Naptime Everyday: Recipes for Everyday Cooking and Baking

Every week I get a whole bunch of cool newsletters from my favorite cooking site. I love reading them to see what everyone is up to and getting their recommendations and ideas for new dishes and crafts. Last week I was perusing the Food52 newsletter and came across their genius recipe for a fresh spring pasta. With a bunch of fresh asparagus in refrigerator I knew it was just the thing to make for a quick weeknight meal.

In keeping with the fiesta theme this week, today we are talking tacos. I have never made it a secret that tacos are one of my favorite foods. And I am not talking about the ground beef mixing with a package of seasonings – though, those are perfectly delicious – I am talking about the homemade kind with great toppings. Over the weekend while I whipped up some chorizo tacos while we were enjoying our sangria.

My husband and I like to eat adventurously, even on weeknights. Sometimes I like to change it up by buying a new-to-us piece of seafood or cut of meat on a whim and trying new dishes. Other times, I just buy the freshest things I can find and go with it. The other day I happened to pick up a bag of super-fresh mussels. We adore pasta with mussels and I knew I could easily make this favorite meal on a weeknight using the Garlic and Herb Sauté Express® Sauté Starters from Land O’Lakes.

When time is of the essence, I am all about a wholesome meal that can be made in one skillet. That is, something healthy I can make on the stovetop in a jiffy that will fill us up after a busy day. I also like one-pan meals because they help me avoid having a messy kitchen! One of our favorite things to make in one pan is a quick vegetable and fish sauté. It sounds complicated but it is really quite easy. In fact, I made this meal of Lemon Pepper Fish with Haricots Verts just the other night with my new Sauté Express® Sauté Starter from Land O’Lakes.

We’re on the second week of The Weeknight Wins Blogger Challenge by Sauté Express® Sauté Starters! In case you missed my post last week, here’s a quick recap. During April, along with four other food bloggers, I will be sharing my weeknight go-to recipes with you. On busy weeknights, getting a wholesome dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less is tough for many families. This challenge should give us all some great, delicious meal ideas to whip up in a hurry. Together, we can score little wins in the kitchen!

One of the most frequent recipe requests I get from parents is for something new to please their picky eaters. The parents are usually tired of serving chicken fingers and oven pizzas and want to feed their children something wholesome, delicious, and above and beyond everyday children’s fare. My answer is usually to combine vegetables, a lean protein, and pasta and coat it all in a light palate-pleasing sauce. I created something just like this last weekend when I was experimenting with the new Sauté Express® Sauté Starter from Land O’Lakes.

With Easter just around the corner I am wrapping up my Friday fish meals for Lent with Sea Cuisine. I’ll admit, I will not stop eating all the awesome things I’ve been writing about just because Easter has arrived. The Sea Cuisine fish is so good and is such a wonderful way to get a healthy seafood meal on the table any night of the week! For this week’s meal I went back to our favorite Herbed Cod and served it over some fresh Parmesan Polenta topped with roasted tomatoes. It was a simple weeknight meal that was a huge hit with everyone.

When Sea Cuisine sent me their Beer Battered Cod as a part of our seven week Seafood Cook-a-Long I jumped for joy! Who doesn’t love the chance to enjoy a little fish and chips now and then?!! The good news is that making fish-n-chips at home is generally much healthier than the greasy fish in a newspaper bag you buy curbside in Scotland. To give our Friday night cod a traditional British feel, yet with a healthy twist, I decided to skip the deep fryer and make spicy baked sweet potato chips to go alongside instead.

I am a big fan of the dinner sandwich. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with serving up a hearty sandwich filled with protein and fresh vegetables any night of the week. In fact, it can be quite fun to do. In a way it feels like eating lunch for dinner which can provide a welcome break to any weekly dinner routine. Today I am sharing this great Herbed Cod BLT I made for dinner on Monday night. It is perfect for our Sea Cuisine Cook-a-Long for Lent. It is probably one of the easiest dishes I can think of to make at the end of a busy week!

This week we had yet another cold snap. While I did my best to envision warmer temperatures via tropical-inspired fish dishes, I had to face the fact that I wanted something warm and hearty. More like a comforting pasta than a light fish taco. So, I decided to make this easy risotto with Sea Cuisine Mediterranean Salmon. Most people don’t consider risotto an easy weeknight meal but I beg to disagree. With this simple technique you stir the risotto slowly – easily done with a baby on one shoulder – then top it with freshly baked salmon before serving.

This week I am continuing my seafood cook-a-long for Sea Cuisine with this easy coconut tilapia dish that is a perfect weeknight meal. I cooked this over the weekend in a fit of desperation. Will winter ever end? Will it ever be warm enough to wear shorts again?! Is it possible to look so pale that I closely resemble Wednesday Adams?? Harkening back to last year’s trip to Thailand I decided to pair Sea Cuisine’s delicious Coconut Crusted Tilapia with fragrant jasmine rice, coconut and greens. While I wouldn’t consider this Thai cuisine, it is definitely Thai-inspired.

I am frequently asked about preparing fish on weeknights. It seems a lot of people think that seafood needs such special handling that it should be reserved for cooking on weekends or nights without time constraints. I always beg to differ with this opinion, preparing seafood for a quick weeknight meal is so easy! One of the ways we enjoy seafood on any given evening is by picking up frozen fish that has already been prepped like this Tortilla Crusted Tilapia from Sea Cuisine. It is not that I am trying to skirt preparing the fish, it is just that Sea Cuisine actually takes the time to prepare the fish correctly and the flavors are delicious. Plus, it is a company I can stand behind since they fiercely committed to sustainability, a cause that is deeply important to me.