade!

I love food - I love dining out, cooking something new, and perfecting old recipe’s or family favorite’s. Cooking for Ryan and I during quarantine became something almost therapeutic. It was a fun activity, provided comfort, and satisfied my craving for good food at a point when restaurants in NYC were not even offering take out. Plus, I had the time to spend on each dish!

But now, I don’t know where the time goes. How is it almost August? I haven’t cooked a big dish in a while and I have been opting for quick recipe’s, and throwing together easy dishes.

However, I’ve been feeling so inspired from watching my idol Tabitha Brown cook up some amazing meals the past few weeks! I HIGHLY suggest you check out her Youtube here and follow her on Insta - like so, like that.

So I wanted to share a few of my own favorite quick recipes - ones that I rely on when things get busy!

Building the Perfect Salad

Want to know a good kitchen cheat code? Trader Joes. Everything from that store is gold. But my new hack is to take a chopped salad kit that’s already prepared, and add some more to it to make it feel customized and fancy!

Mediterranean Falafel Salad

This will take less than 15 minutes to make! The faro needs 10 minutes to simmer, and while that’s happening you simply slice the tomato’s and add everything to a bowl. It uses some of my favorite items like tzatziki and pickled onions - plus it’s vegetarian!

Is that Sweetgreen!?

Nope - but it’s just as good! This is a homemade recreation of their wonderful hummus tahina salad as a guide, it’s my favorite on their menu.

Here is what you need!

Step by step, add the following : 1. Trader Joes Mediterranean Salad Kit with roasted chickpeas 2. Sliced cherry tomato 3. Pickled onions 4. Salad kit ingredients (dressing, sun dried tomato and feta) 5. Falafel 6. Faro 7. Creamy Tzatziki. Mix & enjoy!

Southwestern Chopped Salad

This takes 10 minutes and only 3 ingredients!

1. Grill Trader Joe’s Pollo Asado Chicken: This comes raw and pre-seasoned. It’s extremely flavorful! I love to use my George Foreman grill for this, it keeps the chicken from getting too dry.

2. Slice fresh avocado

3. Combine ingredients into the Southwestern salad, toss, and taste!

Baby Arugula Salad

Simple, yet so delicious. No salad kit needed for this one, just some fresh greens!

Slice radish and some grilled chicken and toss over arugula. Drizzle with lemon juice, olive oil, and parmesan cheese.

Lemon Chicken Salad

If you are feeling hungry, take the baby arugula salad I just shared, and add on more!

Lemon chicken + radish + tzatziki + faro + arugula.

Mediterranean Couscous Salad

Falafel + hummus + tzatziki + couscous + pita + baby arugula

Buffalo Chicken Salad

This might not be the healthiest salad, but it’s delightful.

1. Mix Trader Joe’s Buffalo Chicken Chopped Salad (which comes with a creamy buffalo dressing, blue cheese, and celery bits)

2. Bake Trader Joe’s breaded chicken tenderloins (or microwave if you are extra rushed)

3. Add chopped chicken, sliced tomato, and anything else you desire!

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Easy Entrées

These are a few of my go-to meals, especially if I don’t have much time!

Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This dish can be complicated if you want to pack it with flavor like PF Changs, but this is my easy take on Lettuce Wraps

1. Sautée ground chicken, add favorite sauce ( I like Trader Joe’s Soyaki sauce)

2. Add cashews and scallions

3. Wash & peel head of lettuce

4. Build your lettuce wraps right at the table!

Stuffed Peppers

This is one of my favorite easy meals to prepare. Most people assume it takes a long time to bake, but I found one shortcut that will certainly help! This 30 minute dish is definitely worth it.

1. Halve peppers and remove seeds. Put the halves of your peppers into boiling water for 10 minutes, or until soft. This will GREATLY reduce your baking time

2. While the peppers are boiling, get started on your rice mixture. I use the Seeds For Change 90 second quinoa brown rice - microwave and add to a bowl.

3. Sautée seasoned ground turkey or ground chicken in a pan, add finely chopped peppers

4. Once the meat is finished cooking, combine into the bowl of quinoa/rice with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. Mix!

5. Remove and strain peppers from water, and place in a baking dish

6. Fill each pepper with the rice, bake for 10 minutes

7. Remove + add mozzarella cheese, bake for 5 more minutes and Voilà!

Here is another hack:

Save half of your peppers for tomorrow’s dish - fajita’s!

Sizzling Chicken Fajita’s

If you miss the crackling and sizzling noises you get at a restaurant from skillet chicken fajita’s delivered right to your table, fear not! You can still risk giving your boyfriend 3rd degree burns by boldly delivering your pan to the kitchen table for a fun fajita night.

1. Season slice chicken, peppers, onions with Adobo

2. Grill on stovetop over high heat, and once cooked through add taco sauce

3. Prepare fresh pico de gallo salsa by chopping tomato, red onion, cilantro, olive oil, and salt + pepper

4. Serve and build your fun fajita with lettuce, cheese, black beans, corn, salsa.. whatever you are in the mood for!

GG Cracker Pizza

Can’t get much faster than this! I’m always trying to incorporate high fiber foods into my diet, and these GG Crackers (Scandinavian Crispbread) are easy to order from Amazon and substitute for bread when you are feeling a bit puffy.

Bye Gluten! Hi Pizza.

Top crackers with tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella and fresh basil. Quickly bake in the microwave or convection oven for 60 seconds.

Sandwiches + Wraps

Most of us are working from home and eating lunch in our own kitchen’s. I like keeping it light with a salad, but throwing a sandwich together is so easy. Cold cuts, tuna salad, veggie wraps.. or try out one of these!

Chicken Salad Sandwich

Another hack: make your homemade chicken salad by using canned chicken breast, it’s so fast! To be honest, I prefer to buy chicken salad from a good NY deli, and that’s much faster. But if you have these ingredients on hand, give it a try!

• 2 cups chicken chopped

• ½ cup mayo

• 1 stalk celery chopped

• 1 onion diced

• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard

• ½ teaspoon salt + pepper

• dash of lemon juice

Grilled Chicken Snack Wrap’s

Grilled chicken, chipotle aioli, lettuce, cheese, tomato on little flour tortilla’s - a twist on the McDonald’s snack wrap! It’s not the greasy kind of “fast food” but it is fast.

Roast Beef Sandwich

Trader Joe’s also has under the radar delicious sliced roast beef - I don’t eat this often but a few months ago I was craving it and was pleasantly surprised! I dashed it with salt and pepper, then added provolone, fresh tomato and arugula.

Buffalo Falafel Wrap

This can be with falafel or cauliflower! Combine chopped cabbage, lettuce, tomato and falafel. Drizzle with buffalo sauce.

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Bowls on Bowls

Whether its pasta, soup, or a rice bowl - there is a way to make these meals quickly without sacrificing the taste! Here are some of my favorites.

Taco Bowl

1. Slice your red, green, and yellow peppers and sauté with olive oil and adobo seasoning

2. Separately sauté ground turkey with taco seasoning

3. Microwave a bag of quinoa/brown rice for 90 seconds - I love Seeds of Change!

4. Create your bowl base of warm quinoa and salad

5. Layer sliced tomato, taco meat, peppers, Mexican cheese blend and taco sauce!

Pesto Gemelli Pasta with Spinach and Sausage

This is so filling and indulgent, but quick to create! Probably takes 15 minutes. One thing I like is that you can swap out whatever ingredients you prefer. I love to make this dish with orecchiette pasta and broccolini. I’ve also used ground chicken instead of sausage which doesn’t have quite as much flavor but is healthier!

Quick tip, I use a large pan instead of a pot for my pasta. I also don’t measure ingredients when it comes to this dish, I just eyeball it to make sure the consistency is right.

1. While your pasta water is boiling in one pan, remove Italian sausage from casing (if there is one) and sauté with olive oil and minced garlic in a small pot.

2. Add spinach or broccolini right to the pot.

3. Once your pasta is al dente, strain it leaving only some of the pasta water behind.

4. Return your pasta to the large pan, and overheat add 1 tablespoon of butter, a generous amount of pesto, and parmesan cheese.

5. Finally, add everything that has finished cooking in the pot right to the pan and mix! It doesn’t really create a sauce, but rather covers the pasta in all delicious flavors of the garlicky spinach and sausage.

   It is SO GOOD.

Here are some more quick pasta dishes for inspiration, that don’t include sauce from a jar! Cacio e pepe is one of my favorites.

Açai Smoothie Bowl

I usually keep the frozen açai on hand for whenever I’m craving one of these! Once you blend, the consistency is pretty good on its own but sometimes I add a few tablespoons of greek yogurt to make it more creamy. Then layer your favorite toppings like honey granola and shaved coconut (pictured here) or sliced fruit!

Steak Stir Fry

I love to grill teriyaki steak, and by adding it to this frozen stir fry vegetable it completely upgraded the meal.

This 15 minute dish is simply steak + stir fry veggies + rice! Drizzle with more teriyaki, it’s never enough.

Grilling Specialty’s

Ryan and I use our outdoor grill here in New York about 9 months of the year. We aren’t too adventurous with it, but here are some of our favorite go-to’s:

Steak + Veggie Kebabs

The Perfect Burger

With homemade chipotle aioli mayo

Burgers w/ Sides

LOL at trying to do less gluten with our sandwich thins for buns - yet we did not substitute our pasta and cocktails.

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Smoothies

Super fast, healthy, and a staple of my morning routine.

Ingredients: Banana, lots of chopped spinach, frozen raspberries, flax seed and almond butter

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What are some of your favorite quick recipe’s? Share in the comments below!