Weeknight Meals
Advanced meal planning and menu schedules has never been my thing. We do plan meals for a week at time and that works well for us. But even with planning meals, the craziness of life and getting home from work (well pre-covid, now I just turn off the computer and walk into the kitchen) can still make it challenging to cook, especially healthy meals. And when you have Dr.s appointments and practices and all the things for the kids added to the mix it can be even more challenging. So I thought I would share of my favorite ways to make healthier meals that don’t require a lot of time!
Sheet pan meals!
These are by far one of my favorite go to options! Chop up some veggies, add in some sliced meat and some sort of marinade or sauce for flavor and toss in the oven! I love them because it is easy clean up! Just line a baking sheet with tinfoil or parchment paper and you are good to go! These meals can be put together in a matter of minutes! So easy!
Click HERE for my favorite sheet pan recipe!
Next up The Instant pot!
I was a little late to the Instant Pot game but we got ours a few years ago when I needed something faster than my slow cooker to get our meals prepared! You can have easy to peel hard boiled eggs in 6 minutes! You can cook a whole squash in 12 minutes! Roasts, soups, stews, pasta sauce, all can be made in under an hour! And the timer on it is amazing! I can set so it will start preparing the meals when I need it to be cooked! Don’t be afraid to experiment! Instant pots or pressure cookers may seem a little intimidating at first and you might be afraid the lid may pop off, but trust me, once you get the hang of it, you will be so thankful for having delicious meals cooked in record time!!
Here is our favorite Pulled Pork recipe! It’s versatile enough you can use as Barbecue or tacos! I usually cook without the Barbecue sauce that way the meat can be used however and add Barbecue sauce if wanting pulled barbecue!
1 Pork Shoulder {we used around 4 pounds}
2 tablespoons olive oil
Dry Rub:
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons chili powder 2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder (most people like to only use 1/2 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Barbeque Sauce:
Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce 28 ounce {our favorite!} Or any other Barbecue sauce
1 1/2 cups Water
- Cut your pork shoulder into large pieces. { I had about 6 parts}
- Make your Dry Rub and rub it real good into both sides of the meat.
- Set “Saute” on your Instant Pot and ADD 2 tbsp of oil
- Add meat to brown all sides (3 minutes a side works very well)
- Mix 1 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce (omit BBQ if you want to use as tacos)
- Once all pork has been browned, remove the meat from your Instant Pot
- Add mixture of water and BBQ sauce to Instant Pot to deglaze bottom of pot. {Use wooden spoon to scrape bottom of Instant Pot}
- Add pork back into Instant Pot
- Lock lid and set venting to “Sealing” on Instant Pot
- Choose the “Manuel” setting and set to 60 minutes
- Wait for pressure to build up {you should see the pressure pin pop up after a few minutes}
- After 60 minutes of pressure cooking, carefully release pressure to “Venting”
- Use forks or tongs to pull apart all pork {should be super tender and fall apart}
- You can either serve or place the pulled pork back in the juices for a bit while you get everything else ready! You can use the rest of the BBQ sauce but we found that we really didn’t need it!
One Pot Meals
If you are anything like me the easier the clean up the better! That’s why we love one pot meals! I brown or cook some meat, add some veggies and maybe pasta and boom done! Chicken fried rice, skillet lasagna, burrito bowls the list is endless!
Click HERE for my favorite one pot Honey mustard chicken! So easy and delicious!
It is definitely possible to deliver healthy, nutritious meals that are tasty in a short period of time! If you enjoyed this, check out my free GUIDE!
Tell me in the comments if you have ever tried sheet pan meals?